NOTE: Because who'd feel like getting sued by Disney: This fanfic is about the animated series "GARGOYLES" which belongs to Disney and aren't mine in any way, and are being used without their permission and so on...
Previously on Gargoyles...
Demona: What are you!
DeAngela: I'm DeAngela, your daughter.
Demona: You are NOT my daughter.
DeAngela: If you reject me than you are a fool.
Brooklyn: DeAngela helped Demona come up with a plan to get rid of humans... without killing them.
Demona: This virus will directly affect human DNA. It will cause certain recessive mutations to become dominant. Over time the mutations will cause the fertility rate to drop. Infant mortality from the birth defects will rise. Life spans will be shorter.
DeAngela:(dying) The virus was too dangerous. During it's creation I discovered that it could destroy our kind too. Servius discovered that Gargoyles have faint traces of
Human DNA...
-From THE CLONE
A coal mine some where in England...
BoomAhCHUNK! BoomAhCHUNK! BoomAhCHUNK!
A mining drill turned, drilled, and pounded away at dark granite rock. Several other machines operated by soot covered hard hat mine workers were added to the noise. Hand held drills, squeaky mine carts, air pumps, and others.
"Alright," A bearded man said, to the man who was operating the mining drill. "We need ta drill several more meters."
"Sure boss," The man said as he was pressing buttons, and shifting levers.
After making a low moan, the drill started again.
BoomAhCHUNK! BoomAhCHUNK! BoomAhCHUNK! BoomAHCHUNK!
BoomAHrrRRRRRRRRRRrrr!
The spinning drill slowed and give out a high pitched whirling noise. Dark smoke and rock dust spat out from the sides of the drill.
"Pull back! Pull back!" The bearded man said. "The rock must be too hard for the drill."
The man operating the drill turned it off and backed it up from the stone wall.
"That shouldn’t be," The man said. "There should be at least 500 meters of soft rock before we use the explos-"
The man stopped in mid word when he saw the tip of the drill.
It was bent and crooked.
"What in the bloody hell," The man whispered.
"What are we drilling through, Diamond?" The bearded man said in shock.
By this time, the other workers noticed the trashed drill head. Soon a crowd gathered.
"What in the heck happened?" One man said.
"Either we have cheap drill, or the rock in there is impossibly hard," The bearded man said.
"Well there's only one way to find out," The drill operator said as he jumped down from the drill. "Let's have a peek at that hole."
The drill operator, his bearded supervisor, and a few other workers turned on their hard hat lights and walked towards the tunnel that the drill made.
Hesitantly, the three men walked in the tunnel. The drill didn't go very far. Because after walking a few feet there was no more tunnel. Just a rock wall.
The three men aimed their lights at the rock wall that recked their drill.
"What is that?!" The drill operator said.
Everyone aimed their lights.
"Astounding," The bearded man said simply.
The rock wall was a dark brownish color with sparkle specks of a silver like metal running through it. The brownish rock was opaque in low light but became more transparent in high light.
The third man bent down and picked up one of the rocks the drill managed to chip off. "These rocks are like a hologram!" He said.
The bearded man took the rock, and look at it thoughtfully. "I can't identify what this is," He said. "But I do know that this is not natural."
Suddenly it was dead quiet.
"What?" The two men said in shock. "You are not suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" One of them said.
"I don't know," The bearded man said. "But I'm not sayin' nothing."
"Look!" The drill operator said pointing, there's light comin' from that crack!"
The three men dimmed their lights, and sure enough, there was a thin vertical line of white- orange-yellow tinted light coming out of a vertical crack.
"Light down here??!!" The bearded man said. "Impossible!"
"There's a hole in this crack," The drill operator said as he was pushing away a slab of rock that was near the bottom of the vertical crack. "I think I can get through."
"Alright," The bearded man said. "But be careful."
The drill operator got on his knees and squeezed his way through the 60 inch wide crack.
After crawling a short distance, the mouth of the short tunnel opened into a large cavern which was the size of a mobile home.
Cautiously, the drill operator got up.
The cavern was just as bright as a lit room. After the drill operator blinked a few times he looked around and noticed that the light didn't seem to have a source. There was no lamps or studio lights. The light seemed to come from the rocky walls of the cavern which were a amber color. The amber rocky wall wasn't bright as if light was coming from it. It was a more of a reflective light glow, the type that you see if a light was shone on the wall.
"I hope this isn't radioactive," The drill operator said under his breath, as he walked up to the cavern wall.
The drill operator walked up to the wall and saw drawings that were drawn with charcoal. They looked like the cave paintings that were found in Lascaux France and in Spain. Not only were there hunting scenes, war scenes, and animals; there were also drawings of what looked like the circular boulders of Stone henge. What was even more shocking was that further down the wall, there were drawings of what looked like Gargoyles sleeping in some sort of air craft. Drawings of Gargoyles who were talking to humans, drawings of Gargoyles who were helping people hunt. Drawings of Gargoyles in "stone" with men guarding them.
"Oh my," The drill operator said simply.
"Are you okay in there?" a voice asked.
"I'm alight!" The drill operator said as he went back through the crack.
"What happened?" The bearded man asked.
"I think we better call some archeologists down here," The drill operator said. "I think we found something."
Kenya National Park, Kenya Africa noon,
In the hot grasslands of Kenya on a bare grassless patch of brown rocky earth, several Archeologists, anthropologists, and some local helpers were shifting dirt through shifters, and gently chipping rocks looking for fossils, when suddenly a cell phone in one of the jeeps that were parked there rang.
After three rings one of the local helpers, a student, went and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" She said, answering the phone.
"Can I speak to Professor Lydia Duane please?" A British accented voice asked.
"Yes, hold on," The student said.
"Professor Duane!" The student called out. "There's a man on the phone for you!"
Professor Duane, who was busy talking to her partner, Doctor Arthur Morwood-Smith, about some broken fossilized bow they found. These two were the same archeologists that found the scrolls of Merlin.
Professor Duane stopped, and came towards the jeep and took the cell phone from her student.
"Hello?" She said in the phone.
"Professor Duane?" The man said, "We need you and Dr. Smith to come to England immediately!"
The man said this with clear urgency.
"But I'm in the middle of a fossil excavation," Professor Duane said, "I can't just go-"
"A mining company found something amazing," the man said cutting her off. "When they first told me, I didn't believe it. But when I actually saw it..."
"What is it?" Professor Duane said with interest now.
"I can't really tell you over the phone," The man said. "But all I can tell you that it's some sort of underground cavern. The mining company can't work any further until-"
"I'll come over and look at it right a way," Professor Duane said. "I'll take the next plane to England."
Then she hunged up the cell phone.
"What is happening?" Dr. Smith asked as he walked up to Professor Duane.
"We're needed in England," Professor Duane said.
"A discovery I presume?" Dr. Smith asked.
Professor Duane nodded. "Judging by the call, this 'discovery' must be really big."
The Erie building, New York City, USA
"Several days ago in England, a mining company found a hidden underground cavern which was covered with ancient cave paintings of what seem to be Gargoyles." The news anchor said. "Since the discovery Monday, several archeologist, and Gargoyle support and hate groups have visited the area. The cavern is under tight police security, and no one but scientist are allowed in."
"What?" Hudson said in awe as he placed the t.v on mute.
"Goliath, Brooklyn, Broadway, everyone come in here quick!" Hudson called out.
A few seconds later, all the Gargoyles ran in the entertainment room.
"What's wrong Hudson?!" Goliath said with concern as he ran in.
"Look on the television," Hudson said as he unmute the t.v.
"-This is something we never seen before," Professor Duane said on the t.v. screen. Then she held up a poster sized photo of a painted section of the cavern wall. "This painted drawing clearly shows a group of Gargoyle-like creatures helping a group of hunters hunt."
"At first we thought that the cave drawings were a hoax," Dr. Morwood added. "But after radioactive dating of flakes of paint from the drawings we discovered that they were painted between 30,000 and 12,000 years ago."
Goliath and the other Gargoyles gasped in shock.
"Dr. Morwood can you explain the rumors that there were also some paintings of space ships on the cavern walls, and this is the reason for the tight security?" One of the reporters asked.
"Sir," Dr. Morwood said keeping his cool, "The cavern was discovered by miners in low light conditions. Some of the drawings, when not carefully inspected under expert eyes, could be mistaken for something else. And as for the security, that is because we don't want the cavern 'defaced' by 'extremist'. That's all the questions we'll answer for now. Good day."
Then Dr. Morwood and his partner walked away, with the reporters grilling after them.
Hudson turned off the t.v.
"Can you believe that?!" Brooklyn said excited. "I want to see the Quarrymen and Gargoyle haters debate that! Finally, there's proof, 100 percent proof that Gargoyles and humans can work together!"
"But from that long time ago?" Angela wondered out loud. "That's over 30 thousand years ago."
"I read history books about humans," Broadway said. "They found fossils of ancient humans and other ancient stuff. I noticed they never found any Gargoyles until now."
"Finding a Gargoyle fossil would be rare, even impossible," Goliath said at last. "And art would be just as rare. But I don't think everything for us won't change over night based on a few cave paintings of us."
Suddenly Elisa ran in the room. "Guys, I think you should turn on the-"
"We know lass," Hudson said. "We saw the paintings on the television."
"So you guys might have some ancient ancestors," Elisa said. "So what do you think so far?"
"We're just awed by it all," Angela said. "If what they say is true, Humans and Gargoyles existed together for thousands of years."
"But where did we come from?" Hudson asked.
"You'll be surprised at the answer to that question," Xanatos said as he walked in the room with Matt.
"Matt?" Elisa said surprised. And then she added, "why are you here, with Xanatos??"
"Today was my off and I had a unexpected visit from Hacker," Matt explained. "As you all know he's one of 'them'."
"You're old F.B.I partner, slash, Illuminati agent?" Elisa said.
Matt nodded, and continued.
Earlier that day, noon.
"Aliens?" Chante said to Matt on the phone. "You think just because they found a few Gargoyles on wall paintings doesn't mean that-"
"It's true!" Matt said. "If aliens arn't involved in this why is the English government allowing limited access to the cavern?"
"Matt hasn't it occured to you that these 'Gargoyles' on the cavern wall could be the anscestors of our modern day Gargoyles but in a different stage of evolution?"
Matt was quiet for a few seconds. "True, but that doesn't explain the sercity, and why the miners who found this cavern are not talking. They saw something down there that the English goverment don't want us to know."
"Sure Matt, what ever," Chante said yawning. "You may have the day off, but I don't. I'm not going to waste valvable sleep time agruing about this. Bye."
And then Chante hung up the phone.
Matt was just thinking if Chante had a good reason to be right about that whole thing when suddenly someone knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Matt called out as he walked to the door.
"It's me, Hacker."
"Hacker!!" Matt said, not very happy. He took two bounding steps to the door and opened it quickly.
"Hello Matthew," Hacker said in a simple, hello-how-are-you-doing type of voice.
Matt didn't buy the act. "What do you want?" Matt asked darkly, as he face turned a shade pinker.
"Listen, I know that you're not gald to see me," Hacker said. "But I'll get straight to the point. There is a meeting and you are invited."
"What if I don't want to come?" Matt said, already seeing where this was going. "What if I want to spend my day off getting some well earned beauty sleep?"
"You'll come," Hacker said popping a piece of taffy in his mouth. "If you care about you're day sleeping friends."
Matt's brow wrinkled. "Blackmail," He said, "Great. I'll go and get changed."
Matt then walked back inside his apartment and deliberately slammed the door behind him. After a few minutes Matt opened the door again, now dressed in his usual detective attire. Matt and Hacker took the elevator down stairs and outside where a limo was waiting for them.
Matt looked at the limo hesitantly. "I don't believe I'm doing this," He mumbled.
"Oh I forgot to mention one thing," Hacker said.
"What?" Matt said facing him.
Before Matt could react, Hacker quickly sprayed something in Matt's eyes.
"AHHHGGGAAHHH!" Matt screamed out and clutched his face.
Matt staggered back, and at the same time, he felt hands grab, push, and pulled him inside the limo.
Matt then heard the limo doors closed. And the limo jerked forward as it sped off.
"My eyes, they burn!" Matt yelled out. "Hacker what in the hell did you-"
"They'll only burn for a few seconds," Hacker said calmly.
After a few seconds, Matt's eyes stopped burning as Hacker say they would. Matt blinked a few times and noticed that his vision was quiet different.
Matt could see, but his vision was like a camera terribly out of focus. It was like he was both near and far sighted. Matt tried to look at Hacker. Matt could see him, but his face was just a blob of pink with no deal what so ever.
"Hacker, I swear," Matt started.
"Don't worry, it's only temporarily. Hacker said. "We don't want you to know the secret location, yet. You are still on probation."
Matt wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "But was this necessary??!" He complained. "You could of just gave me a blindfold you know!"
"We don't use blindfolds anymore." Hacker said.
"Oh how convenient," Matt said sarcastically as he crossed his arms.
"Oh lighten up why don't you?" Hacker said. "You've been grumpy through out this whole thing. I'd thought you'll want this after all these years. After all I did it for you."
"You have a funny way of showing friendship Hacker," Matt said emotionless.
Hacker gave up trying to talk to Matt. He shrugged. "Okay, be that way," he said. "I'm just trying to help you out."
"How long is this trip?" Matt snapped, with his arms still crossed. "If you're allowed to tell me that."
"Three hours." Hacker said. "Three long hours. I'm just trying to help make it go fa-"
"Bite me," Matt said.
Illuminati meeting, location unknown...
"Are we here?" Matt asked after the limo finally stopped. Judging by the darkness, Matt knew that he was in a garage of some kind.
"Yep," Hacker said as he opened the limo door, and helped Matt out.
Hacker led Matt a few feet to an elevator.
"Walk forward," Hacker said. "You're getting on a elevator."
"Thanks," Matt said coldly as he walked inside.
Matt wished he could see! He felt defenseless like this. If the Illuminati was planning to do something dreadful to him, he'd have no way of escaping.
Suddenly Matt felt the elevator go down. Fast. His stomach did a little lunge.
DING!
The elevator door opened. Hacker led Matt out. He felt a slight warm breeze. Suddenly it was a little brighter. Matt knew he was in a large oval gray chamber of some sort. As he can tell, there were already people here. He could see blurry figures of people walking around taking seats. They were all wearing something forest green.
One of the out of focus people walked up to Matt. Matt saw a muddied colored tan and dark brown head.
Even half blind, Matt recognized him.
"Xanatos?" Matt said blinking.
"Nice to see you too detective," Xanatos said. "You have on the 'invisible blindfold' I see. Don't worry. Your vision should be coming back anytime now,"
As soon as Xanatos said that Matt felt his eyes water. Matt blinked a few times and with each blink everything became a little bit clearer until he could see one hundred percent.
"Thank God that's over," Matt said looking around. "What's going on?"
"It seems like we'll both going to find out the same thing," Xanatos said. "But we'll talk later. I have to take my spot."
Xanatos walked over to his seat.
With his vision cleared, Matt saw that he was in a grayed walled oval room. Twenty high ranking Illuminati members sat at a long Circular table. All of them were wearing long dark forest green, V-neck collared ceremonial robes. On some of the robes, the collar, sleeves, and the bottom of the robes were trimmed in gold triangles that repeated all the way around. On the others it was sliver. On the left side of the front of the robes was that all too familiar Illuminati patch Matt knew all too well. The members that were wearing the gold trimmed robes were sitting on the left and the sliver ones on the right like they were a little less important. A few of the seated members were wearing masks. Behind the members was a big IMAX sized screen that had a cover with the Illuminati symbol on it.
Matt looked back and saw Hacker standing beside the door with his hands behind his back. Matt turned around again and looked at the men, and a few women that were sitting there. Matt felt like he was on trial for treason or something. If Matt did anything, the only person on his side was Xanatos.
He hoped.
There was total silence for a few seconds. Then finally, when Matt couldn't take it any more, a man wearing a gold trimmed robe, stood up.
The man looked like he was in his early fifties. He was tall, with green eyes, brown graying hair that was receding, and a pointy chin. He looked like someone powerful.
"I'm Duvall," the man said in a cool, but dark, voice. "You must be wondering why we brought you here."
Matt slightly shuffled on his two feet. He was about to answer with a smart remark but decided not to do so. He didn't want to say anything that could tick this guy off.
"Yeah," Matt said simply.
"As you may already know, miners in England found cave paintings of what seemed to be Gargoyles," Duvall explained. "One of our members who by chance happened to work there told us. After two archeologist were sent to investigate, they found pictures of what seemed to be a space craft of some kind. At the same time, our scientist finished their analysis of the rock samples of the rocks they received from the cavern. It was determined that the cavern was not natural. The chemical make up of the rocks were not from any of the elements found on earth. The outer part of the cavern was made with a hard semi-metal material that damaged the miner's drill. This semi-metal is harder and stronger than any metal or non-metal on earth. We found out the reason why the drill was able to partly penetrate this semi-metal was because of the heat friction from the drill. As far as we know, the only weakness of the semi-metal is heat. The inner part of the cavern was made up of a non-metal that gave off it's own light."
Duvall spoke again. "At this point we knew that we had to take over," he said. "We had our members who were policemen guard the mine and the cavern. We didn't use the army because that would of been too suspicious. We told the archeologist that wasn't one of us what to tell to the media."
Matt was surprised that the Illuminati would tell him stuff like this so readily. Matt knew there was more to cave paintings. But Matt had this nagging feeling that there was a reason why they would tell him all this.
They wanted something in return.
"All of this is great and all," Matt said. "But Why are you telling me all of this?"
"Ah," Duvall said. "I was just getting to that part."
Duvall sat down. The lights dimmed and the cover for the screen slid back. An image from the cavern popped on the screen.
"That looks like a drawing of Stonehedge." Matt said.
Then another image popped on the screen.
The image was of a long oval shaped object with bat-like wings. In the back of the object, there was what looked like four jet engines or rockets.
Matt didn't say anything. He just stared.
"This is a space craft," Duvall said. "We believe that your Gargoyle friends did not originate from earth. We think that they came here between 30,000 or 12,000 years ago.
Then the drawing of Stonehedge came back on the screen. But under the drawing was a drawing of part of the space craft.
"There are several Stonehenge ruins all around England," Duvall said. We think that the ship the ancestors of the Gargoyles came in was taken apart, and the parts were buried all over England. The Stonehenge ruins were not only just prehistoric calendars, but they are markers."
"Wait a minute!" Matt commented. "My history is rusty, but Stonehenge was made about 1900 and 1700 BC. There is no way that-"
"I know," Duvall said. "Our scientist radioactive dated some of the rocks and soil from the ruins and some of them had an age of over twenty thousand years. A few of the youngest ruins are the age you just stated. We are not interested in these because we think the people who built them just copied off the other ruins. We're more concerned about the older ruins the ones we think where parts of the ship are located. We sent our people to take photos of the drawings of the cavern and cut out parts of the cavern that contained the paintings we didn't want the public to see. Once we took what we wanted, we were going to have a little accident staged up. We were going to blow up the cave, and make it look like a Gargoyle hate group did it. But it wasn't going to be as easy as that, no. It turned out that nothing we had on earth could cut through the rock. So we had to stick with the photos and we were going to stage a cave in. But before we could do that, somehow someone stole, or rather, cut out several of the drawings with some sort of high powered lazer. After a intense investigation from our underground sources, we found out who did it."
"Who?" Matt said stupidly.
"Oh come on now," Duvall said. "I know that you and Xanatos know who I'm talking about."
Xanatos stiffened up slightly, but then relaxed.
Dragnok's picture suddenly popped up on the screen.
"Daniel Dragnok," Duvall said. "We know of you and your friends many encounters with him. He's one of us know. He gave us the technology we needed. Almost unearthly technology. Recently he offered to help us capture the Gargoyles. We agreed since some one here failed, or should I say, refuse to do so."
Duvall looked at Xanatos as he said this.
Xanatos looked at Matt a little bit and at the same time, shrugged slightly at Duvall. "What can I say?" He said.
"But no matter," Duvall continued, "Dragnok seemed to take a personal matter in this. He hates the Goliath and his clan for some reason. Somehow Goliath is always ruining his plans."
"Yeah," Matt said. "We have a lot of confrontations."
"Plus he broke into my computers," Xanatos added. "This is nothing more than intense competition."
"There's no need to lie," Duvall said almost too nicely. "We know that he is not human. We know of his shock troops of bladed winged 'monsters'. We know that he was involved with the alterations of the Pack."
"We don't know what his real agenda is, but we think he's dangerous." Then darkly Duvall added, "Dragnok stolen from us. Normally we would of dealt with Dragnok by now. But we want to know more about him. We want to know what he's really up to."
"And that's when Xanatos and I come in," Matt said. "I see where this is going. You want us to get the Goliath to get that slab of rock back. But why should the Gargoyles risk their lives to be tools of the Illuminati? They deserve to get that slab of rock more than you do."
"Matthew!" Hacker snapped quietly, giving Matt the you-don't-talk-that-way-to-higher ups look.
"It's quiet alright Hacker," Duvall said calmly as he raised a hand up. "If the Gargoyles want the slabs with the paintings on it, they can have it. They have a right to learn about their past. We have copies of the paintings on photos any way."
"But what's in it for you?" Matt asked with suspicion.
Xanatos already figured it out. "It's the ship," Xanatos said. "You don't want him to find it."
"Quite right Xanatos," Duvall said. "We don't know how powerful that space ship is. It could contain weapons that are more powerful than anything on this earth. In the wrong hands it could be deadly. We know that Dragnok is not human. We don't think he's even from earth. If this is true we have the right to be worried. Dragnok doesn't know what we know about him. We won’t kick him out of our society. After this is over we'll give him a serious reprimand. We don't want him to get suspicious. After we learn enough we'll deal with him."
Matt said nothing. What Duvall said was true. Dragnok couldn't get that ship. But Matt couldn't get rid of the feeling that he was being used.
"Alright," Matt said hesitantly. "I tell Goliath what you told me. I hope this isn't all a plot to destroy the Gargoyles."
"Oh no," Duvall said convincingly. "We wouldn't-"
"Yeah I know," Matt said cutting him off. "Can I leave now?"
"And that's what happened," Matt said.
After Matt told the Gargoyles what the illuminati had told him, the Gargoyles stood there quiet, absorbing all this new information. They were not quiet ready to except the truth, and at the same time, they really didn't reject it either.
"Dis is a little hard to swallow," Hudson said breaking the silence.
Goliath sighed. "Each Gargoyle clan have different myths that explain where we can from." He said. "Some of the myths say that we can from the stars."
"The facts are lying on the table in front of us," Brooklyn said. "We don't have to sit here and denie it. We don't have to think of ourselves as 'aliens'. It's not like we just got here."
"Brooklyn is right," Angela said. "We can't just stand here with unbelieving faces. And besides we have to worry about that space ship. We can't let Dragnok find it."
"Angela is right," Goliath said. "We must get that stone slab back."
"But the Illuminati!" Elisa said. "It is obvious that they are using-"
"I know," Goliath said, cutting Elisa off. "Either way the Illuminati will benefit from this. But the world's safety is at stake. We can't let Dragnok win, no matter what the risk."
"Did I miss something?" Chante said walking in.
"Oh nothing much," Broadway said. "We just found out that our ancestors were aliens, and they buried a space ship in pieces around England, and Dragnok wants it. No biggie."
Chante was a little bit shocked but she hid it. Should she tell the Gargoyles the whole truth now?
"Let me guess," Chante said. "The news reports proved to be true huh?"
"Yeah," Elisa said.
Matt gave Chante a "I told you so", look.
"And how do you know that this is true?" Chante asked.
"The Illuminati," Elisa said. "Matt and Xanatos happened to be members. But all of that can be explained later. The main thing is that Dragnok stolen some of the cavern paintings that point out the locations of the buried parts of that space ship. If Dragnok finds-"
"We must stop him," Chante urgently. "Do we know where he is?"
"We certainly do," Xanatos said. "Thanks to the Illuminati. Dragnok is keeping the stone slabs in his high security research building. He wasn't taking any chances. Based on the information, all the entrances are too secure. There is no other way to get in. It'll be too dangerous to split up. When we attack we'll all have to go in together at the same time."
Goliath gave an unsure grumble. "Do you know where exactly the stone slabs are?" He asked.
"Yes," Xanatos replied. "Thanks to a radioactive tracer. Any way, the best way in is through the transport and delivery entrance. Every evening at an exact time, for thirty minutes, trucks make pick-ups and deliveries. I have a list of the truck companies that go there. We can get a truck, with a driver and we go in."
"It sounds like a good plan ta me," Hudson said.
"I'm more worried about what will happen once we get inside," Goliath said. "Dragnok's shock troops are more than a match for us."
"Then we'll have to work fast then," Xanatos. "Get in, get out. We have exactly ten minutes and thirty seconds to storm the building before Dragnok's Tazi's become too much to handle."
"Even though this is hard, it's too easy," Elisa said. "Even with the Illuminati helping us, it's too easy."
"So when are we going on this death mission?" Brooklyn asked.
"Tomorrow," Xanatos said. "When you guys wake up, you'll be already on the truck en route to the location."
When the Gargoyles woke up the next night, they found themselves in a cold, refrigerated, meat truck. There were several crates of various meats on the truck. Also there was Xanatos, Elisa, Matt, Chante, and Fox.
"Whoa," Broadway said as he shivered slightly. "It's kinda cold in here."
"We're on a meat truck," Xanatos said as he was putting on his battle exoframe. "When you guys were still asleep, we did some more research and found out that the food deliveries go further in the building than the other trucks."
"Fox why are you here?" Goliath asked.
"I can't stay cooped up inside all the time," Fox said. "And besides, you guys need all the help that you can get."
"Oh yes," Xanatos said like he forgot something, "I brought you all some extra protection and some fire power."
Xanatos opened one of the "meat crates" and pulled out some metal chest guards passed them to everyone. Then Xanatos took out some high powered lazer rifles and gave one to Elisa, Matt, and Chante.
"Cool," Brooklyn said as he put his chest guard on.
"This is some heavy fire power Xanatos," Elisa said as she looked at her lazer rifle. "Are you sure it's going to be enough?"
"It should be," Xanatos said as he charged up his rifle. "And the chest guards are made from strongest alloys and plastics on earth."
"'Strongest on earth' is not enough to beat Dragnok and his Tazis," Chante said darkly as she tapped her chest guard.
"Well we'll just have to deal with what we got," Matt said.
"We have about thirty minutes before we get there," Xanatos said seriously. "When we arrive, the truck is going to make three stops. The first stop is at the security check point gate. After we get through the gate, we'll start moving again. After several yards we'll stop in front a gate that leads to the docking bay. The truck is then going to back up into the loading ramp, where the truck gate will be opened. Then...you know what happens from there."
"When we leave the truck, everyone follow Xanatos," Goliath advised. "Everyone pick a partner. We'll be able to protect each other that way."
Everyone stood next to the person they we're teaming up with. Xanatos was with Fox, Angela with Broadway, Brooklyn was with Hudson, Bronx was with Slivermane, Chante was with Matt, and Goliath (as expected) was with Elisa, who of course resented a little.
"Everyone okay back there?" The truck driver said on Xanatos's transmitter. "I preparing to stop at the check point."
The truck started to slow down and everyone braced themselves as it jerked to a stop.
For a few seconds it was quiet except of the background rumble from the diesel engine of the truck.
Everyone held their breath.
Then the truck started moving again. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Everything is okay," The driver confirmed a few seconds later.
About two minutes later the truck stopped again. Then it started moving.
"The second gate," Brooklyn whispered. "Almost there."
The truck turned towards the right and jerked to a stop. Then it lurched into reverse and slowly backed up.
Xanatos moved behind a crate with his lazer ready. "Get ready," he said.
The driver dimmed the lights.
Everyone hid behind a crate, jumpy and tense.
The truck gate opened squeakily. A warm breeze rushed in.
Three Tazis walked inside the truck, causing it to shake with every raptor clawed step. Their clawed hands reflecting some of the dimmed light inside.
Two Tazis each picked up a crate that could easily hold two cow carcasses.
When the two Tazis walked out, the third Tazi bent down with his back turned towards Goliath.
Xanatos looked at Goliath.
Goliath nodded.
Goliath jumped from behind his crate and tackled the Tazi from behind his legs.
"ARRRR," the Tazi yelped out as he dropped his crate.
Xanatos instantly fired his lazer rifle, at the Tazi.
"AHHHHHRRRRGGGHHH!" The Tazi roared in pain as he fell to the floor.
The confrontation got the attention of the other two Tazis. They dropped their crates and started to charge, but Elisa and Chante both fired their lazer rifles.
FSSSZZAPP!
FSSSZZAPP!
WHAM!
The two Tazis hit the floor hard.
"Nice shooting!" Broadway commented.
"Thanks," Elisa said.
"The lazer fire might alert the others," Xanatos said running in the lead. "Let's go."
Xanatos opened a door, and everyone followed. Xanatos lead everyone through several doors, down two halls, and into a fright elevator.
"This is almost too easy," Angela said.
"Why we haven't been discovered yet?" Goliath said out loud.
"I don't know," Xanatos said simply, as he pressed the down button.
"I smell a trap," Chante said in a calm dark voice.
Bronx and Slivermane growled in agreement.
"Eeeasy boys," Hudson said he pat Bronx and Slivermane on their heads.
The elevator stopped and the door opened.
Everyone walked out into a dimly lit gym sized room. In the center of the room in a bullet proof plastic box on a pedestal was the stone slabs, giving off a soft, orange-yellow white light.
"There it is!" Broadway said.
"And it's so conveniently unguarded," Matt said. "How nice."
"Wait a minute," Xanatos said as the eyes on his exoframe turned white. "The optic scanners in my helmet detect infra red lazer beams around the slabs. We get any closer and-"
WOOOOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOO!
Suddenly the alarm ranged out. Red lights began to flash.
"We've just been discovered," Brooklyn said flatly.
"So much for the element of surprise," Xanatos said as he fired his arm blaster shattering the plastic.
Broadway went and grabbed the two glowing slabs and tucked them under his arm.
"Let's go!" Goliath said as he ran towards the elevator.
Suddenly metal gates slid down in front of the elevator, and all the other exits.
"You think I'll let you get away that easily?" A smug voice ranged out over a PA system.
A hologram of Dragnok's head was projected in the middle of the gym sized room.
"Dragnok!" Goliath hissed with a growl.
"Very clever Goliath, sneaking in the way you did." Dragnok said. "You would of pulled it off too. But you're primitive weapons didn't keep my Tazis out long enough for you to escape."
As Dragnok said this several of the gates rolled up, and Tazis walked out with muscles tightening ready to attack.
Goliath protectively stepped in front of Elisa.
"It's a pity that I have to kill you all," Dragnok continued. "And in this large room you are at a disadvantage," Then Dragnok looked at Chante. "Hello Chante," Dragnok said like he just seen her. "I didn't even notice you there. I'm afraid that I'll have to keep you alive...barely..."
"Let them go Dragnok!" Chante said. "I'll surrender! It's me that you want!"
"You want to strike a deal now?" Dragnok teased. "The only deal is death!"
"No!" Chante yelled.
"ATTACK!" Dragnok yelled out with glee.
The Tazis roared.
The Gargoyles roared.
Then it was chaos.
A mob of Tazis bounded towards the Gargoyles with arms blades flashing destined to kill.
"Dragnok said our weapons were weak, huh?" Fox said as she charged up her lazer rifle. "Let's see how his bladed flunkies like this blast...at full power!"
Fox fired her rifle.
FSSSSSSZZZZZZAPPPPP!!!!!
ARRrRRRRGGGGGGAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Several Tazis bellowed out in pain as the lazer blast knocked them back like bowling pins.
Everyone that had lazer rifles fired them at the Tazis. The Tazis that didn't get hit bounded over their fallen comrades and attacked the Gargoyles.
A Tazi slashed Goliath's unprotected arm.
"AHHHHHHHHHHGGGRRRRR!" Goliath roared as he gave the Tazi a steel denting uppercut.
Hudson was slashing madly at Tazis with his sword, trying to reach their eyes.
It took a combined punch from Brooklyn and Angela to knock down one Tazi.
Broadway was using the glowing slabs as weapons, ramming it into each Tazi that attacked him.
Bronx had his jaws chomped down on a Tazi's bladed arm yanking and tearing.
At the same time some of the Tazis was trying to stomp Slivermane with their big clawed feet. But Slivermane was too fast for them. When a Tazi did manage to grab Slivermane, he'd award them with a fire breath blast.
Matt ducked and went in between the legs of a Tazi that tried to swipe his head off. Matt turned around and fired his lazer rifle, blinding the Tazi.
Four Tazis jumped Chante, eager to beat her within an inch of her life. Chante took her lazer rifle and used it as a bat, attacking with all the violent ferocity she had knocking Tazis out left and right.
Elisa was firing her rifle with lighting speed at one bounding Tazi after another. But she was tiring.
Goliath was fighting with one good arm and one eye on Elisa.
Xanatos, in his now scratched and dented exoframe was now just using his arm lazer, which he aimed for the eyes, the Tazis only natural weakness.
"Everyone towards the wall!" Goliath yelled out.
"What?!" Brooklyn yelped out in pain as a Tazi sliced into his leg. "But there's no way-"
"JUST DO IT!!!!!" Goliath roared agitated.
Everyone tried to move back towards the wall but it was like walking against the flow of a river.
There was fallen Tazis everywhere. The smell of blood, and burnt flesh was in the air.
Tazi and Gargoyle roars. Human and inhuman screams and cries of pain. Faces of terror, panic, and fear.
And worst of all, defeat.
Goliath, stumbling from a loss of blood, looked up and saw a way out.
"Fox! Xanatos! blast the gate leading to the elevator!!" Goliath called out.
Fox lifted Xanatos up in the air. They shot several lazer blasts at the gate.
Nothing happened.
A victorious roar went up from the ballpark crowd of Tazi warriors.
"Hit it again!" Goliath said tersely.
FSSZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAPPPPPP!
Fox and Xanatos shot at the door again. It didn't budge!
At that same time, Broadway noticed that he was the only one not hurt. Could the glowing slabs be helping him?
Broadway suddenly had an idea. He hoped that everyone will forgive him for this.
Broadway threw one of the glowing slabs at the steel gate.
The slab impaled the gate. It began to glow so brightly that it blinded everyone in the room.
Goliath shielded his eyes. He blinked and ran pass the blinded Tazis who grabbed their faces in pain.
Goliath ran up to the gate and pulled the bright glowing slab out. He used his remaining strength to widen the hole.
"Come on let's go!" Goliath yelled as he jumped through the hole and on the elevator.
Bloody, weak, and exhausted, everyone followed.
The Erie building later that night.
Everyone was in the artifacts display room. They were all standing around a pedestal that had a bulletproof plastic cover on it.
The glowing slabs was on that pedestal. Everyone was looking at it with awe.
"I'm glad we risked our lives to get this thing," Broadway said as he was looking at the drawings and symbols on the slabs. "I wonder what it says."
"It saved our lives and healed us." Goliath said as he worked his now healed arm. "Whoever our ancestors were had to be very advanced. But I wonder how all this knowledge was forgotten over the centuries."
"We should tell other Gargoyle clans what we know?" Angela added.
"I don't think they'll be ready to accept the truth yet," Goliath said. "I think we should wait until we have more proof."
At the same time, Chante was looking at the symbols on the slabs almost as though she was reading it.
"But what about the parts of that ship?" Brooklyn asked. "How can we be sure that Dragnok or the Illuminati won't go after it?"
At that moment Chante wanted to tell them. She knew the truth. She knew that the ship was safe. She could read the ancient text that she learned all those years ago. Now it was a matter of time before everyone would began to suspect something.
While everyone was still talking, Chante walked away subtlety.
"I wouldn't worry about that," Xanatos said from a far. "They can't start digging up an archeological ruin with out nobody noticing."
"The ship is safe for now," Chante heard Goliath say. "But we'll protect these stone slabs and any thing else that was our Ancestors at any cost. There is a reason why they came here."
Chante pressed the elevator button. When the elevator opened, Chante was about to walk inside when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Chante spun around.
"Matt," She yelped. "Don't do that!"
"You know something," Matt said. "And the Gargoyles have a right to know."
"Know about what?" Chante said stupidly sensing that the charade was up.
"I saw the way you were looking at those writings," Matt said. "And how would Chante be able to read that if she didn't know anything. And ever since I've known you, you and Dragnok been at it. Everybody else didn't see the connection, but I do."
Chante got on the elevator and Matt followed.
"Alright," Chante said with a sigh. "I can't lie any longer. I'll tell you every thing. But give me some time okay?"
"Okay," Matt said. "But no lies."
"I wouldn't lie," Chante said. "Come by my apartment on my day off next week."
Chante sighed. Now she might as well tell Matt the truth. Then it'll be easier to tell the Gargoyles, for their sakes.
To be continued in Episode #27 "THE TRUTH"