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

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

Feedback is not only welcome but greatly appreciated.

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The Shadow Project Feud

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The first thought that entered it’s mind was being warm. The second thing it noticed was that it was wet. It was covered in warm, sticky dampness, and when it stretched it’s limbs it found itself confined in a stretchy covering. Curious, it pulled back it’s warm and spread out it’s fingers. It felt like skin to him when he pressed his palm against it’s encasement. Skin. He knew how to break skin. He forced his long fingers tipped in sharp claws through the material and brought his hand down, his claws cutting through the material.

The leather like cocoon gave way like a spider web once he forced his fist through. The liquid that was within the cocoon with him poured out over rocks lined with slippery smooth fungus followed by his gray body slapping against the cold ground. He felt cold again. He remembered being cold again.

More memories flooded through his mind. He remembered more creatures like him. Those exactly like him that stood and moved around on two legs, all smooth and gray. There was not a sign of hair anywhere on his body. He remembered other creatures that had skin like his kind but were different. The winged flyers, the small crawlers, the ones called canines. He remembered them all, but he mostly remembered the ones called doctors.

Doctors were like his kind, clever tall, and stood up right. They were different in their skin coloring and they had long soft stuff on their heads like fur. They also could shed their outside skins and put them back on. They had multiple layers that were different colors, except for the outer most layers. Those were all white. They took care of his kind and the others, made sure they had enough to eat an drink, kept their rooms and themselves clean, and even taught them.

He remembered the things they taught him. He was taught their words, and while his kind couldn’t speak their words he was taught to understand them. They even drew their words on paper and he could read them and draw them himself. They taught him how to fight. They wanted him to fight an enemy they called the Alliance. He, nor any of the others knew why.

He reached up to wipe the ooze covering his eyes and opened his lids. His warm pod was no more than shredded tatters lying in a puddle of the fluid that covered him. Something caught his eye, a long cord like object was attached to it to one of the leather like chunks, and the other end coiled around through the stones on the other end of the cave.

He had to find out where it ended. He reached for one of the rocks and felt warmth and softness under they gritty surface. Carefully he wiped off the grime and blinked. It was another pod, and inside was a creature like him. He wiped off the other long curved stones and discovered they were all pods. Some had creatures like himself, others had the Flyers, others the small Crawlers and there were the Canines. There were many pods. He wanted to wake them but those like him appeared slightly smaller and younger. They were adolescents, not ready to break through.

He was the only adult. He had to teach them how to hunt, to learn, to fight, to take are of themselves. The search for the end of the long tube was put to rest. He had to find a way out of the cave and find the lab? Yes, a lab. Maybe there will be some of the doctors and they can help him.

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He had clawed through mud and stone for what seemed like forever. More memories returned to him. He remembered a big fire and their children were sealed in pods connected to a great power. They would grow very slowly. He was chosen to go into a pod too. He would sleep and awaken not too long before the children would have grown up. He had no idea as of yet what caused the fire, or what the great power was.

He was nearly tempted to crawl through one of the small air holes in the ceiling, but didn’t. They were too small.

Breaking through the barrier he felt a rush of cool fresh air greet his face. He crawled out and fell to his side, panting. He savored the air. It was so much fresher than what he had been breathing. Can’t relax for too long, he had to find the lab.

Tearing through the growth of the jungle he remembered running around in the vegetation. He played and tasted the fruit. He was also taught to kill. He had to remember where the lab was. He continued on, leaping from branch to branch and running along the floor. The more he continued ,the more memories returned to him.

The lab was tall and hard as a rock like he remembered, but he didn’t remember it being covered with plants. It was still the lab, and the doctors lived in the lab.

He raced up to the building and shrieked. His high pitched call ending in a scratchy like sound caused a few of the nearby birds to vacate their trees. A few minutes passed and no one exited from the lab. Did they leave home? Did they leave him behind to look after the others? He had to find a way to get in. He pushed some of the plants aside and pressed his hands against the lab, feeling for the parts of the stone that were clear and cool.

A low growling caused him to leap backwards. He searched around and found nothing. The growl was heard again. He felt a slow deep rumble exit his own throat and stared up. Something was perched on the top of the lab staring back at him with glowing eyes, something big and stnadning on four legs. He knew he was no match for it. He turned around and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. The creature was after him. He leaped into a tree and leaped through the branches. He could hear the other creature ganging on him. He had to escape it. He had to return to the pods and protect them.

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Another mission for the alliance was over and the team could return back home to Japan. Their air ship flew over the ocean at the highest speed possible. That and the light metallic blue pint job made it hard for the enemy to not only find it but keep up. The paint was almost mirror like. When it traveled during the day clouds reflected off it’s surface, at night stars were mirrored onto it’s outside shell, but it was slightly more visible.

Inside the ship it was silent. The engines were not audible and the flight was surprisingly smooth. It was too quiet for the male human standing behind the pilot’s chair. His eyelids were slowly drooping and he was having a difficult time standing up.

"You should go rest," the creature next to him said. The human turned to face the gray gargoyle dressed in a silk kimono. He tucked a few stay long back hairs behind his large horns. "The Matrix and I will make sure we get home."

"Thank you mate," the muscular human yawned and exited the cockpit. He was the only human awake. It was only a few hours after dark, but with the jetlag and the hard work of the assignment the man was very tired. He ran a hand through his brown mohawk before he entered the room he shared with Fang. He made a mental correction. He was the only living day walker who was still awake. Both Vahril and Fang were not human, but they were not beings made of nanotechnology, or a creature that turned to stone at dawn.

Before he fell on his own bed he turned to his room mate. The cougar mutate was lying on his side, snoring. "How am I going to sleep with that racket going on?" He asked before he fell onto his bed and closed his eyes.

They opened at the first gunfire strike. The human bolted up right. "What the devil?"

Fang was cut off in mid snore, and grunted. "Morning?" He tried to sit up but another strike tumbled him out of bed and onto the floor. "What the hell is rocking the boat?"

"We’re under attack!" He raced out of the room.

"Who’s attacking?"

"We are about to find out."

Both team members ran into the cockpit. The female members of the team were there. The blue alien was dressed in only a slip of material that was so white it hurt to stare at it and Robyn was dressed in a pink night gown trimmed in lace.

"Who’s firing at us?" Vahril demanded.

"It appears we are being attacked by F-16’s," Matrix responded. His voice, as always, was devoid of any emotion.

Harry stared out the window and watched two of the powerful air craft fly right past them. The matrix was right about them being F-16 fighter jets.

"Which country are they from?" Fang rubbed his eyes. "Did America piss off the France for the last time?"

"My guess is they work for the organization we stole the disk from." Dingo rubbed his chin.

The female human pushed past them. "Matrix I suggest you get into your battle position. You’re fighting abilities are needed more than your flying skills. I’ll fly the ship." She turned to face the others. "Don’t stand there, get to your guns!"

The silver humanoid dissolved and melted out of the chair and onto the floor. His liquid metal form slithered through the door out of the pit. The others raced after it.

Harry turned to run and paused in his tracks. His head turned back towards the pilot’s chair. The lovely blond woman was lurch over the controls, hands hooked tightly onto the steering wheel. A smirk formed on Harry’s face. "Nice Nighty!"

"Shut yer trap and get yer hide t’ yer battle station!"

Dingo ran through the ship with the same smirk. It didn’t fade until he sat down in his gunner chair. He grabbed the controls and stared at his radar. More than ten red digital planes were circling the large green ship. He watched as three of the jets seemed to have disintegrated before he turned to face his gunner radar. A few jets flew into his field. His hands gripped onto the controls tightly and pressed the fire buttons. Two out of three of the jets he fired at combusted

"Just like being in a arcade," he muttered underbreath. "Except there is no way to keep score."

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Like Dingo and the other gunners Robyn had a radar keeping track of the enemy jets. She also had a weapon to fire at them, but the jets rarely flew into her shooting range. She concentrated on flying and speaking with Vinnie on the mike.

"How badly are you guys hurt?" Vinnie’s voice was mixed with crackling static.

Robyn’s eyes glanced down at the signs of the aircraft dashboard. "Mostly just minor exterior damage. They haven’t even struck one of the engines yet."

"I told you that ship was built to last."

"We don’t know how long we can stay up here."

"How many of the enemy jets are left?"

She quickly looked at the radar. "Only four."

"And where are you?"

"We are nearing Brazil. I’ll give you the coordinates." As she mentioned the numbers of latitude and longitude she hoped he didn’t write them down were wrong, or he accidentally spill coffee on the paper he was writing them down on.

"Get rid of the four planes and land in Rio. There is an Alliance base there."

Robyn was about to thank him when the ship was struck again. A warning light went off. "Oh great."

"What happened?"

"They struck one of the engines. I have t’ make an emergency landing."

"Whoa, the accent is out. Don’t panic."

She wasn’t panicking. She knew the ship had plenty of life rafts, non perishable food, water and Matrix could provide a protective shield. She checked the radar again only two jets were left. What was Vinnie doing?

"Okay, here is what you should do. There is an island not too far from you. Try to land down there and see if you can stay at the Alliance lab."

"There is a lab?"

"That’s what the Director said."

"Very well." She switched him off and reached to change the radar screen from their ship and the enemy jet to one that was completely blue, save for a green blob. She turned on the ships intercom. several voices were talking at once.

"Quiet all of ye!" She snapped. "Yama, you can speak first."

"The last of the enemy jets have been defeated," the Japanese gargoyle said.

"I was just going to tell her that." Fang grumbled.

"Shut up!" She barked. "Matrix what is it?"

"Engine two is damaged."

"I already know."

"What do you mean you know?!" Dingo demanded. "When were you going to tell us?"

"I was speaking with Mr. Gregarino. He advised us to land on this small island, so I suggest everyone buckle in until we land." She turned off the inter com and used the radar to steer themselves to the island.

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It wouldn’t have been wise to land on the beach, their ship was more noticeable, and Robyn knew it. She opted to land within the tropical vegetation.

"Hold on tight," she warned. They didn’t have time to search for a clearing. "Matrix, if you can make the ship’s landing a bit softer then please do so."

"Affirmative," mass of artificial intelligence replied.

She had no idea what it was going to do. She had more important things on her mind and one of them was to land the ship as safely as she could.

Her light blue eyes blinked when liquid silver covered the windshield, making it impossible to see, but a second later it cleared. The Matrix had coated the entire ship with his body, providing a cushion. Good. It was all she needed.

As the ship dipped into the canopy, twigs, leaves and branches, bounced off without further damaged to the ship. Robyn ignored the rocking as they continued to plow through the vegetation.

They did not land with a thud, or a bang. There was not even a crunch or a smash. Robyn let out a long sigh before she turned on the intercom. She ignored the bellyaching from fang. "Matrix you can removed yourself from the ship now." After turning it off she turned on the radio connecting the ship to Alliance head quarters. "This Robyn Canmore. We have been forced to land. We are awaiting confirmation from Vincent Gregarino."

The other end was silent for a minute. She could have sworn she heard the sound of running feet, followed by a small thud and a grunt. "This is Vinnie."

"We have landed on the island." she ignored the knocking on the door to the cockpit.

"Oh good, I was so worried about you guys. Remember I told you there was an Alliance lab on the island? Well I just learned there are two labs. Only go to the one with the Alliance symbol. We will be sending a recognizance team to pick you guys up."

"Thank you." She turned it off and pressed the button to the cock pit door.

"What kind of cockamaney landing was that?" Dingo stormed into the area. He cracked his knuckles and rubbed the back of his neck. "If we didn’t have the Matrix some of us could have been injured."

Robyn rolled her eyes. "One that will ensure our safety."

"How does landing in the middle of the jungle guarantee our safety?"

She grabbed him by the wide open collar of his black muscle shirt. "If we landed near the beach the ship would be easily seen."

He smacked her hand away. "Who the hell are we trying to hide from?"

"The people who were shooting at us?" Fang was standing in the doorway. "Or actually the guys they are working for?"

Her glare softened. "You see, even he understands." She brushed by both men. The others were waiting behind the mutate. "Matrix I want you to scout around for a building with an Alliance symbol. Return once you found it, and try to be quick." She ran her fingers through her hair. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the alien raising her hand. "You don’t have to raise your hand Vahril. If you need to say something speak up."

Vahril nodded, causing her long white dreadlocks to rustle. "What are we going to do now?"

"We are going to change into our uniforms, pack up some supplies and stay at the Alliance lab, like Vinnie suggested. I have already set the homing signal for our team to find us."

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Matrix had returned a few minutes later with news that he found the lab. It was only going to take them about almost an hour to reach it by their speed on foot. Robyn, free from her lacy night gown and dressed in her Hunter suit, thanked him. The rest of the team grabbed whatever supplies they could carry.

"I have a question," Fang spoke up a few minutes into their walk. He carried carried a large satcel full of medical supplies along with his own sleeping bag."If the they are tracking the signal back to the ship how are they going to find out where we are? Are they going to search for the lab?"

"I can assist," Matrix answered. He had changed his form to one of the long wheeled carts used at airports. He was carrying the heavy supplies, including canisters of fuel in case theere generators, and in case the generators worked. "I can return to the ship every hour to see if they have found us."

"Matrix, never leave home with out it." Fang chuckled at his own joke.

Dingo sighed. "Don’t mind him. He thinks He’s actually funny."

"I do not get humor," Matrix said.

"Neither does he."

"I heard that," Fang turned around so hard his bag medical supplies struck Yama on the shoulder." Whoops sorry about hat."

"Please watch where you are going," Yama grunted and pulled the strap of his bag up higher on his shoulder. He was given the task of carrying food supplies.

Robyn had tried to ignore the men’s rambling, but the small disturbance finally got to her. She did not clench her fists, but she did let out a long sigh through gritted teeth before she turned around. "Could you stop playing and keep walking"

"Jeeze," Fang rolled up his eyes.

"Please accept my apology," Yama nodded his head.

"Accept mine as well," Matrix added.

"Right, me too then." Harry finished while mumbling something under-breath.

Robyn nodded before she turned back to Vahril. "We can continue." The blue alien turned around. The bulb on the end of the long stalk in the middle of her forehead glowed softly.

Yama waited until he was the last in line. Something about the place bothered him, but he did not want to tell the others. He turned around to face the jungle behind before he resumed walking.

What he didn’t see crouched low on it’s haunches, Hiding from the Redemption squad in this shadows of the jungle growth. The creature studied them with shining yellow eyes and his long tail flicking from side to side. These new creatures were very different in appearance from the thing he hunted earlier. They looked ore like the creatures he was taught to like. He didn’t remember anything about them having wings though.

He waited until they were out of sight before he slowly stalked them on his large teal paws. They smelled nicer than the gray creature too. They had a scent of something he could actually trust.

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Robyn pulled back the leaves over the faded painted image on the side of the building. The Fleur de lance was the same as the one in the Alliance Headquarters, each prong containing a different image: a stick person, a stick person with wings, and what looked like a sword.

"So this is home sweet home for a while," Fang grumbled. He did like the idea of staying in the place. It gave him the creeps, and not just because it was a lab. It reminded him of the building with overgrown shrubs at the end of the second Jurassic Park movie. He doubted there were actual dinosaurs on the island but with scientists like Sevarius, one can’t be too sure about anything any more.

"How do we get in?" Vahril asked.

"I have my leatherman," Dingo pulled out the thick tool and folded it back. He twisted a few pieces around until he found what he was looking for, a sharp and slender tool, resembling an ice pick. "This ought to do the trick." He placed the sharp pointed metal piece into the door knob and wiggled, creating small scraping and clicking sounds of metal against metal. A smile of triumph crossed his face when he felt the lock give way. "Lady’s first," he bowed after pushing the door open.

Robyn, followed by Vahril, entered the lab and walked right into a dusty cob web. "Och," she swiped the mess a way while trying to avoid coughing from the dust. "Any of you have flash lights get them out now." She pulled out her slender sliver flashlight and twisted the handle. The place beam flickered once before fully illuminating. Her light picked up long tables covered by computers and printers. A small table in one corner contained not only a computer but a phone as well. Large cabinets lined the back of the walls.

"Doesn’t look like it has been abandoned that long," Fang remarked.

"Why do you think that?" The alien asked.

"Equipment doesn’t seem that old, looks more like the stuff they had in the late eighties."

Robyn nodded before reaching out to wipe away another web. The beam of her light caught the large black and yellow spider at the last second. She nearly dropped her flashlight as she squealed and leaped back, banging into Dingo’s chest.

"What seems to be the problem?" The Australian lifted his own light to the web she was near and smirked. "Little girl is afraid of spiders eh?"

"Hey leave her alone!" Fang snapped. "We all have our fears." He turned to look at the spider as it crawled further up towards the ceiling. It was as big as his hand. "And that is one large spider. Got both stripes an spots." His nose wrinkled up in disgust as he shuddered. He wasn’t afraid of spiders. He just thought they were disgusting.

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The four legged beast raced towards his home, leaping and bounding through the jungle. It had found where the friendly creatures were staying and he wanted to tell his family.

More of his kind were entering the cave framed by fallen trees. They were like him, large and lean panther like bodies, covered in reptilian skin. Most of them were carrying dead jungle animals in their felinoid jaws. The hunt had been good that night. He grunted to his brethren before he entered the cave.

He plodded straight towards their leader, an old maroon cat with visible scars on his shoulders and jaws. The teal cat nodded his head in respect and grunted. The lead cat grunted back and the two continued to speak that way. If one could understand their words they could pick up the pride leader wanting the teal cat to watch over the trustworthy new comers.

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Dingo poured himself over the outside generators on the other side of the lab. He was the one who discovered them, and he wondered if they still worked. He ripped off the jungle growth and cleaned the small machines before pouring some of the fuel into them.

"All right, let’s see what you got." He turned the first one on and grinned when it shook and sputtered to life. He turned the second one on and while it was slower to start, it too turned on.

He jumped to his feet and with both canisters in his hands he slid through the door. "And the lord said let there be light." his hand flipped on the nearest switch he could find. Overhead lights glowed dimly. "Yes!" He punched the air triumphaly and took in his surroundings.

He wasn’t sure where he was before, but knew he wasn’t in a regular laboratory room. He was right. There were counters, a large silver fridge, a couple of sinks and a stove. "Well if they lived here they did have to eat." He exited the room and searched for the others, turning on more light switches on the way.

He found Vahril and Fang in one of the larger laboratory rooms. There were sinks near the wall and four tables, each with an abandoned test tube or two. There were also four large tube shaped tanks and small tables next to them with more of the same kind of computers as before. Dingo searched for the nearest light switch and turned it on, illuminating half the room.

"Hey," Fang blinked and shielded his eyes. "Wait a sec, we got light?"

"I fixed and fueled the generators," Ding nodded. "What is all this then?"

"A bio chemistry lab," Vahril answered. "They look like the ones in Area 51, the ones that changed the children." Dingo knew what she meant. The American government was lower than a worm belly when they tricked their own people and spliced them with DNA from other worldly beings like Vahril. He wondered if the Australian parliament could be just as low.

"Reminds me of Sevarius’s lab," Fang shuddered.

"Do you think the Alliance is capable of such things?"

"Would you work for them if they were?" Dingo asked.

"I’m not too sure." She stroked her chin.

"Maybe they just made clones here," Fang suggested.

Dingo blinked at his idea. "Clones of what?"

"I dunno, people?" His eyes went wide. "Or maybe they cloned dinosaurs."

Dingo struck the side of his head. Vahril raised her narrow eyelids in sympathy. "Do you fear they did what the scientists did in that movie about the dinosaur theme park?" The mutate nodded.

"Don’t be gullible," Dingo grunted.

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The human woman and gargoyle were waiting for them in the computer lab they had first entered. Both of them were unrolling sleeping bags.

"Dingo fixed the generators," Fang flipped on one of the light switches.

Robyn looked up and scowled. "And where is he now?" She was still dressed in her uniform despite the heat . She ignored the sweat pooling on her forhead her legs and arms. She had carried the most improtant item with them as they made their way through the jungle. She had the disk they stole from the unamed organzation they were isntructed to steal from.

The mutate pointed over his shoulder. "He wants to conserve power so he is going to go back and turn off the other lights."

The alien kneeled down next to the gargoyle and pulled out the fourth sleeping bag. She noticed who was missing. "Is Matrix back with the ship?"

"Yes he is." Yama straightened out the corners.

"Well that take’s care of the last," Robyn sat back. "I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m tired." She grabbed a small bag and walled over to one of the computer tables and kneeled down behind it.

Vahril, not one to be too worried about human, or former human males glancing at her, stepped towards the nearest wall and turned her back on the two males as she pulled off her clothes.

"We found a lab with large tanks in them," Fang spoke loud enough for Robyn to here. "They weren’t exactly like the ones Sevarius had, but they were similar."

"I don’t want to think about the Alliance performing such experiments," Yama kneeled into warrior position and stretched his wings. "You go on to sleep now. I will watch over you."

"Thanks man," Fang crawled into one of the bags. The females, clad in their sleeping gowns slid into theirs and Dingo found his once he returned and turned out the light.

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They did not know of a ship was approaching Imbri. The small and dark boat was left behind by the Illuminati fighter team with one specific instruction. Find the Bad Guys and exterminate them. Well those were two instructions Sparrow had concluded. The medium sized African American noticed small details like that and would quickly point them out if he was back with the C.I.A, but he wasn’t. Instead he was out in the middle of the Atlantic with a loose canon for a commander.

"Are you sure you seen them land on the island?" Sparrow asked his commander as he brought the boat closer to land.

The taller man dressed in army fatigues that seemed to have been stretched across his body that seemed to have been built out of solid muscle nodded. "No where else the could have gone."

"What about in a life raft?"

"No signs of a life raft, and we are too far from the triangle." He landed down closer to the shorter man, giving him an opportunity to identify his favorite brand of chewing tobacco. "I figured with your C.I.A training your little peeprs would have been more sharp.

"but are you certain?" Sparrow felt the large hand of his superior officer slammed down on his shoulder. Despite the pain he refused to wince.

"Just because we don’t see their air craft on the beach doesn’t mean they aren’t here." He removed his grip. " Don’t doubt my words. If you have to doubt anything doubt weather your nuts had dropped. Now take her to land."

"Yes sir, Hawk." He gritted his teeth as he pulled the ship to land. Why couldn’t he have been on the other larger boat, the one that collected the surviving fighter pilot crew. No, instead he’s on the ship barely larger than the one the coast guard uses under a leader who insisted everyone take code names based on birds. Sparrow wondered if Hawk was a fan of that late seventies anime where the heroes dressed like birds of prey.

He steered the boat towards the nearest beach and brought it ashore, keeping the boat in enough water to return to the ocean again.

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He could tell by the scent which fruit were toxic. There were a few on the island harmful to his system, but most of the delicious fruit turned out to be fine. He made a mental note of which kinds of fruit to gather for the youths when they awaken from the pods.

The gray being stared up at the stars while sitting near the entrance of his him and sank his teeth into another one of the pink skinned fruit. The fruit was good, so were the nuts and there plenty of meat creatures to feast upon. There were many small buzzing creatures called insects and there were birds, and lizards and rodents. He kept to the trees hidden from the large creatures that had hunted him before. He had noticed for, for some strange reason, was they were never around when the sun was up.

He remembered more about his past. The doctors had turn on his kind and they others like his kind. They called in a cousin specious of the doctors. Instead of wearing long loose white skins they wore tight outer skins in mottled shades of green. They carried long sticks that made smoke and loud noises. The sticks sent pieces of metal to fly through the air and land in their skin, killing his kind.

They were chased towards the cave and climbed deep inside. The children were placed in pods connected to a great power source. They would be sleeping, and they would grow slowly. He was chosen to be wrapped in a pod and sleep for a long time. He would awaken shortly before the children had fully grown.

He remembered taking a look outside the cave and saw fire. The green skins were setting fire to the area around the cave. It was the last image he remembered before he was placed into his pod.

A strange noise brought his attention to where the land met the water. A strange creature was swimming towards the island. It didn’t look like the strange large bird that crashed in the middle of the jungle earlier that night. He was too afraid to see the bird, for fear it might be agitated. He didn’t remove his eyes from the creatures. He didn’t know if it would crawl across the sand and hunt him down.

He blinked his black eyes when the large creature stopped in the water, maybe it didn’t have legs, maybe it had flippers like the long nosed creatures that leap out of the water.

He leaned forward, clutching onto the stone and narrowed his eyes to study the creature. A wound was opening up on it’s side and something was coming out, and it wasn’t blood. It was long and flat and slid out and landed on the surface of the water where it floated. More things were climbing out of the wound and onto the flat thing. They were animals, animals like the doctors and the green skins. After the seventh doctor like creature climbed aboard the wound closed.

He continued to watch as the flat thing float closer to the sand. Their outer skins were more easily seen as they got nearer. They had the same mottled green skins as the ones who killed his people. His eyes narrowed into inky slits and he felt a growl form deep in his throat. He was not going to let these green skins kill him or the nearly grown children.

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"Move it people! Move it!" Hawk barked at his six troops as they trudged through the beach towards the jungle. Each one of them carried a large back pack full of supplies with a bed roll securely attacked to the top of the bags. Each soldier had a knife holstered to their thighs and a rifle in their hands. "I want to make campsite within a few minutes and you are all moving like old ladies chasing after their pet turtles."

His team was made up of soldiers from different fields and one of them were marines. Starling was the tallest member of his team and from the National guard, which was a shame to Hawk. He would have been proud not have the muscle bound African American as a part of his team. Both the butch like Dove and the Japanese Eagle were both swiped from the United States Army. Sparrow was from the CIA He had no idea where the bespectacled Crow of the blond and lithe Wren were borrowed from

"Sorry sir," the tall and wiry Asian American sped walked right up next to him. "I will move faster."

"Don’t apologize to me, Eagle, I aint your mother." He glared over at the only other man who was the same height as him. "Just move fast, like a ninja. You know about them, you’re from Japan?"

"My parents moved to America when they were children. I have never been to Japan," his own eyes narrowed. "and ninja’s are actually stealthy."

"What is the difference?" Dove asked. Her avian moniker fit her the least. The brunette was taller than the blond Wren and had more muscle to her body. Her dark hair was cut short. She scared both Crow and Sparrow with her strength, especially the muscles in her leg. She had demonstrated to the rest of her unit her ability to crack nuts by placing them in the pit of her knee and bending her leg at lightening speed.

"Stealth has both speed and the ability to go undetected. To quickly get the job done without being scene."

"I don’t give a fuck," Hawk grunted. "Just stop walking like you got a load of shit in your pants!" A small thud from behind forced his whole body to clench. He slowly turned his head to see Wren and Starling helping a fallen Sparrow get back on his feet. "Sweet baby Jesus Christ Sparrow! Didn’t your parents teach you to walk?"

"It’s dark sir," Crow spoke up and pointed at the large root Sparrow tripped on. "And that is a big root." He slid his glasses further up his nose and turned around to face Hawk, or at least Hawk’s bulging neck vein.

"I want you to listen closely if you can understand the following words. Can you understand what I am saying?"

Crow nodded. "Yes sir."

"I can’t hear you!"

"Yes sir!"

"Good now when I ask for your opinion you can give it to me. When I want to know why something has happened I will ask. You will not tell me why someone tripped, dropped their gun, yelped or decided to wrestle their salami unless I ask. Do I make myself clear? Did my voice make it’s way into that hedgehog head of yours?" He snorted on the top of Crow’s hair, while not as short as his, did have the tendency to naturally stick up like quills.

"Yes sir!"

"Good," he took a step back. "Now remember this the first thing and the last thing out of the never closed mouths of your will be sir. Do I make myself clear?"

"I’m not in the army. I was part of the S.W.A.T team in Chicago when the organization hired me to join your team, sir."

"S.W.A.T team?" Hawk’s face had the "Do-I-give-a-shit?" expression. "Oh lau de fucking dah. I don’t care if you never even dropped a quarter in the Salvation Army’s bucket at Christmas you will follow my orders!"

He continued to bark at them even when they found a place to spend rest. "Come on men I want to see you pitch a tent faster than if you were in a hot tub at the Playboy mansion." He turned to watch the two women assembling their tent. "Ladies, You put that together like your den mothers taught you at your girl scout meetings." He watched the two for a few minutes before turning around to the men. "Holy mother of God," he groaned. "Would you look at this. The women are nearly done with their tent and their are just two of them and the four of you aren’t even halfway done assembling one yet. Sparrow, keep holding that pole steady. Starling, secure the line!"

Wren paused to glance over at Hawk at the men before returning back to her and Dove’s tent. "It’s days and nights like these I wish I was still working security for Xanatos Enterprises." She ran a hand through her long blond ponytail. She had muscles but were not as noticeable as Dove’s. The male members of the team gave her a look over and gave her a nod and a smile. She had the facial features of a Scandinavian beauty queen. Hawk didn’t see her as a frail beauty, he likened her to a Valkyrie

"So why did you leave?" Dove pressed a few hooks into the dirt, pinning the canvas of the tent to the ground.

"He still has me on file and says I’m one of the best security officers he has seen, but these days he doesn’t need much of a brute squad." Wren adjusted one of the poles. "That and most of the team I worked with died in Loch Ness. Only tow other survived."

"How did you escape?"

"The sub we traveled in had only one escape pod, but it could hold two people. Sevarius made sure I was inside with him. Bruno was already safety out of the water."

"You’re security, Crow is S.W.A.T, Sparrow is C.I.A, and the rest of us are in the military. I wonder why this organization wants us?" She watched as Wren didn’t respond, just shrug.

__________________________________________________________________________

Crow could not sleep, not when he had a full bladder. He wanted to mention it when Hawk ordered them to bed, but didn’t. He did not want to hear any of Hawk’s loud mouth comments about him having to go to the bathroom. Luckily for him he was in the other small tent with Starling.

He crawled out of the tent backwards and walked off to find a more private location. "Who does this bastard think he is? A drill sergeant?" He pulled down his pants. "Why did the captain send me over here? Does he know why I’m here? I swear that sometimes there is a conspiracy out to get me and this goes all the way to the commissioners office."

He paused when he heard the soft muzzled sound of breathing behind him. "Who’s there?" The only answer he received he was a quick and sharp pain across his throat. He reached for his neck and felt a warm dampness. He pulled his hand away to see the fingers were drenched in warm crimson liquid. Trembling he turned around and saw a humanoid gray being with dark eyes starring at him. Triangular shaped points of flesh we above his eyes like a canopy. It’s tight lips pulled back, baring sharp fangs. The snarling jaws were the last thing Crow saw.

_________________________________________________________________________

The heat was what woke Vahril from sleep. She lain on her side and blinked her lids, wondering what time it was. She pulled down the zipper on her sleeping bag and paused in mid zip to glance at the others. Everyone was still cocooned inside their sleeping bags. She pulled her self out and rolled over to her knees.

She reached into her bag and exchanged her night slip for her outfit and grabbed the bag with the food supplies for a bottle of water. It wasn’t cold, but she was very thirsty. While sipping the water she noticed something crawling on Fang’s bag, a large brown scorpion. She brushed off the insect before grabbing it in-between her hard fifth finger.

"Wha?" Fang grunted and sat up. He watched with blinking eyes as Vahril snapped a scorpion in half with her snap crackers. "What the hell?"

"What time is it?" Dingo mumbled and rolled over. Fang’s exclamation along with the alien’s snap, aroused the others from their slumber.

"It’s time to wake up," Robyn yawned.

"Where did you get that scorpion?" Fang pointed at the bisected creature.

"It was crawling on your bag."

"Whoa!" The mutate leaped up. The cloth slid half way down to his waist, causing him to nearly stumble. "There were things crawling on us?"

"It is dead now."

"I owe you one."

Dingo pulled his black muscle shirt on while staring at the stone form of Yama. He stared around the room searching for the sixth team member. "Where is Matrix?"

"I assumed he was out checking on the ship to see if our rescue team had arrived." Vahril answered.

Fang grabbed one of the food supply bags and pulled out a bag of dried fruit, and a few miniature cereal boxes. "That reminds me," he tore open the box of Sugar Smacks. "Where is the rescue team and why haven’t they found us yet?"

"Has only just waken up and is already complaining. "Robyn said. Nobody had paid her any attention when she crawled off to change clothes. "They might want to make sure the enemy isn’t around."

"I guess we’ll find out when he returns." Dingo took the bag from Fang. "Until then we might as well enjoy breakfast."

"The water is warm," Fang grumbled before shoveling another handful of cereal into his mouth.

"It’s all we have," Robyn said before she accepted the other bag from Vahril. Her eyes were focused on the door as it slowly opened.

A stream of liquid slithered thorough the small opening and congealed into a puddle onto the floor. From the puddle rose the humanoid form of the Matrix.

"Are the coming or had they forgotten about us?" Fang grunted.

"They will rescue us after they finish battling with the enemy," Matrix replied.

The human woman planted her index finger in Fang’s chest. "You see?"

"They have given us a small warning. The enemy had sent a small team onto the island to hunt us down."

"Should we find them first?" Vahril asked.

Fang shook his head. "That’s what they want. They want us to come for them, get separated from each other, get lost and then pick us off one by one. It always happens in the movies."

/dingo wanted to snap at the mutate for relating everything to the movies, despite how stupid it sounded to equate real life to the movies his suggestion for staying in the lab did make sense. "We’ll stay here then and wait for them to come." Dingo twisted off the cap to his water and drank it down.

________________________________________________________________________

Sunlight barely filtered through the trees, creating slender beams of light to touch the ground, like tiny searchlights. One of the beams struck the discarded glasses of Crow. The only sign of the man who was murdered the night before.

Sparrow saw the sparkling glass before the frames. "I found his glasses!" He shouted before he bent town to retrieve them. He saw something else on the ground: Dark reddish brown spots amongst the grass and dirt. He had only read about what it was like to come across an actual murder scene. If he had just discovered the glasses by themselves he would still have hope Crow would still be alive, but now he was no longer sure.

"What are you doing down there Sparrow?" Hawk asked when he saw the hunched over form of Sparrow just standing there and not moving. "Did you bend down for the glass and your back spasm?"

"Sir, no sir."

"Well boy you better stand up. You look like you are trying to take a shit in your pants."

"There’s blood." He licked his lips.

"What?"

He slowly rose to his feet and held up the glasses. "I said there is blood on the ground."

Both Dove and Eagle approached where he was standing and crouched down together. The Asian man took one look at the stained vegetation and knew it Sparrow was right "That’s blood," Eagle gulped while the strong woman traced the cross on her chest with her finger.

Hawk stormed up to them and bent down at his knees "Holy shit," his was low when stared down. "Holy fucking shit."

"Could it have been the guys we are trying to track down?" Starling asked.

"If it was them we would have heard gunshots." Hawk’s voice was strained. The others knew he was shocked by his softened voice and lack of metaphors. The tall gray-haired man stood back up. "All right ladies quit standing around with your jaws open. We got a mission to do. Let’s move on out."

"Sir!" Wren shouted.

"What is it?"

"What about Crow?"

"We’ll try to find him."

Starling trudged along near the front. He was the tallest of the group, and while not as heavily built as Hawk, he was still formidable in appearance. He wasn’t in the Army like Dove, or in the Marine’s like Hawk. He was part of national guard.

He stopped when he felt a drop of moisture land on the top of his bald head. "Great it’s raining." He grumbled.

"What is the fucking hold up?" Hawk demanded.

Starling felt another drop land on his head. "Sir it’s starting to rain sir!"

"I don’t care if it starts to hail, keep moving!"

"Yes sir." Another drop landed and trickled down. He reached up to wipe it off and paused. Something was strange about it. He stared at his hand and nearly dropped his rifle. Heart pounding and eye’s widened he stared up. Hanging above him in the tree was the body of Crow. Deep cuts slashed through his body. His blood drizzled out over the branches and leaves, and dripped on toward the ground.

"Sir I think I found Crow," Starling’s voice wavered. He kept staring at his murdered comrade and didn’t pull his eyes away, even after he felt the presence of his team next to him.

"Sweet Jesus," Hawk whispered. "If anyone has to go throw up I suggest they do it now."

"Are we going to cut him down?" Sparrow asked. He was surprised at how strong his stomach was.

"After we finish the mission," Hawk turned away.

Wren approached him. "Sir I read that leopards sometimes carry their kill up into the trees."

"Are you saying a leopard had done this."

She shrugged. "I’m not sure, maybe it could have been a jaguar. All I’m saying is Crow’s remains might be eaten before we finish the assignment."

"We can’t drag a corpse through the jungle."

"but sir,"

"but nothing." He turned around to make sure the rest of the team was following. "Lets keep it moving."

________________________________________________________________________

Robyn leaned forward to stretch and touch her toes. She couldn’t stay in the building with those two bickering males. She had to step outside for a walk. She wondered how Matrix and Vahril could have that much patience in dealing with them. Matrix was a machine, but Vahril wasn’t. She almost wished she could turn to stone like Yama.

Just a jog around the lab a few times and then she would return back inside. Unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to take a shower, but who cares. If she had to deal with Dingo and Fang’s complaining then they could deal with her body odor.

She was halfway around the building when something caught her eye. A large brownish gray stone between two trees. There was something odd about the rock and her hunter’s intuition made here want to see what it was. She slowly walked toward it. Her hand was close to her gun, and her other hand near he walkie talki, ready to contact her team, if need be.

She pushed apart some of the tall grass like plants next to the stone form. She was not ready to step through it, but she did want to have a better look of what had caught her eye.

The large rock was actually a statue. A stone form of a large jungle cat. "Why would anyone leave a statue out here?" Why didn’t they notice the statue before, unless it was a calling card of the enemy. They place a statue near your home before they take you out, but carrying a large statue around did seem a bit excessive.

"The type of stone seems familiar." She slowly rose to her feet and approached it. "Can it be a gargoyle?" The color of the stone was the same as Yamas. The brow ridges above the cats eyes were lined with a row of bumps like most garg beasts. It also had the sharp shoulder spurs of a garg beast. She reached out to touch it’s body. The grainy surface was the same as Yama’s.

_________________________________________________________________________

Fang grumbled as he carried the rear end of the stone cat Robyn had found. She thought she found a gargoyle. It didn’t look like any gargoyle he’s seen, but the others pointed out the statues gargoyle like features. "Okay lets say this is a gargoyle. Why are we taking it in?"

"In case the enemy shows up we don’t want to get it smashed." Dingo replied. He was not pleased with Fang’s attitude. The mutate was doing nothing, just reading a magazine. Vahril was going through the medical supplies, taking inventory and he was trying to see if he could fix the radio. He thought it would be great idea if they could pick up the radio waves of the Alliance and the enemy battling each other.

"So at night when it wakes up we’ll return it to it’s clan?"

"That would be my guess," Vahril replied. She had her arms around the cat’s middle. Robyn led the group. She opened the door and turned on the lights.

"Are we taking him all the way up front where the stuff is?" Fang asked.

The blond nodded. "And it might not be a he."

"Man."

"Please stop your complaining," Vahril snapped. "It is getting annoying."

Robyn as well as the others paused to stare at the alien in shock. They had never heard her snap at anyone before. The Hunter turned to get the door leading out of the kitchen. "Let’s continue." She reached for the light switch.

She was only a few feet inside the room when the others begin to talk again. Gritting her teeth she turned around. The others were setting the statue down inside the door frame. "What are you doing?"

Dingo pointed at the multiple cracks forming on the statue’s body. "It’s coming alive." The words barely left his lips when the creature cast off it’s stone covering. The teal cat like creature roared before opening its eyes. All white with a narrow onyx pupils.

"It is a gargoyle," Vahril slowly backed away from the beast. The others did the same.

"No it’s not," Fang shook his head. "It woke up before sunset."

The gargoyle cat stretched it’s sleek body and yawned. It was a beautiful creature, Robyn thought. Body like a jaguar or a tiger, covered in teal reptilian skin. The beast locked his eyes with hers while twitching its nostrils. The end of it’s tail flicked back and forth for a minutes before it sat down and purred.

"I think it likes us," Dingo smiled. "Nice kitty."

"Why did it turn to flesh just now?" Vahril held up her hands.

The cat cocked it’s head at her question, as if it could understand her. The cat turned around towards the kitchen and turned it’s head.

Dingo approached the creature. "I think he wants us to follow him."

The cat gargoyle grunted before it walked deeper into the kitchen and stopped in front of the area on the floor where the sunlight struck the floor. He turned his head around to make sure the creatures he was told to watch over had followed him before he stuck out his paw into the sunlight. Stone formed around his paw and traveled up his leg. His body became stone in less than a minute.

"What the hell" Fang pointed at the statue. "Why did it turn to stone again?"

"He didn’t tour to stone until he placed his paw into the sunbeam," Robyn pointed out. "He must be in direct sunlight."

"Gargoyles turned stone weather they are out in the sunny open or not. Yama said their turning to stone has nothing to do with the light, but something about the time when the sun rises and sets."

"Maybe he’s a sub species of gargoyle," Dingo suggested.

"I guess we can pull him out of there." Fang grabbed on to the stature and pulled back. The second the paw was removed from the sunlight the whole body began to shake and crack. For the second time that day the cat like gargoyle awoke from it’s stone slumber.

"I never heard of a sub species of gargoyles before." Robyn chewed on her lower lip.

"Isn’t your brother one?"

Robyn glared daggers at the mutate. "Jon’s no more a subspecies of a gargoyle than he is a subspecies of a human. I have studied gargoyles for a long time and I never heard of one that only turned to stone when the light of the sun touches it."

"Maybe it’s not a sub species," Vahril suggested. "Maybe it didn’t happen by nature."

Dingo glanced her way. "What do you mean then?"

"Maybe it was made?"

"You mean in here?" Fang held out his arms. "In this lab. In those tanks we saw."

"He could be."

Robyn stared at the unique gargoyle. The beast stared back at her cocking it’s head from side to side. "You have a point. Vahril and Fang I want you two to try to find some information about what went on in these labs. Maybe dig up some information on our friend. Dingo and I will return to the room with Yama."

"What are you two going to do?" Fang asked.

"We are going to relieve Matrix of watching over Yama. He is going to go back to the ship to learn of the battle. I’m going to finish Vahril’s inventory work and Dingo is going to try to repair the radio."

"And what about him?" Fang pointed at the cat

Robyn glanced back down at it. "I guess he’ll come with us if he wants."

________________________________________________________________________

The small radio, the size of a walkie talkie, crackled and sputtered in Sparrow’s hand. The short man adjusted the dials, trying to get back the feed. "This is Sparrow of team Hawk. Are you still surrounded? Over." He was answered by the same static and a whisper that almost sounded like "under."

Hawk snatched the radio out of his hand. "This is sergeant Thomas "Hawkman" Hopkins. I order you to reply with your location." No answer. He could hear his team stir uneasily behind him.

"I hate to say this," Dove spoke up. "but what of the others were taken down by the enemy?" More stirring was followed by murmuring."

"Don’t say that. Even if you might be right don’t say that."

"What are we going to do?" Starling asked.

"We are going to split up into teams of two and search this island. When one team spots the enemy they will radio the others. Got it?"

The other nodded but Sparrow raised his hand. "Sir what are we going to do when we find them?" He knew he shouldn’t have asked the question. He cringed at the sight of Hawk’s face slowly taking on a bright crimson shade.

Their leader stomped right up to him. " Does C.I.A stand for Central Idiots Agency? What the hell do you think we are going to do? We are going to take them back to the boat. Now stop scratching your crotches and move out! Sparrow your with me!"

"Sir, yes sir." Sparrow sighed. He nodded goodbye to the other team members before he followed after Hawk.

_________________________________________________________________________

Starling spat out a large clear glob of saliva when he learned Dove was joining him. Why couldn’t he have been paired with one of the others? Eagle was a good friend, despite Sparrow’s clumsiness he could tolerate him, He didn’t know Wren too well but she did have a nice behind, and he could put up with Hawk’s barking.

Dove turned up her slightly thick brows. "Do you always spit before you are teamed up with someone?"

"No, just you." It wasn’t her built that put him off. He had friends like her, and it wasn’t because she was strong. Back when he was in training he had a crush on a beautiful Cuban American with a black belt. When she flipped him over his heart felt it had been pierced by Cupid’s arrow.

"Tough shit we’re stuck together. Now follow me." That was what got to him. Her attitude. Whenever Hawk wasn’t around she would act like she was in charge.

They had been together for an hour and they were not at each other’s throats yet. Starling knew why. They both kept their mouth’ shut. He checked his watch. It was after three in the afternoon and the heat of the sun, plus the humidity had been beating on him. His clothes, drenched dark with sweat, stuck to his skin. A slick coat covered his head and dribbled down his temples and face. One look at Dove and he noticed she wasn’t faring any better.

"You want some water?" He pulled on the two canteen’s attached to his belt. "I brought an extra one for emergencies."

Her fingers tapped the one attached to her belt. "I brought my own, but thank you for the offer." She tugged the container free form her belt, and it slipped from her hands. She reached for it, hoping to catch it before it landed, but the canteen bounced down on ground, tumbling down the small slope. "Shit."

"I’ll get it." Starling offered.

"No, you stay here."

"Fine with me," he brought his own canteen to his lips and savored the water against his warm, dry throat.

He paused in his drink when he heard a hissing followed by a small rattle. Slowly he pulled the canteen away from his face. Should he call out to Dove about the rattlesnake or would that provoke the snake to strike? He turned around, looking for a coiled form on the ground. Instead he came face to face with a six foot creature. The creature was slate gray in colore with a pale silver stomach, neck and lowere jaw. Speckles of dark gray dotted the top of it’s smooth head.. He stared down into dark eyes framed on the top with triangular shaped points of flesh. Bellow eyes was short muzzle with a bump of a nose and jaws full of long sharp teeth.

"Shit!"

Dove sealed her canteen when she heard starling’s shout. What was his problem now? She turned to glare at her team mate. Her slit shaped eyes became saucers. The canteen slipped from her clutches again.

frantically she grabbed the radio and turned the dial. "This is Dove. Do you read? This is Dove."

"This is Hawk." The voice of her commander started out thin, but became stronger with the shift of the dial. "What do you see?" She was too scared too talk. All that came out off her mouth were short breaths. "What do you see soldier?"

"I see," she gasped. "I see Starling being attacked by something. I think it’s the same thing that killed Crow." Her eyes never left starling and his attacker. She wanted to tell them where they were, but all she could think of was an hours walk from where the six of them separated.

The beast stood straight up and turned toward her. She froze, feeling the radio slip from her hands and joining the canteen. She did not speak, nor breath, nor even blink. From where she could stand she could tell the creature would be slightly taller than her. It’d didn’t look like he had any hair on his body. Even the top of it’s slick black head, with pointed bits of dark gray flesh down the back of it’s neck, didn’t look like hair. It had three long spikess on it’s elbows and knees and curved blades protuding from it’s shoulders. On each side of it’s head she could make out pointed ears and from behind a small thin tail darted side to side, too short to touch the ground.

Beneath the beast she saw the bloodstained from of Starling and a new emotion took over, pushing out the fear. Her eyes narrowed while she reached for her gun. "Come and get me you son of a bitch."

Whether the beast heard her or not she was unsure, but it did leap into the nearest tree. She kept her rifle aimed for the moving gray body and fired when it leaped out of the tree. She missed. It landed a few feet in front of her. She fired again, just as it was leaping and missed. Her other hand reached for her knife and just as the creature landed on her pulled it out. She felt the end of her blade strike into his flesh and heard it’s screech. She pulled out her knife and brought it down upon it’s skull, but it was faster. She felt four sharp point’s strike her throat.

__________________________________________________________________________

"Son of a bitch," Hawk grunted. His eyes were on the bloodied form of Dove. He and Sparrow had come across the others before the four of them discovered the fallen members. "Son of a bitch." He repeated, only louder. "Some mother fucking son of a bitch took out three of my team, and two of them were my best soldiers, ever!"

Sparrow felt his whole body cringe when Hawk referred to Dove and Starling as his best soldiers. He knew why he left Crow out. It was because Crow wasn’t military. He tried to not let it get to him as he examined Dove’s body. She had deep puncture wounds in her chest and arms and her throat was ripped out. He stared at her arm. In her hand was her knife, and the blade was covered in blood. "She stabbed it."

"What?" Hawk grunted.

"She stabbed it." He pointed at the knife. "The blade is covered with blood, and it isn’t hers. It’s coated not spattered."

Hawk shoved him aside and crouched down. "Well I’ll be. She struck the bastard.. I hope it bleeds to death."

"Or it suffers from an infection."

Hawk mumbled something as he stood up. "Splitting up was a bad idea." He wiped some sweat from his temple. "Listen up. we are going to stick together and continue the mission."

"Continue the mission?" Sparrow couldn’t believe what he was hearing. "Continue the mission? Sir three of our members are dead. There is a strange beast on this island. I say we leave."

"Sparrow, I admire the fact you finally decided to grow a pair, but shut the fuck up. I have never aborted a mission before."

"Who cares about the enemy?" Sparrow clenched his jaw. "This god damned creature could have killed them for all we know but all you care about is completing the mission." A slap across his face silenced him.

Hawk lowered his hand. "Our mission is to find the enemy. Our enemy is the bastard who killed Crow, Starling and Dove. Once that bastard is dead we will search for that team of Bad Guys. Now stay close."

_________________________________________________________________________

They had fifteen rolls of medical tape. It seemed a little excessive to Robyn but it was better to have too much than not enough. It was the last item she categorized. She had counted the rolls of ace bandage, and cotton gauze, the packages of adhesive bandages and medical pads, the bottles of pain killers, the box of laytex gloves, the medical sissors, the tubes of ointment, anti bacteria creams, creams for muscle cramp and anti histemenes, the last was the snake bite kit.

She took inventory of their food supply as well, only pausing to talk to Dingo or the cat. Fang entered once, complaining he was hungry, and grabbed a few rations to share with Vahril. Matrix had recently slithered off to see how the battle was coming along.

"Found it!" Fang’s shout was heard from the lab he was searching in. The mutate raced in a few minutes later, carrying a large stack of binders in his arms. Vahril followed carrying a few floppy disks in her hands. "We found the information. It’s all in here and there." he pointed to the alien’s hands before handing the binder to Robyn.

"I doubt I’ll eve get this piece of crap to work," Dingo abandoned the radio and sat next to Robyn. Fang and Vahril sat down behind her.

"Operation clean up," Robyn read the cover and opened it up. "It’s date October thirteen 1986." She glanced up at the other staring at different colored folders in their hands.

"I have the last one," Dingo read the date written in his. "January 17, 1990."

"Mines December 28, 1982." Fang said.

"I have the oldest," Vahril held up hers. "March 10, 1979."

"We’ll read these in proper order." Robyn suggested.

Vahril nodded. "We had learned the Illuminati themselves had left the island. The same island they had occupied for nearly twenty years, creating the terror we are trying it eliminate.Their so called Shadow Project. They thought they could control their creations, but they got out of hand. They felt the best way to eliminate the monsters was to send soldiers after them and burn their nests. They did not gotten all of them."

She turned the page. "We had discovered their lab shortly after ours was finished being built. they had cleaned up their supplies and left almost nothing behind, but we did discover a few crucial notes in nooks and crannies they had not searched. What we could tell their Dark Race were created using several different animals, but they all shared the blood of one creature not mentioned. The blood was combined and grown in pods, made of cow uterus’s connected to machines. The bird like creatures were made from hawks, the mysterious creature and what DNA the could gather from the mummified remains of antosaurs."

"I knew it!" Fang interrupted. "I knew some quacks had to clone a dino."

"They mentioned using DNA from a dinosaur to combine with other blood," Dingo frowned. Fang’s obsession with Michael Chritons most popular fiction was beginning to get to them. "Now shut up. Vahril go on."

"The rodent like Crawlers were made with the unknown, rats and gila monsters, the dog like canines were made from the unknown, Dobermans and a mysterious kind of hound. The humanoids were made from the unknown, a species called saurus sapiens and humans, and there was a few notes about a fifth breed of Dark Race, but what it was made from it did not say."

"We have decided to try to create a species ourselves to counter attack this menace. We combined the DNA of jaguars and a dog like reptilian creature that turned to stone at dawn."

"Gargoyle beast and Jaguar DNA," Fang turned to the teal cat curled up at Yama’s stone feet. The cat like creature’s eyes never left them. "Sounds like Garfield over there."

"Garfield?" Dingo raised a brow. "Isn’t that an insult to the cat?"

"What should we call him? Kennedy, Lincoln, what was the other one?"

"Assassinated president?" Robyn blinked. "His name was McKinley. I can’t believe I know more about the past leaders of your country than you do."

"That’s right, they named a mountain after him."

"Shall I continue?" Vahril asked.

"Go on." Robyn nodded.

"There really isn’t much, just information about combing the DNA and placed it large tube shaped tanks full of amniotic like fluid." She lowered the binder. "I thought Fang should continue."

"Here it mentions the cat’s have grown up, all ten of them." Fang skimmed through a few pages. "There are ten of them, and they all have different colored reptile like skin. They gave them some fancy Latin name, , but they are often called jaguars for short. Ah here we go. We took the jaggars out to train them in the field. The second the first cat stuck his head out into the sun his body solidified into a stone statue. We were perplexed by this since they had yet to become stone at dawn. The reptilian like dogs turned to stone whenever the sun ruse and set, not by exposure to the light itself, but perhaps because the blood is mixed with that of a jaguars they turn to stone differently. We kept the others inside and brought the stone cat back in. Once he was out of the sunlight his body cracked and has stone outer shell fell off his confused. The beast roared and stared around the room, confused."

"So he is one of these jaggars," Dingo glanced back at their guest.

"Okay, " Fang flipped through more pages. "Some records about them hunting down the dark race. First night they all had dead Flyers and Crawlers in their mouths. The following night a few brought down a small pack of Canines, and on the fifth they killed their first humanoid. That’s about it." He turned the last page and his caught on a name printed at the bottom. "Holy shit." His voice was an amused whisper. "The last person who wrote in here is named Gretchen Sevarius. I wonder if she’s related to the shithead who mutated me."

"I thought you like being a mutate?" Dingo asked.

"I do but It’s the principle I’m talking about. He shouldn’t have done it in the first place. I still wish I could sue him for that.."

Robyn shook her head. "My binder contains information of the cats’ being able to breed and more jaggars being shipped out to other areas infested with Dark Race creatures."

"Mine has them preparing to leave," Dingo thumbed through his. "They planned on letting the cats live here and thoughts that were shipped would be taken care by the Alliance centers." He set his binder down and scooted himself back tot he radio. His hands felt around the tools.

"It explains the lab and McKinley," Robyn pointed at the teal jaggar.

"We figured out one thing," Dingo grunted and grabbed the dials of the radio. He pulled and placed a small clamp on one of the wires protruding from the back and twisted the dial. A small smirk jumped up, creating a crackling sound. Dingo scooted back in shock.

Robyn raced over to his side. "Harry are ye hurt?" She reached for his hand and searched for any burns.

"I’m fine, just a bit surprised." He shook her off.

"I hear something." Fang pointed at the radio. A faint whine emitted from the small box, followed by the crackles of static mixed with faint voices.

"This is sergeant Thomas "Hawkman" Hopkins," the voice faded out. "After us, I repeat, the same thing that killed...through the jungle...man down!"

"We are not...you behind," A woman’s voice was heard in the back ground.

"Let go Wren." The voices faded complete, replaced by more static.

"What the hell?" Fang scratched his head.

"The mentioned a creature killing in the jungle," Vahril slowly rose to her feet. "And he has a man down. They could be here."

"You want us to rescue them?"

"We can’t just let them die."

"I don’t know," Dingo rubbed his chin. "It might be a trap."

"We can’t risk it," Robyn reached for her guns. "Fang I want you to take to the air. Dingo you and Vahril are going to back me up."

________________________________________________________________________

They had continued through the jungle, searching for any sign of the beast. Sparrow was the first to notice the gray beast leaping from tree branch to tree branch above their heads. The four of them tried to shoot at him but the beast managed to evade of their shots. They did not know if the beast would attack them from above of from behind. Hawk did n’t want to admit it but they had no choice but to run to safety.

Wren heard Eagle trip behind them first. She paused in mid step and turned.

"Wren move those ballerina legs!" Hawk shouted.

She couldn’t move. From the distance she saw the gray creature racing up to Eagle as the man struggled to stand up. "We can’t leave Eagle."

"Go without me!" Eagle stood up with his knife in hand. He turned to face the beast that killed his fellow soldiers.

"We are not leaving you behind!" she felt someone grab her arm.

"He’s taking the bullet for us," Sparrow said. "Let’s respect his wishes."

"Eagle."

"I ordered you two to run," Hawk motioned them with his arm. "Go, go!" He waited until the two of them were running ahead before he followed.

He paused after they had ran a small distance. "You two keep going!" He pulled out his rifled and turned back towards Eagle. "This thing has pissed me off too many times." He pulled out his gun and raced back to his fallen soldier. He aimed at the gray oval shaped head of the beast as it lurched over Eagle.

The beast had his caws impeded in the soldier’s chest. It lifted him up slightly and slammed his body down on the ground in thud that was semi muffled by the grass. Hawkn pulled back the triger and cursed when the creature rolled over to its side. The beast locked its onxy eyes into Hawk’s only pale green orbs and hissed like steam.

__________________________________________________________________________

Sparrow knew what Hawk was doing. He was going back to help Eagle, and make sure the thing dies. "Two against one, and one of them is Hawk. That monster is dead."

"Four against one is better," Wren gasped.

"We don’t know how powerful this thing is. Hawk wants to make sure at least one of us gets out of here and alive and warn people not to come here."

"I still think it would be better if we turned around." She noticed Sparrow slowing his steps down and staring up. "What are you doing."

"There is something flying overhead."

"What?" She stopped and stared up. Through the few gaps in the canopy she could see a large furry creature with wings like a bat flying over head. "What is that?"

"That is part of our team," the male voice was coated in an Australian accent. The two of them lowered their gazes to see a man covered in golden metal armor and a blond woman dressed in a tight black and red outfit. She wore a black mask with three red slash marks over her face. Behind the two of them was another woman. It looked like a woman, except she was blue with white dreadlocks and a long stalk ending in a small bulb in the center of her forehead, and next to her was a strange statue that reminded Sparrow of the academy award, except it was silver and not gold. "I suggest you drop your guns and put your hands in the air."

"You must be the team we were after," Wren slowly set her gun down. "It doesn’t matter anymore."

"What doesn’t matter?" The blue woman asked.

"The mission. Some of our team members are back there with that thing. They told us to go ahead and they’ll take care of it."

The members of the Redemption Squad glanced at each other. "Matrix you stay here with them." Robyn said.

"I shall guard them." The statue said and melted into a puddle. The puddle slithered foreword surrounded the two soldiers.

"What the hell is going on?" Sparrow stared at the metal spikes forming on the ring surrounding them. "What is this thing?"

"Don’t panic!" The blue woman said as the spikes grew into long bars. The bars curled high above their heads and met in a center.

"Panic how do you expect us not to panic? Sparrow stepped back away from the bars and collided into Wren. His eyelids were peeled back revealing his frightened brown eyes. Wren grabbed onto his arm. "Sweet Jesus!"

"Don’t worry, don’t panic." Wren had dealt with strange enemies before, none of them were as savage or frightening as the beast Hawk and Eagle were fighting. She arched out and grabbed one of the bars keeping her and Sparrow trapped. It had the same smoothness and temperature as metal bars. She squeezed them, feeling their solidness. "We are secure in this cage," Wren tried not to loose control ."Now go help the others!"

The other three captors didn’t waste any time. They ran off towards the direction she and Sparrow had ran from. She blinked when she thought she saw something lurking around the shadows, rustling the shrubbery.

__________________________________________________________________________

Fountain’s of sweat poured off Hawk’s body, and it wasn’t just from the heat. His eyes kept wandering around him and he concentrated his hearing on the sound of the beast scuttling through the branches overhead.

A few feet away from him Eagle lied dead in a pool of his own blood. His body was like the others, a few puncture marks and long deep cuts in his throat. Like Dove, Eagle was holding onto a blood stained knife. From the wounds Hawk saw on the beast the dead man didn’t stab him as much as cut him a few times.

"You fuck with my troops you are going to have to fuck with me!" Hawk snarled before shooting his gun at the trees. The quick scuttling following his gun fired told him he missed again. "You think you can continue just running around me like a frightened dog then you have a surprise!" He fired again and missed. "Why don’t stop and fight me like a man?" He turned at the sound of it landing on the ground a few feet from him and turned. A satisfied smile crept across his face as he aimed the end of his rifle at the foliage and pulled back on the trigger. "Iaagh!" He felt the weight of the creature land on the back of him and turned in time to feel the sharp poinst of the beast’s elbow dig deep into his own shoulder. He spun around and brought up the blunt end of his rifle into the beast’s ribs, the creature squealed and landed in front of him.

"I’m not going to miss this time," Hawk ignored the throbbing pain in his shoulder and brought up his gun. His finger against the trigger, he was ready to pull.

Nature, or what seemed like nature, seemed to have fired first. A small bolt of lightening shot down from over head and struck the beast on the foot, causing it to squeal and leap.

"God works in mysterious ways."

"Wow, I never been called God before." Something large landed next to him. Hawk didn’t know what to make of it. It was a like a man in built and height, but it was covered in brown fur. It’s high arched feet ended in four toes and its head looked like the head of a mountain lion. A pair of large black bat like wings were attached to it’s back. "What the hell is this thing?" He held out a fist, aiming towards the beast.

The creature was too busy snarling at the mutate to notice the others gathering behind Hawk until he heard the click of their guns. It stared at them confused for a split second and bared his teeth again.

It was answered by another snarl. A snarl it was all to familiar with. It’s lips closed while it slowly backed away. His dark eye’s glanced around until it rested on a pair of glowing white eyes. the creature turned and leaped towards the trees. The jaggar snaked around the shadows, avoiding the sunlight and keeping to the shadows to race after the beast.

"That’s it McKinley," Fang cheered. "Get that beast. Good boy."

"What the fuck was that," Hawk held onto his shoulder. His hand was right under the wound. "And who the hell are you?" He stepped away from Vahril as she was trying to examine his injury. "Some are you are not even human."

"I used to be," Fang grumbled.

"You are hurt," Vahril reached for him again. "I have bandages."

Dingo looked him square in the eye. "We are the buggers you were sent to capture."

"And you end up saving my ass," he blinked. "Well I’ll be damned. What about Sparrow and Wren."

"If you mean the little bloke and the blond sheila, they are safe. Come on mate. We know a better place for you." He grabbed onto the man’s wrist and blinked. He had never thought it would be possible for someone to ctually have a kunfu grip but this man did. He lead him back to the Alliance lab while Vahril held a gauze pad against the puncture wound’s in his shoulder.

_________________________________________________________________________

The dying of the light of the sun dwindled over the over the island jungle, encasing the semi dark ground in true darkness. The lone jaggar statue slowly came to life, cracking out of it’s stone shell and roaring. He looked around and remembered he was chasing the enemy when small shift in the foliage cast a beam of sunlight on to him and sealing him in a stone.

His enemy had escaped and he didn’t know what happened to his new friends. He ran off to find them.

________________________________________________________________________

Yama regretted not being able to participate in the action the others shared. He wanted to see the gargoyle like cat creature, but was told the beast had gong off to protect them and the island from the Dark Race.

"This gray beast you fought was this type of creature mentioned in the binder?" Yama asked as they headed to the recon ship waiting for them. Another ship had already collected the enemy soldiers and the bodies of their four comrades before Yama had awaken. The Squad wanted to wait until after sunset to meet their recon.

The two of them along with Matrix were the last to board the ship. Both Dingo and Vahril were up loading the last of their luggage and Robyn sat in the entrance, her legs dangling over the side. In her hands was a clipboard and paper. She jotted down the supplies and comparing it with her inventory list, making sure they haven’t forgotten anything.

"We think it could have been the type described as humanoid," Fang shrugged. "And we really didn’t fight him. I just shot him with a small bolt. McKinley was the one that scared him."

"I wish I could have met this McKinley."

"Your wish has been granted." Matrix said. Both gargoyle and Mutate turned around. A teal jaguar like gargoyle beast sat a few feet away from them. It’s head cocked to one side.

"Hey!" Fang’s shout alerted the humans and alien. "McKinley’s back." He bent down and slapped his hands against his knees repeatedly. "Here boy." The jaggar bounded up to him and nearly knocked him down as he rubbed up against him. "I’m glad to see you too boy."

"He’s a beautiful creature," Yama smiled before McKinley sniffed his outstretched and rubbed up against his body.

Dingo just shook his head as he watched the scene. "I feel like I’m watching an episode of Lassie. How are we going to tell him we can’t keep the cat."

"Why can’t we keep him?" Vahril asked. "He’s friendly and he has the loyalty of the gargoyle beasts Yama described."

"He needs to stay here to make sure there are no more Dark Race," Robyn said.

"He’s not the only one." She pointed. Behind the team five more jaggars, each one was of a different hue walked up. "If McKinley wants to come I think he should be allowed."

"I guess it’s settled then," Ding smiled. "Hey Fang, see if your friend wants to come with us."

The mutate scratched McKinley behind the ears. "You want to come with us boy?" The cat cocked his head to the side and made a low cat sound. It turned around and grunted towards it’s pride before letting out a long roar. The other jaggar’s roared back. McKinley bowed his head before he ran up towards the ship and waited for the three inside to move before he could jump in.

_________________________________________________________________________

He killed four of the green skins. He should be happy, but he was not. He wanted to kill all of them. The greenskins had help from their relatives. One had a shiny golden shell like a beetle and one was red and black and one was blue with an outer white skin. He didn’t know about the furry one with wings. It was strange.

He would have killed them all if it weren’t for that beast. It hunted him down until it dried up. They dry up in the sun. He could gather food safely for the pod children during the day. At night he will stay home and watch over them.

His foot hurt where the lightening struck him. It was covered with darker gray blotches and skin bubbles. He also had cuts from the long claws two of the green skins had. He dressed his wounds in scraps of their loose green skin and large leaves. He will heal slowly, but he knew of a quicker way.

He wrapped himself up in the torn cocoon pod he slept him, covered up his body and limbs. His head poked out through the top. He was warm and his wound’s did not bother him. As he felt his eyelids grow weary he glanced over the pods and settled on the largest one. A pod meant for a dark beast and it was empty, not torn or broken, just empty as if it was sealed without a creature inside. He did not want to dwell on it. He just wanted to sleep.