F I R E B L O O D
                           Episode One
                     Created on May 11, 1996
             by Dasha Ariel (Cadence@inQuo.net)
           Editing by the DreamWeavers (dasharia@juno.com)
                Music suggestions in parentheses.
                     Chapter One: It Begins
        Historical setting: Post-Gathering/Pre-Reckoning
     The sun had been up for hours. Across Manhattan, people and
machines alike were bustling with places to go and things to do.
Elisa Maza had only one thing on her mind. She would get a decent
nights sleep if it killed her. None the less, here she was in her
bath robe, looking out across the Big Apple from her apartment
window, anything but sleepy.
     She sighed. 
     Taking the night shift is not all it's cracked up to be, she
thought. So why am I doing it? Not for the pay, certainly. I
could certainly use some new clothes. The rent on the apartment
is just to high for what I'm earning now.  Perhaps I should go
over to the office and try to put some more hours in.
     Never the less, she knew it was futile. Captain Chavez would
pounce on her like a tiger on poultry. She would be sent back
home immediately.
     "I don't where you were for the six months you where
missing, Maza," Chavez would chastise her. "but I don't need a
doctor to see you've been missing a lot of sleep. The last thing
we need is a sleepwalking liability. Please, take better care of
yourself." Of course Maria was right. She was always right, for
some morbid reason.
     Besides, Elisa. What would you do during the day? Give out
parking tickets? Goliath's asleep - you should too.
     Elisa leaned against the frame of her apartment window. A
little paint that had been hastily applied to the frame when the
window was replaced, flaked away. She never had told Maria how
the window had been broken. Matt knew of course -- Matt was the
kind soul who dealt with replacing her sidearm every time it was
smashed by robots, humans in exoframes, mutilated by talons or
claws, or melted down to make a shape-shifter killing iron bell.
     Where on earth is this going to get you, Maza? Elisa
chastised herself. 
     Why had she been doting over Goliath and the others so?
Derek was certainly one reason. The transformation of her brother
was a landmark event in her life, the day her friends and Xanatos
became a serious matter, and not little girl's fantastic secret.
Then, only a few days later, but for what seemed like an
eternity, another cataclysmic event occurred which crossed
Eliza's mind now.
     She had been transformed, if only for a short time, like her
brother. She had been changed, and brainwashed of the change,
into one of the most fantastic of creatures she had ever seen in
her life, a Gargoyle.
     The first Gargoyle she had ever seen had been Goliath, of
course, around late October of 1994. He had frightened Elisa out
of her mind, when she had fallen off of the tallest building in
the world, Xanatos's Eyrie building. Goliath saved her, and her
entire conception of the coming twenty-first century changed
radically.
     That was probably it. When she had been changed into a
Gargoyle, her outlook on life had totally changed. After it was
over, Elisa remembered looking out across Manhattan from atop the
World Trade Center. She had wondered if being a Gargoyle would
ever be a part of her world again. She had felt so confused! Then
Goliath had laid his claw on her shoulder, and all her fear and
confusion were suddenly washed away.
     Elisa knew then she was in love with Goliath.
     Goliath seemed the oddest person in the world for her to be
in love with. Jalapena, he wasn't even human! Truly, love was a
puzzling thing. Perhaps it had started when he had saved her from
falling from the Eyrie building.
     That was not it, Elisa knew it, and dredged up a memory she
had tried to bury in her heart. With a Gargoyle's wings, she and
Goliath had glided along on the wind over Manhattan. "I never
realized, when you were human," he had told her, "how beautiful
you are."
     Unbidden, Elisa felt a tear course upon on her dark tan
cheek. Goliath was beautiful also, but something in those words
hurt Elisa like a knife. "...When you were human..." he had said.
Only a few hours later she had been human again, and the mirror
had been shattered.
     Curse it all, I AM human. Born as, and will die as a human.
     Could it be the Gargoyle she loved could only see beauty in
her features when her features were a Gargoyle's? Did Gargoyles
see humans as ugly, Goliath included?
     No, of course not. Don't even think it. Go back to bed.
     Elisa slipped under the covers once more.
     Instantly, the spell took hold and the Detective was asleep.

     Elisa Maza, brave as thou art, fate holds a paradox in thee.
Unlike many across the world, your love is meant to be. Hold your
breath and draw your strength. Goliath and thou must be allowed
to love. How else can this world survive?
     Indeed, sisters, something must be done. The great cataclysm
to come will only fail if she and Goliath can stop it. Yet
strength alone will not stop it. Only their love will bring about
it's defeat.
     It must be nurtured.
     Encouraged.
     Indeed.
     There is no other way then. Join hands, my sisters, and let
us circle about. Fate is manifest in many people, small and
insignificant. Elisa Maza must now be one of those! Fire and
stone alike, all are made manifest in her blood! Her heart of
steel, a protector alike. Now sisters, the spell is cast. Let her
sleep.

     For a moment, Elisa's eyes opened. Her hands clasped her
face against the brightness of the light, and she screamed.

     The Gargoyle's stone shell cracked with the fading of the
last lights of day. Goliath and Angela reeled back with strength
and grace, throwing shards of stone in every direction, which
would slide off the slant of the roof, and fall to dust before
hitting the sidewalk below. Rain clouds were building in the
south east, and with them came a rush of warm wind.
     Angela looked at Matt with concern. "Who is HE?"
     Brooklyn yawned. "Oh, hi Matt."
     "Hi guys. I'd love to chat, but something has gone very
wrong below... and I have got to have your guys' help." Matt
pleaded. Goliath detected the anxiety in his voice.
     "What is it? What has happened?" He asked in his deep,
sonorous voice, turning to face the trenchcoated detective.
     "You got me there. All I can tell you is this. Elisa and I
have been car-pooling to work, and it was my day to pick her up.
She didn't meet me at the park as usual, so I got worried. I
drove over to her apartment to see what was wrong. She was laying
on the floor by her bed in a coma. I had her rushed over to the
hospital."
     Goliath's face was suddenly masked with concern. "Does
anyone else know?"
     "Yes, unfortunately it's all over the evening news." Hudson
took this to be his que, and raced inside to determine the
accuracy of this report. "After Elisa got shot, the news media
have been rather interested in our bold little friend."
     "What's wrong with Elisa?" Broadway asked, struggling to
hold his voice, trying to keep from making a fool of himself in
front of Angela.
     "That's just the thing. Nothing. She's just asleep and no
one can wake her up. I've heard nasty rumors here in the office
that she may be dying."
     With avid determination, Goliath leaped from the balcony
toward the hospital, eyes aflame. Matt hurried back downstairs.
     Captain Chavez caught the Detective on his way out the door.
"Bluestone!"
     "Ah, common captain! Elisa could be in serious trouble."
     "I don't doubt it. That officer has been walking too many
fine lines. I want you to start an investigation into her
personal affairs. I need to know why we're paying such a high
medical liability on the detective. She an invaluable member of
this force."
     "In more ways than we know, it seems." Matt muttered. The
captain nodded, tossing him the paper work. Matt slung the folder
under his arm, pulled his trenchcoat around him, and rushed back
outside.
     Rain had begun to fall.

     "Hey sis?" Elizabeth asked hopefully. Despite her, Elisa's
form remained still on the hospital bed. Elizabeth sighed, and
the Maza's, minus Derek, filed inside. Doctor Sato closed the
door behind them.
     "We gotta stop meeting under these circumstances." Doctor
Sato encouraged.
     Peter Maza nodded. "Elisa's just too big for her world, I
think."
     Elisa slept.
     "What's the prognosis?" Peter Maza inquired of the doctor.
     "The signs are so unusually normal, that I took the liberty
(I hope you don't mind) of placing the entire department to work
on this."
     "Find anything yet?"
     "Two things, and I couldn't tell you anything about what
caused them. We took a blood sample, to look for sedatives or
drugs. We didn't find anything chemical in her that isn't
supposed to be there, however there are fewer white blood cells
than there should be."
     "What is it? There's no way Elisa has AIDS or anything.
What's causing it?"
     "Well, AIDS would cause the reduced white blood cell count,
but I tested that. She's 100% clear of anything of the sort. No,
her body has simply stopped making white blood cells, except for
a group of small lymphocytes, the likes of which I have never
seen before."
     Matt Bluestone and Captain Chavez knocked, and Peter let
them in.
     "No one's been to her apartment except me and her for days."
Matt announced. Elisa stirred in bed. Instantly, the doctor was
at her side.
     The Mazas stared at Elisa. Her jacket had been pulled off by
the doctors, and was hanging on the wall nearby. A small vinyl
tube was attached to her arms, under the sheets.
     Her eyelids flickered. Diane stirred anxiously. Elisa looked
up at her.
     "Mom..." Elisa moaned.
     "Elisa? What is it baby?" Diane asked.
     "Keep them away..."
     Elizabeth looked at her family crowded around. "Us?"
     "Sisters..." Elisa sighed weakly.
     Elizabeth looked offended.
     "Three sisters... did something to me..."
     Peter blinked in confusion. Elizabeth sighed with relief.
     "How d'ya feel, honey?" Peter inquired in a very fatherly,
gentle manner.
     "So weak... so strange..." she tried to say.
     "Like coming out of an anesthetic?" Doctor Sato inquired.
Elisa shook her head as much as she could manage.
     "Three sisters." Matt mused.
     "Weird Sisters..." Elisa corrected.
     Matt suddenly felt illuminated, and approached the downed
detective's ear. He held out a hand to muffle the sound, and
whispered something in her ear.
     Elisa nodded. Matt looked up to Peter. The same thought
crossed their minds.
     "We gotta find them." Diane announced. "they'll know what
she means by weird sisters."
     "Who?" the Captain inquired.
     "A friend." Matt quickly answered. "Just a friend."
     Diane, Elizabeth, and Peter glanced at Matt. The meaning was
clear.
     "What was the other item you were going to mention?" Peter
asked.
     "Well, we found one other thing." Doctor Sato said. "and
we're dumbstruck by it."
     The Mazas stared at him. Doctor Sato, deciding honesty was
the best policy, he took off his glasses and began to explain.
"We've discovered several growths forming inside her body, and
like I said, we are unable to explain it."
     "Cancer?" Elizabeth inquired. Doctor Sato assured them it
was not, and then continued his bewildered analysis.
     Elisa's voice was heard. Everyone turned back to her. "What,
honey?"
     "Where?" Elisa asked again.
     Carefully, Doctor Sato assisted the weakened Detective to a
sitting position in her bed.
     All at once, they saw it. Diane gasped, Peter's eyes
widened, and Elizabeth clapped her hands over her mouth.
     A tail was growing below the base of her back, already about
a foot long and an inch around. It twitched.
     Matt understood what was going on, and began whispering
behind Chavez's back into Peter's ear. Peter turned to Matt and
nodded.
     Maria's curiosity heightened.

     Angela joined Goliath in the clocktower. Inside, they
huddled over a dazed and confused Elisa Maza. Elisa wrung her
hands together as if they hurt. Goliath was carefully feeling her
shoulders.
     "Yes... here. Something is growing on both sides."
     "If Xanatos is behind this, I'm gonna yank his lungs out
through his nostrils." Brooklyn growled.
     Elisa looked over at them. "I'm still here, guys."
     "Sorry." "I'm sorry, Elisa." the boys stuttered. "How do you
feel?" Broadway asked again.
     "I can think clearer now, but my mind is all fogged up."
Elisa said. She groaned as she flopped down on the couch. "I feel
like I've been run over by a taxicab."
     "This could only be done by magic." Goliath interjected.
     "Doctor Sato said that there were changes in lymphocytes."
Lexington added, "I read something once about this. If what
Doctor Sato said is right, then this couldn't be just something
done by science."
     "It feels like having your foot fall asleep, except you feel
it all over." Elisa struggled with the description. "Why would
they want to do this to me?"
     Goliath sighed. He had no way to answer that yet. "If only I
knew what I could do." he growled in frustration.
     Elisa drew in a breath suddenly, drawing her hands to her
throat.
     "What is it, Elisa?" Goliath went to her side.
     "That light..." Elisa gasped. Goliath looked about in
bewilderment. Elisa covered her eyes. "It's all around me!"
     "Elisa, are you alright?" Goliath's mood suddenly changed.
He could see her pulse was racing. Elisa cried out. Brooklyn
began searching the room for signs of Demona. This was not the
cry of a woman in pain, but the cry of an animal.
     "ELISA!" Goliath called out. Elisa closed her eyes, and
stretched her head back. Her fists were clenched, and she ground
her teeth. Her skin was becoming paler. Elisa's hands began to
bleed. Some of her fingers grew into the others, and became
talons. Her shoulders heaved, and grew, as wings spread apart
from her body.
     "Jalapena!" Brooklyn exclaimed.
     Angela came rushing inside. "My goodness, Elisa!" she called
out. Goliath watched in horror. His face was contorted with
desperation.
     Elisa's claws clutched her head, and she moaned again. With
an effort, she tried to pull her hands away from her head. She
threw her head back again and cried out. Goliath could make out
the horns protruding from Elisa's brow. There were tears coursing
down her cheeks. "Help me, Goliath!"
     Goliath was stunned. He didn't know what to do. Angela
rushed up to Elisa, and held her. Elisa threw herself around
Goliath's daughter in a flurry of hair and talon. Her tears
stained Angela's tunic.
     Elisa's tail had grown out almost as long as Angela's now.
Her skin began to change color, reds and yellows appearing in the
fading tan.
     "It's alright, Elisa. We're here! We are with you!" Angela
encouraged her, rubbing her shoulders and arms. Goliath closed
his eyes. He alone knew what he was feeling.
     Elisa's face was contorted in agony. A sudden tearing noise
was heard as fetlock claws grew on her legs, tearing the jeans
she was wearing. Her skin tone turned a deep amber. Her ears grew
long and pointed. Her elbows formed tips. Muscles bunched,
tightened, and doubled underneath her skin. Angela held onto her
as if she were about to be pulled away. Elisa's talons tore into
Angela's tunic, but no one minded. Her teeth became pointed, and
her figure changed. It almost seemed like she was becoming taller
than she had been.
     Elisa's breathing slowed. The transformation was over.
     "Woah!" She gasped, slowing releasing poor Angela. Goliath
opened his eyes. Lexington tossed Elisa a small cloth that
Brooklyn usually used on the dishes. Elisa wiped her face with
it. Her face was a deep orange\amber and horned, but her eyes
were just the same. Elisa stood up, teetering a little on the
pads of her feet. Her shirt was in rags, and there was no longer
any hope for the way she had combed her hair.
     Elisa was a Gargoyle.
     Elisa took a deep breath, as though taking in the cool
breeze of a peaceful forest. Elisa smiled. "I feel better."
     Angela tapped a few places on Elisa's face with the cloth.
     "Thanks, Angela for what you just did." Elisa said with
concern. Angela nodded without smiling. Goliath was coming over.
     There was something about her being a Gargoyle that
impressed Goliath. The way her hair fell over her shoulders, the
deep color of her eyes... the deep ebony of her wings.
     Elisa looked up at him. She didn't seem to know what to
think. "I'm okay, Goliath."
     Goliath lightly touched the velvet of Elisa's wings. A
tingling ran through his claw. He felt a rushing sensation flow
through him. What could he say? They had longed and wished for
months that they were something they had not been, but now that
they were what they had wished they could be and...
     "Forgive me, Elisa. I just don't know what to say..."
     Elisa smiled. "That's okay. I feel about the same way."
Elisa felt like making lightly of the situation, to raise some of
the melancholy stupor out of Goliath. She looked down at her
tattered clothes with humoring eyes.
     "Perhaps I ought to get a gold anklet, too."
     "I wouldn't recommend it." Brookyln noted.

     In the darkness of the night, Maria Chavez stood in her
office, looking over Matt's reports. He had done his expert job
as always, but the report lacked that incredible... depth of
investigation that he was so famous for. It was almost as if he
had only done his job, and nothing more.
     There was a knock at the door.
     "Yes?"
     Matt came in.
     "Where is Detective Maza?" Maria asked, "All you people will
tell me is that she checked out of the hospital, but you have no
idea what her condition is? Honestly, Bluestone..."
     "Don't worry, Captain. She'll be in to see you in just a
second." the Detective assured her.
     Maria sighed and sat down at her desk. "Thank you." Matt
closed the door.
     There was a noise, like a cat scratching on wood. 
     The Captain looked up. What was that?
     A tap at the window. The Captain spun around.
     An enormous shape enveloped the window. It was as big as a
person, and it was black. It covered her window. Maria wasn't
sure if she should scream or let it in.
     The window latch clicked from the outside. Maria realized it
was unlocked. It let itself inside.
     The window flew open. For a moment, Captain Chavez saw the
city outside, but then the great shape appeared before her, and
landed on her office floor with a thud. It closed the window.
Maria turned the lamp around, onto it.
     Maria screamed.
     "It's alright Captain, it's me!" It said in Elisa's voice.
     "De... Detective Maza?"
     "The same."
     "What... what are you?"
     "Who do I look like?"
     Maria Chavez stared in exasperation at the creature with
Maza's voice. From head to toe, it's scales were red amber
colored. Her head bore horns and sharp bones. She had the same
black hair, the same eyes, though. She was dressed in her usual
black shirt and blue jeans, now tattered denim shorts, with a
hole in the seat for the eight foot tail growing from her back.
     The tail the Captain had seen growing earlier from the
hospital room.
     Suddenly, it was beginning to fall into place. The captain
looked at the huge feet with enormous talons on them, the pointed
knees and elbows, the four razor sharp taloned fingers in place
of five fingers. She looked at her ebony colored velvet wings.
They were outlined in red amber flesh, with three small fingers
at their apexes, which held them together as she wrapped those
wings around her.
     "How did you get in here?"
     "I climbed down."
     Maria's confusion was coming back.

     Brooklyn and Lexington were on the verge of killing
Broadway. He had now paced his forty second lap across the room.
However, they were lucky enough to be saved by Elisa and Captain
Chavez coming upstairs, where the Mazas and Matt were already
waiting.
     "I'm sorry, captain." Elisa appologized. "I wasn't sure what
else to do with them. Xanatos would undoubtedly be able to con
them into another hit job like the one on Cyberbiotics, or else
he would kill them. Nobody was using this space, so I had them
move in."
     Maria looked at all the Gargoyles. Brookyln in his
sunglasses, Broadway (who had stopped pacing), Lexington by his
laptop, Angela coming up to Elisa, and finally Hudson and Bronx
lounging by the television.
     "The future's looking very different from here." Diane
noted. Peter and 'Beth mutely nodded. Goliath started to motion
all of the Gargoyles out onto the Balcony.
     "Mind if I take a place by Goliath today, Angela?" Elisa
asked, almost laughing. Angela waved her next to her father.
Elisa leaned her head onto his arm, and they climbed out onto the
railing.
     "What are you doing?" Maria demanded. "You'll fall!"
     "You'll see." Elisa said.
     For the next few minutes, everyone watched as Elisa picked
out her first pose, Wrapping her wings around her and leaning
over the railing with her claws in the air. Gangsta' Gargoyle
pose. Slowly the sun rose.
     Elisa, and all the other Gargoyles turned to stone.
     "Elisa! My baby!" Diane cried out when she saw what had
happened. She rushed over to her daughter, and clutched the stone
statue. No one said a word. Elisa's clothes and hair were all
carved from stone.
     "Oh..." Maria said in wonder.
     "It's going to take a while to get used to this." Matt
observed.
                      Chapter Two: Gargoyle
     Elisa's stone shell had cracked, but she was still inside.
The Gargoyles wondered when she was going to decide to break out.
When Angela became worried that Elisa couldn't breathe in there,
Elisa began to growl, and suddenly twisted her torso, and the
stone shell rained down onto the streets below.
     "Whoa! That's the best I've slept in years... *yawn!*. I am
never going to get used to this. I never knew you guys dreamed
while you were up here!" Elisa yawned, hopping down from the
railing. The boys and Angela laughed, and all walked down inside
the tower, followed by Hudson and Bronx. Goliath went up to
Elisa, and took her in his arms. Elisa was looking down the front
of the building. All the humans had vanished this time. This
seemed unusual at first, because Elisa was always there to meet
them. 
     "Hwo! It's a looooong way down, isn't it? I'm sure, it's a
contradiction in terms to be a Gargoyle that's afraid of heights,
right?" Elisa was commenting.
     "You'll make it down just fine."
     "Ah hah. You're hilarious Goliath. I have to learn glide
solo sometime, I suppose."
     "Elisa, in order for someone to teach me to glide solo for
the first time, one of my rookery sisters threw me off the
battlements." Goliath reminisced.
     Remembering falling off the battlements of Castle Wyvern,
Elisa winced. "What, are you going to pick me up and throw me
off?" Elisa inquired.
     "Only if you won't try to learn yourself." Goliath said
plainly.
     "Goliath, don't forget, I got turned into this, it's not
some sort of wonderful gift."
     Goliath wrapped his wings around Elisa. "I consider it a
gift."
     Elisa blushed. "Goliath..." Elisa then realized how silly
she felt for trying to tell Goliath to take it slowly. She'd been
dying for this moment for years! "Oh, the heck with it. Hold me!"

     Brooklyn couldn't understand why he was arguing with
Broadway, the king Gargoyle of food, about what to fix Elisa for
breakfast. It wasn't like Elisa hadn't eaten with them before, or
that they were the resident cooking experts or anything. Angela
had a much simpler solution. She'd been cooking for a thousand
years more than they had, and so she fixed breakfast. She made
some course cream cakes and opened a lot of canned fruit. Elisa
announced that the next day she would fix breakfast for a change.
Brookyln couldn't complain.
     Elisa was shocked at her own voracious appetite. She ate
five helpings before she felt like she'd had enough. But, Angela
insisted, on Avalon they didn't eat until they were full, they
ate until all the food was gone. So Elisa ate very well that
morning. Elisa had begun to consider how many fried hams the
Gargoyles could eat, when Matt appeared, around eight O'clock in
the evening.
     "Don't let her cook anything!" Matt laughed. "She'll forget
and try to go shopping!"
     "Matt..." Elisa moaned, resenting the remark. Matt laughed
again - he was having too much fun with this arrangement. He
raced up the stairs to see her.
     "Sleep well partner?"
     Elisa was in a good mood, and determined to get him back for
that shopping remark, so she tried to think of something witty to
say.
     "Like a rock!" she replied. Lexington stopped his video
game, gave her cliche a thumbs-down, and went back to his game.
     "Hey, look. You got this queer message on your machine, so I
grabbed your tape. I thought you could swing on over to your
place and feed Cagney when you got a moment. Oh, and I brought
your mail." Matt said, handing Elisa the items. Elisa took the
answering machine cassette in one claw and put the tape in Matt's
tape player.
     "Hey, sis! It's me Talon, you know? Look ah, if you don't
mind, Maggie and Claw would like to come over and see you today.
We'll just drop in sometime. Thanks!" came Derek's voice.
     "Hey, everybody! We're gonna have guests sometime tonight."
     "Your kidding." Brooklyn said. "Who?"
     "Talon, Maggie, and Claw." Elisa replied.
     "Oh." Broadway said thoughtfully. "It would have to have
been them, wouldn't it? It's not like we get USUAL guests."
     "Hey, calm down big guy." Elisa, opening her wings to go
outside, "Maybe I can get my folks to swing by every now and
then."
     "So, you gonna go after the ladies that did this?" Matt
inquired. "Not to say I don't like this look..."
     "Save the flattery, Bluestone. I think we've decided to live
and let live this time."
     "You WHAT?" Matt exclaimed. Elisa looked over at Goliath as
he watched Lexington fiddle with his video game.
     "I LIKE it." Elisa replied. "I hope you'll excuse me. I'm
gonna have t' learn to fly here soon."
     "Glide." Goliath corrected.
     "Same thing." Elisa said. "Let's get this over with."
     "Hang onto that thought for a minute." Brooklyn noted,
pointing out three sets of wings gliding in from ahead and a
little to the east, from the big docks.
     "The timing is uncanny." Angela noted.
     Maggie, Claw, and Derek landed neatly on the railing.
Goliath smiled and led them inside. Elisa felt like she were back
home.
     "Hey everybody!" Elisa said lightly. Maggie and Claw blinked
a little at Elisa's appearance, but her shining attitude won them
over quickly. Derek was quite nice to the boys, who showed him
their video game. Derek suddenly remembered the thousands of
arcade games he'd ever played, and found himself right at home.
Maggie came in, and she and Brookyln embraced. Elisa couldn't
help wonder about that. Maggie found meeting Angela especially a
treat, but she was actually meeting Elisa for the first time.
Almost as a sort of peace offering, Maggie had done a little
shopping. How she had come up with it, Elisa never would
understand, but she had discovered some black leather shorts and
a red cotton shirt with a low cut back along with a few other
niceties, to replace her other tattered clothes. Elisa was quite
impressed by the gift, and slipped down into the storage closet
to put them on. When she emerged, everyone stopped and looked.
     Amber colored from head to toe with long black hair, she
spread her wings to give a pose for all the spectators.
     "Fashion look." Elisa joked.
     The red shirt was rather bland next to her amber color, but
the two colors mixed well. Brookyln was impressed at the black
leather shorts. Lastly, her sidearm was strapped over her
shoulder.
     Derek was critical. "I dunno sis, you don't look like the
handgun type anymore. I was expecting you to have a bazooka."
     "Leave the heavy weaponry to my competition." Elisa smiled.
     "Huh?"
     The three boys laughed. "Inside joke." Lexington explained.
     Elisa thanked Maggie, and turned to Goliath. "Now, about
that lesson you promised."
     "When she can glide, can we teach her battle tactics?"
Angela inquired.
     Goliath almost laughed. "She's a police woman. She has
forgotten tricks I'll never know."
     Elisa paused for a moment. This was another one of those
moments. One of those times when her life was about to change
completely. She'd wished she and Goliath could be together. Now
they could, at a minor price. Was she prepared to pay that price?
Elisa looked at one slender, four fingered paw. She flexed it. It
was hers. It was almost like a dream come true. She thought she
should feel sad to have been so violated and changed, but for
some reason there was only contentment. It was as though here was
something she had always been searching for.
     Goliath led her out to the balcony as she turned these
thoughts over in her mind. "Goliath?"
     "Yes?"
     "Do you think I should be a Gargoyle?"
     "Well, that depends on how well you can glide."
     "No, I mean do you think I'm the sort of person who could
live up to what a Gargoyle does?"
     Goliath smiled. "You protect this city, do you not?"
     "Yes..."
     "You always were a Gargoyle, now it has been completed.
Come, there's a good wind tonight."
     "Demona always said it was some sort of wonderful gift. I
can't go to the movies anymore, no more nights out on the town,
no class reunions, no more days in the office. I'm an outcast, an
alien."
     "Elisa, we mustn't think that way. We have a place in the
world. We mustn't simply exist. We must learn to live again. That
is the real goal."
     Elisa sighed, content for now with her situation. "Sorry. I
suppose it's only natural to question what you're doing when you
make a big change in your life."
     "I think it is a change for the better. Perhaps the Weird
Sisters meant it as a gift."
     "I would still like to know the answer to that one." she
sighed.
     Goliath considered a reply, but agreeing made it sound like
he wanted Elisa to change back, and disagreeing seemed rude, so
he said nothing.
     Elisa leapt up onto the railing. She looked down past her
feet to the sea of cars below. It was a long way down. Elisa was
suddenly filled with a sense of fear and dread.
     No! I can't be afraid. This might be my only chance to do
this!
     Gathering all her courage, she jumped.
     That was a mistake, she realized. She was falling face up
toward the street below. Elisa saw Goliath leap from the top, to
catch her. 
     Wings, Maza. Elisa thought, Use your wings. You went through
enough to get them.
     She stuck her wings out. Elisa toppled head over heals.
Suddenly she was face down to the upcoming cement. That was when
she realized how quickly the ground was coming up!
     Pull up! Pull up! Elisa thought.
     She tried harder and harder to flap her wings.
     No, don't flap. You're a Gargoyle, not a bird. Glide!
     So, she tried just leaving them straight out. That helped,
but she was still falling. She was coming in still. Her angle
needed to go up. Angle... Elisa brought her wings up just a bit.
That was it! The rush of her own energy she had gained falling at
about five meters every second, gave her the energy to level her
descent - not a moment too soon! She saw Matt walking out of the
building to his car. He waved. That bewildered Elisa. She waved
back shyly.
     "Come up some more." Goliath encouraged. Elisa couldn't see
any way she could do that, and she knew from Goliath that
laboring with her wings wouldn't get her anywhere.
     "How?"
     "Use the air currents."
     Use them?
     Elisa realized she could feel the movement of the air all
around her. she could tell some of it was blowing strongly. She
needed to catch it, so that it would pull her up. Which way was
it blowing? The wind was coming up behind her. Elisa took a risk,
and tilted her wings forward a little. Luckily, they caught the
draft and she rose up. However, after a few hundred feet, the
wind was going the other direction. Almost habitually, she pulled
up short. That change in angle corrected her direction, and her
flight leveled.
     "Beautiful, Elisa!" Goliath called, and he came down to join
her at that altitude.
     "I sure am lucky I didn't wipe out. I don't think I can do
that again."
     "You're going to have to." Goliath was right. The wind
reversed back to it's original direction, and Elisa's
concentration faltered. She toppled, and fell again. She landed
with a thud, and slid across someone's satellite dish.
     Goliath sailed down. Elisa was holding her head, seated on
the edge of the satellite dish. "Of course, when I was learning
to glide, we hit trees, not buildings."
     "Terrific." Elisa moaned, holding her head. "Why don't I go
back in time about a thousand years so I can crash into shrubs
instead of satellite dishes?"
     "Sorry." Goliath apologized.
     "You're okay, Goliath. As indestructible as a Gargoyle
seems, pain is pretty much universal."
     Goliath touched down on the rooftop with his wings splayed
wide behind him. Are you alright."
     Elisa stood up, rubbing her paw on the side of her face.
"Yep."
     "Don't worry, all you need is practice. You'll get it."
Goliath tried to encourage her.
     Elisa ran off the edge of the building, and executed what
she thought to be a very graceful swan dive. She splayed her
wings, and coasted off to a stable level. Then the air currents
started to interfere, and she began to fall again. The wind was
in her face, so she pulled backwards with her wings. Her flight
stabilized. She sailed around in a circle and tried the same wind
from the opposite direction. She managed it. Then she tried
gliding across it. That proved more interesting. She eventually
left her wings titled at a slight angle and caught the wind
neatly.
     Then another thought occurred to her as she practiced. Did
she have any idea where she was? She looked down, after
stabilizing her place in the air for a moment. She was drifting
over the east side, hundreds of blocks away from either her
apartment or the Clocktower. She climbed the air currents, and
got above the city far enough to get some bearings. She needed to
head more southwesterly. She banked off in that direction.
Goliath came up behind her.
     "You've got it, just like that." he said.
     Elisa was a little out of breath. "It's fun!... exciting, I
love it!" she panted.
     "Now for the big test." Goliath said, as they were
approaching the Clocktower. "Can you land?"
     "Well, I gotta slow down..." Elisa muttered, thinking the
maneuver through. She tipped her wings back, and leveled out, and
then brought her speeds close to nothing. However, she was too
far above the clocktower, and she plummeted, spun a somersault in
the air, and landed on her read end.
     "Ow! That must have hurt!" Derek observed sympathetically.
     Elisa made a pathetic effort to stand up again. "It did.
Owwwww..."
     With a hand on a sore waist, she limped down the steps to
rejoin the others. Goliath touched lightly down on the railing.
"She picks it up quickly."
     "One does when you have no other choice." Elisa observed.
     "It's just like the helicopter." Derek observed, if your
careful about which way your wings are pointed, they'll take you
just about anywhere.
     Elisa nodded dumbly, rubbing her hips and her back. She
stood up, and was about to walk over to the other side of the
room with Lex and the others, when her tail became caught in her
legs, she tripped, and fell on her face.
     Everyone stopped, and stared, except for Angela, who rushed
over to help her up. Everyone had that look on their face that
said they were not going to let themselves laugh and embarrass
poor Elisa. Elisa, recapturing her light mood, laughed at her own
clumsiness. "Guess I'm pretty new at the tail bit, aren't I?"
     "You have a good reason to be new at it." Angela observed.
"Just wait until you use it in battle."
     "Thanks again, Angela. You're an angel." Elisa smiled.
Goliath was leaning against the door, smiling at her. Elisa
wondered what he was thinking.
     Quite to the contrary, Goliath was thinking the exact
opposite. He was admiring her stunning grace and beauty. He
hadn't even noticed her clumsy attempts at things, but saw only
Elisa, the woman he loved.
     Elisa on the other hand, swept the whole incident out of her
mind. "Broadway!" she called, "before you guys go out on patrol,
I was hoping you could come with me to go feed Cagney, and maybe
bring a few things over here from my apartment."
     Brooklyn cut in. "Well, tonight Broadway and Angela are
supposed to do that section by your apartment. Just go with them
on patrol, and stop there on your way."
     Angela shrugged. Broadway hopped up in excitement. "Alright
everybody, common. Catch ya' later, Goliath."
     It's probably best they not go too fast, Angela surmised, I
wouldn't.
     Angela and Broadway were already in the air by the time
Elisa leapt off her roof. She wondered how she would put this
down on her timecard for the week. Glided  around the city,
beating up burglars? Elisa laughed, once she was sure of her
glide.
     The first place they stopped was Elisa's apartment. This
time, Elisa made sure of her landing distance before landing, by
circling around once. That worked a whole lot better. She opened
the window, and let herself in.
     The apartment was a bit out of place, since the tv had been
rolled aside when the paramedics had taken her out of there the
previous day. She couldn't see Cagney anywhere.
     "Cagney? Cagney?" Elisa called out, looking around for her
cat. She was a little nervous about breaking something by turning
around too fast. She was, after all, a few sizes larger than
before in several directions.
     "Elisa?" came a voice from outside the door.
     "Yes, Mrs. Tarastien?"
     Elisa's neighbor let herself in, Cagney in her arm. "I hope
you don't mind, Cagney was all alone after they took you out, I
was afraid she'd..."
     Elisa's neighbor caught sight of Elisa, and her two friends.
She gave the most blood curdling scream, throwing Cagney across
the room. Broadway dove, and caught the poor cat. Elisa rushed
over, closed, and locked the door behind her screaming neighbor.
She leaned against the door, panting. "I'm never going to be able
to stay here."
     Broadway tried to hand Cagney over to Elisa, but Cagney
refused, hissing and snarling at Elisa. Elisa backed away, and
looked at her friends. Gargoyles. Just as she was... a Gargoyle.
Her own cat didn't even know her! What was she going to do? What
on earth was she ever going to do if she was stuck like this, and
could never change back?!!!
     That was it! This was the final straw! Elisa grabbed her
hair in her talons, slumped onto the floor, broke down, and wept.
                      Chapter Three: Debate
     Angela placed a comforting arm around her while Broadway
took care of feeding Cagney. Elisa knew she had overreacted, but
it still hurt to have two people you know treat you like an
outsider. Broadway and Angela stayed very close to her for the
rest of the night.
     Angela carefully weighed in her mind the struggles she could
see taking place in Elisa's mind. She was obviously a little hurt
and confused by the metamorphosis, and she was running into a
number of problems with making the adjustment from the person she
was before and person she was becoming. Perhaps one of the
problems is that she feels a number of her old friends have
abandoned her in her transformed state. It was also odd that her
best friends, like Matt, were still with her. Well, they knew
about the Gargoyles already. Cagney knew, though. Perhaps Cagney
was just confused. Angela felt sure that if Goliath vanished for
two days, and reappeared human, Angela would be at least
suspicious. Cagney might be alright in a few days. Perhaps it
stood to reason that she told all her best friends about the
Gargoyles because she had wanted to be with Goliath for so long,
and those good friends stuck with her, not because they knew
about the Gargoyles, but because they were already the friends
that would stick with her through thick and thin. Friends, like
Goliath.
     Elisa's mood was even more contemplative than Angela's. What
was she going to do if she had to stay this way? She'd need to
clear out of the apartment and move in with the guys and Angela,
of course. She'd be near Goliath all the time. That was a
definite plus. Perhaps they could get married. As nice as it all
seemed, there were too many problems. She couldn't work anymore,
so no one would be making money for the Gargoyles to eat off. She
had too many mouths to feed. Perhaps the Captain would keep her
on. Matt would certainly fight for her. Once Maria pulled herself
back together, she wouldn't let go of Elisa. Would she? Then
there's Goliath. What would they do when they're married? Lay
eggs? Have little baby Gargoyles brothers and sisters for Angela?
Goliath himself was a problem. Peter and Diane hardly knew him.
They'd never let Elisa go. Would they? Was Goliath even eligible?
He was married once to Demona. He'd been under a spell for a
while. Demona and Goliath were certainly no longer together.
Elisa could understand that. Was Goliath truthfully divorced, in
the human sense of the word? He already had one daughter to care
for. Elisa had been with Angela for so long, she had little
trouble thinking of her as her adoptive daughter.
     Broadway? Well, he was just thinking about lunch.
     "Angela?" Elisa finally asked. "What do you think I should
do?"
     "About the apartment?"
     "Well, there's that. I was thinking about Goliath, though.
What should I do?"
     "Do you love Goliath?"
     Elisa sighed. That was the problem. "Yes, Angela. I love
Goliath more than anyone in the world."
     "I do not see any problem." Angela said.
     Bluntly put, Angela, as always.
     "What about Demona?"
     Angela's voice wavered. "Demona?"
     "She is your mother, after all."
     Angela swallowed. "She is already a part of my life. I
cannot change the fact that she has turned evil over the last
thousand years. She is no longer the same Gargoyle who was my
mother."
     "You can't abandon her though. Just ask about what happened
that day she turned all of Manhattan to stone. She has redeeming
qualities."
     "All that remains of my mother." Angela said bitterly.
Broadway stirred uncomfortably in the heat of those words.
     "Would you like me to become you stepmother?"
     "Stepmother? What does that mean?"
     "It means becoming your mother by marrying your father, but
your real mother is another woman."
     "I would like that."
     "What about the rest of it? Would you like it if your father
and I had an egg?"
     Angela considered that. She'd thought it might be nice to
have more brothers and sisters. Little ones she could care for,
especially if they were Goliath and Elisa's. She liked Elisa, but
Elisa was also right about Demona.
     "I would like that." Angela said.
     Elisa looked sternly at Angela. Elisa knew Angela had
considered the consequences of that answer, and that she meant
it. Elisa was still unsure of her course of action. She wanted to
be sure before she did anything.
     "What's wrong?" Broadway inquired.
     "Well, I'm just not sure going ahead with this is what I
want to do." Elisa explained. "What would you do it you suddenly
met the Gargoyle girl of your dreams?"
     Broadway considered the answers he had to that, but Angela
was still around. "I would probably talk to Goliath about it. He
always seems to know what to do."
     "But Goliath is the one Elisa is worried about." Angela
pointed out.
     "She has her own parents, though." Broadway countered
defensively.
     That was it! Elisa decided. Quickly, she banked towards her
parent's apartment.
     "Hey, Elisa! Wait up!" Broadway exclaimed. Elisa looked over
her shoulder to see if the two were following.
     "ELISA! WATCH OUT!" Angela screamed. Elisa turned her head
around just in time to be hit in the head by a low flying
helicopter. Elisa lost her grasp on consciousness, and tumbled
through the air. Angela and Broadway cried out, and dived after
Elisa. Someone else was faster though and caught her first,
before sailing away: a helicopter with Xanatos written all over
it.

     "Hey, David! You won't believe what we ran over on the
street getting here." Fox's voice clicked over the intercom to
the Eyrie building, where Xanatos was working at his computer.
     Sure enough, when Owen and Fox carried in the limp bloody
body of an Amber colored Gargoyle, he was very intrigued. David
Xanatos had yet to understand where on the planet Goliath's
daughter Angela had appeared from. Demona had certainly had
little to do with Goliath for the last hundred years.
     "Another Gargoyle?" David commented.
     "I believe you know this one, sir." Owen commented.
     "I don't believe so Owen. What, has Demona gone for a
complete makeover?"
     "Just look at her, David." Fox said. David came over, kissed
his wife, and looked at her catch of the day.
     David looked, and his jaw fell open.
     "It's Detective Maza, sir."
     "Absolutely astounding. Was she hurt badly?"
     "It wasn't exactly our fault. We sort of crashed into each
other in the dark. The damage to the helicopter can be fixed, but
I'm more worried for her."
     "Are you going to help her, David?" Fox inquired.
     "Of course. Goliath helped save Alexander. I at least owe
him that much, don't I?" David asked.
     "Absolutely. If you had said you were going to slowly
torture her to death in hot acid, I would have killed you." Fox
laughed.
     "Owen, what do you make of her?" David inquired.
     "Nothing of the doing of Xanatos Enterprises, sir. It must
be magic of some kind. However, the metamorphosis involved was
something beyond even my magic. Only Oberon has this kind of
power. Or the Weird Sisters."
     "How so?" Fox asked.
     "Oberon does not have the power to cause individual cells to
grow new DNA. The spell cast on Detective Maza would make even
Oberon jealous of such power."
     "Each cell?" David asked.
     "An excruciatingly painful process, sir. It involves a
complete regrowth of each Organ in a compressed space of time.
That is, not to mention, the addition of new organs." Owen
explained wiping his glasses and nodding to her wings, "You'll
forgive the analogy I hope, Fox, but it is comparable to giving
birth."
     David could not help but laugh a moment. "It seems she's had
enough on her mind without hot acid, Fox my dear."
     Fox smiled.

     "Why didn't he take you prisoner, too?" Goliath inquired
hastily of Angela. Angela tried to explain her own bewilderedness
in a few words, but Goliath was already set on a course of
action.
     "This is going too far, Xanatos! My love and I are finally
together, and now you steal her from me!" Goliath was a cloud of
rage. He stormed off by air toward the Eyrie building. Brooklyn,
Angela, and Broadway followed.

     Elisa awoke to a familiar face. Not one she wished to see,
but familiar none the less. "Fox."
     Fox looked down at the detective with concern on her face.
"Don't strain yourself, you've a bit of a concussion. However,
your new found 'Gargilian' nature heals quickly." Fox rubbed an
alcohol soaked cloth over the cut over Elisa's eye for a moment,
then backed away.
     "Save it for another time, Fox. I'm not interested in games
right now." Elisa sighed.
     Fox smiled. "That's alright. If this were just another game,
you would be dead already. No, we're helping you. Besides, you
don't just imprison a police detective, now do you?"
     Elisa said nothing, but just rubbed her face.
     "Indeed, my dear. If you keep hitting your head like this
it's going to addle your brains... even more than they already
are." Fox replied.
     "Alright. Laugh it up." Elisa sighed.
     "Oh, what kind of a person would I be to laugh at you? No, I
just think your so cute like this. It looks good on you."
     Elisa sighed. "I wish I could believe you mean me well."
     Fox slapped the washcloth into bowl. "Goliath helped save
Alexander."
     "Yes, I know. He told me."
     When Elisa looked up, Fox was gently lowering the baby into
Elisa's reptilian arms. Elisa was startled, but was careful to
cradle the child. She remembered how much children meant to her,
and how she had always wondered what it would be like to have
one.
     "So, now that you and Goliath have clicked, are you two
going to pair up?" Fox inquired.
     "I... I haven't decided."
     Alexander raised small hand up towards Elisa's face, and
cooed. Elisa smiled. The small child's hand curled around one of
Elisa's massive talons. There was a fuzzy tingling on Elisa's
head.
     Fox watched the cut on Elisa's head vanish. Alexander cooed
again.
     "Children are powerful little things." Fox noted. Elisa
smiled, and played with the little boy. Alexander never flinched
at Elisa. Elisa felt suddenly moved.

     "WHERE IS SHE, XANATOS?" Goliath roared, his eyes glowing
white.
     "It's alright, Goliath." Owen said firmly. "We did not hurt
Detective Maza. Please put Mister Xanatos down."
     Goliath put Xanatos down.
     Elisa appeared, cradling Alexander. Fox was not far behind.
Goliath rushed up to Elisa, and kissed her.
     "I am sorry, Xanatos." Goliath apologized. "I spoke in
haste."
     "I should probably be apologizing, Goliath." Fox said. "I
was the one who wasn't watching where I was flying."
     Goliath nodded, and looked at the boy. Fox and David backed
away from the couple who were admiring their son.
     "He's a beautiful baby." Elisa laughed. "How would you like
it if we had one just like it, except with wings and a tail?"
     Goliath was dubious.
     Goliath blinked, staring at Elisa for a moment. "I should
take a second look at Xanatos. If he's letting me this close to
something that precious to him, perhaps we can be friends after
all."
     "As much as it is strange for me to say this, I hope it is.
I'd much rather have a friend that an enemy." Elisa said.
"Especially when I am going to go to ask my parents about
marrying you."
     Goliath looked deeply into Elisa's eyes. "I've never wanted
anything else." Goliath touched Elisa's chin, carefully took the
baby, and returned it to it's parents. "Thank you, Xanatos."
     "David. Call me David."
     They shook, hand in paw.
                     Chapter Four: The Game
     My sisters, the keys are placed.
     Aye.
     Now we must begin the game.

     Deep within the cave, a glow radiated. Small points of light
began to circulate about the cave's dark interior, giving off
sparkling bursts of illumination. The stone was pressed
sandstone, a light sun baked beige color. The bursts of light
refracted into little rainbows around the room. Suddenly, there
was a burst of energy, a sphere of light formed, and became
transparent, so that a great modern city was visible on it's
interior.
     Then the portal opened.

     Returning to the clocktower seemed just like coming home.
Somehow, it gave Elisa a sense of dread. There was something
about this clocktower that made her nervous. Why should it? Maria
hadn't decided to kick them out or anything. Yet, what could it
be, then? It was almost as though Elisa's grave would one day be
made at this clocktower, as though her own death awaited her
here.
     It was a morbid feeling, but Elisa cast it aside gaily. She
was in too good of a mood to worry about that now. She was ready
to take on Demona, Xanatos, or any other warped crackpot that
wanted to try a take the broadening possibilities of this new
life away from her.
     "You guys have fun for a while, I need to go see my folks."
Elisa waved to the three boys. Angela stepped forward.
     "May I accompany you?" she asked.
     Elisa considered. "Diane, Peter, and Elizabeth have met you
already. I don't see any reason why not."
     In such a mood, they leapt into the space beyond the
clocktower balcony, and away into the night sky.
     The lights came on in the Maza's apartment, when a triple
tap on the window awakened Elizabeth.
     "ELISA!" Elizabeth exclaimed in shock.
     "It's alright. I came to see you and explain a few things.
Are mom and dad asleep?"
     "Yes, but they were going to be getting up early today
anyway. Come on." she replied. Elisa motioned Angela to follow.
Simultaneously, their wings folded, and they slid through the
window.
     Diane and Peter were unsurprised to see her, only a little
suspicious of the hour.
     "I always knew the hours you were keeping would lead to
this." Diane shrugged.
     "What's the trouble?" Peter inquired.
     "Well I thought I should stop by, and besides, I have some
things I need to talk to you about."
     "I'll bet you do, at that." Diane scoffed.
     "Look, we still don't know what happened, but I just want to
be prepared for the possibility that it might not be reversible."
Elisa defended.
     "I gave birth to a woman, not a creature." Diane stuck out.
     "Mother, it's still Elisa!" Elizabeth added. Diane seemed to
agree, as she nodded.
     "I still think your a little out of place just accepting
it."
     "I haven't accepted it, yet. I'll admit that today I've been
considering what life would be like if I did, but there are too
many problems."
     Peter seemed a lot more sympathetic. "What did you want to
ask us?"
     Elisa sat down on the apartment floor, cross legged. She
sighed. "I don't think we've ever accepted to each other that we
could ever possibly be in love, because of who we were. If it's
true that I may have to stay this way, then perhaps it is best
that I tell myself that we are truly in love with each other."
     There was silence for a moment. Elizabeth seemed to be
becoming a bit dreamy eyed at the thought.
     "I've been weighing the possible consequences of that, and I
don't know what to do. I've got a job, a family, and then I've
got him. I can't do without any of them, and so I'm worried."
     "Oh, pshaw!" Elizabeth added, "Maria would never fire you
unless you actually did something."
     "I don't think she's ready to accept the existence of the
Gargoyles yet, though." Peter observed.
     "They already depend on me, and this could mean letting them
down."
     Diane sighed. "If you are forced to stay this way, what else
could you do?"
     Elisa looked doubtful. "Me and the guys are all in rather
the same boat. If I'm out of a job, then it's possible that we're
all in the gutter."
     "There is always those on Avalon. They would accept us all,
Gargoyle or human." Angela added.
     "Yes, but could I live stand living there?" Elisa thought
aloud. "Being away from home with you guys for six months nearly
drove me crazy, I got so homesick."
     "If you guys are all out on the street, what other choice do
you have?" Elizabeth asked.
     "You were a big eater when you were little. If you needed
to, we could take care of you again."
     "I have an obligation to them." Elisa observed. "I'm
something like the den mother. I can't let them down. It's almost
like they are my children."
     Elisa turned to Angela, and continued. "That's another
reason why I wanted to talk to you. Goliath and I have a chance
now that we never had before. We want to live out the rest of our
lives together. Now, we have the chance to do what we always
thought was impossible. Mom, dad, I think I do wanna marry the
guy."
     Diane stirred uncomfortably. "Can he take care of you? He
doesn't have any money."
     "Money isn't everything." Elizabeth commented.
     "He takes care of me in countless other ways." Elisa felt.
"Yet I feel like fate is twisting me for something. Maybe I
should be more worried about taking care of them, instead of
worrying about my own feelings."
     "No, the way you should feel should come first, or else we'd
all go insane. Duty and obligation are good things, but not when
you're talking about marriage." Diane cut in, avidly. "It took
people years to get out of that mindset. If you want to marry
Goliath, accept it. The rest are only details. Only your own
happiness matters."
     Elisa said nothing. She thought about all the time she and
Goliath had been together. They were a team, souls driven by the
single need to be there for the other. Elisa had never been
happier. She was considering giving her life to him. Wasn't that
what she had always wanted?
     "You have reached an impasse." Angela noted. "Neither of you
can deny the other, so you must decide what is best."
     Elisa sighed again. "Dad, what do you think?"
     "I want to know how you would ever finance a wedding. I can
understand a private wedding, but there is nothing usual about
this."
     "What do you mean?" Elizabeth asked.
     "If you're sure that is what you want, stop asking us for
encouragement, and start making plans to do it. I've seen you two
protect each other. I believe Goliath is a good person. I just
don't understand what you will do, though." Peter thought aloud.
     Elisa suddenly smiled. "Xanatos."
     "What about 'im?"
     "Ever since Goliath saved Alexander, he's been intent on
repaying him for that favor. The great hall in castle Wyvern is
the ideal place. Maybe we'll go to Avalon, but we can be so much
more use to Manhattan."
     "Then we'll find a way, Elisa." Peter encouraged.

     Elisa glided the night air in a daze. She was aware of a
need to get back to the Clocktower before dawn, but that was
still a few minutes away, and Elisa was too busy daydreaming.
     "I think your getting way too ahead of the mark there,
Angela." Elisa commented.
     "Perhaps, but I don't believe that it is our fate to remain
in one place for all of out lives." she replied.
     "Maybe we can journey overland across the US. I would love
to visit all the places in the US. You would love it, I think.
After all, that's why you came, to see the world, isn't it?"
     "It would be a great adventure."
     "Yes, but who would protect the city?" Elisa found herself
asking. She realized she was loosing sight of that in considering
the way she should take.
     Something broke Elisa's concentration. A sudden jolting
downdraft made Elisa struggle to correct her glide. "What was
that?"
     "Something big." Angela observed, pointing with one talon
into the morning sky.
     Then Elisa saw it. There was something up there, it was
bright, and it was big. Elisa curved up to it.
     A sudden current of air began pulling Elisa toward the light
in the sky. "ANGELA! Help, it's pulling me in!" she cried.
     Angela responded by pulling up to one side. She was even
having trouble beating the fierce current being pulled up ward.
The draft was enormous, like a vacuum cleaner.
     "I have never seen a wind like this!" Angela observed.
     "Hang on, it's getting closer!"
     Elisa and Angela held arms, as they beat their wings
frantically to beat the rushing current.
     "We're running out of time! It's not long before dawn!"
Angela cried out.
     "Stone statues don't survive long on sudden descents." Elisa
noted, uselessly. "Try banking down hard, like we were falling.
Let's see if that will break us out."
     "If you go down too fast, it will too hard to pull up in
time!" Angela pointed out.
     "We have to do something. I think we'd both like to wake up
in the morning!"
     Arm in arm, they dropped suddenly and quickly, for a moment,
their rush toward the object in the sky stopped, but then it
began again.
     Elisa stopped flapping altogether, and folded her wings in
mid air. "It's no use, there's no way to fly out of this!"
     This was frightening Elisa. She was hanging over Manhattan
without any means of support. The last time she had been in
something this precarious, Goliath had been there. "Where are
you, Goliath?"
     The object was not an object at all. It was simply bright.
Elisa and Angela watched helplessly, as they flew into the
brilliant vortex.
     The sun rose, starting a new day. Two stone statues flew
through the vortex.
                 Chapter Five: Gargoyle Mothers
       (The Battle in the Snow - The Empire Strikes Back)
     Elisa felt her body become suddenly sweaty and cold. She was
cramped, closed inside her stone shell. She could feel it all
around her, pressing her in. She fought, and twisted, but try as
she might, she could not move. Stone stung her eyes. She could
feel a fire breaking out in her eyes, as they became red cinders
in her face, radiating.
     Something touched her hand, and Elisa realized she could
move it. There was hot air there, and another hand was pulling
Elisa's. Elisa tried to cry out, but her call was lost in the
stone.
     There was the call of another Gargoyle, as someone worked
desperately to free her. Elisa fought for breath. A hand reached
up her arm, pulling fiercely. Elisa was able to move her own arm.
She could feel sand and stone everywhere, pressing in on her. She
twisted violently to one side, and one of her legs was free. Her
skin felt so hot, as if the stone she were in were burning,
turning into metal. The other person found Elisa's mid section,
and Elisa could hear them twisting at the stone. Elisa's breath
was gone! She was choking, suffocating!
     Suddenly, Elisa burst from the stone, and took a deep
breath. Angela dropped to the ground in relief. Elisa choked on
the stone pieces and sand in the air.
     "What... what happened?" Elisa panted.
     Angela looked around at the dying lights of day, and at the
lights all around her.
     They were standing next to a river of lava.
     "That would probably explain it. Jalapena, that smells."
Elisa muttered.
     "I've been stone many times, but never trapped in it."
Angela observed.
     "Somehow, that stuff got all over us, but we never got close
enough to be melted in it -- it just clumped all over us while we
were asleep." Elisa speculated. They looked up the lava flow in
the closing twilight.
     The lava was coming from the rim of a roiling volcano, only
a few hundred feet upslope.
     "That could have sprayed half cooled droplets all over us."
Angela observed. "What is it?"
     "It's a volcano. Parts of the earth's crust melting and
coming to the surface at colossal temperatures. We gotta get out
of here." Elisa explained.
     "How did we end up here?"
     "You got me."
     Elisa found a piece of volcanic glass with her face
imprinted in it. She picked it up. It was hot, and the drips of
stone were still steaming.
     The gargoyles descended the slope.
     "Where do you suppose we are?" Angela inquired.
     "There are lots of places in the Pacific Ocean with active
volcanoes." Elisa said. "Nowhere even close to Manhattan,
though."
     As they descended the slope, Elisa noticed all the various
layers of older and older stone that had been laid down over
time. Sometimes older stone peeked out between clefts. The
volcano must have been built by throwing up liquid stone for
decades. It was a cinder cone volcano, but Elisa had no idea
where such volcanoes were found in the world.
     "I think that may have something to do with us." Angela
said, looking at a group of bright lights streaking randomly
around on a valley below. Elisa charged forward, and lighted from
a rocky cleft, her wings wide. Angela followed.
     This time, the lights looked like something. There must have
been fifty odd small firefly-like beings circling a group of
Gargoyles.
     "Look! Gargoyles!" Angela exclaimed.
     "I see them. They look like friends. Who do you suppose
those things are?"
     "They look like fairies. Could they be changelings?"
     As they approached, Elisa had her doubts. The fireflies were
chasing the Gargoyles, who alternately tried to face them, or ran
from them. The beings themselves resembled dead, naked glowing
corpses of human women. "They don't look like Changelings to me."
     "Spirits, perhaps?"
     Elisa dived into the fray, eyes aflame. "What's going on
here?!!!"
     The little sprites turned to Elisa, grouped together, and
charged her. For a moment, Elisa wondered if that had been very
wise, and veered away, forcing the stream of little sprites to
miss her. Elisa landed among the Gargoyles.
     "It's alright, I'm a friend."
     "You speak the ancient tongue?" One of these
scottish/guatemalan-appearing Gargoyles exclaimed.
     "What ancient tongue? I speak English." Elisa explained.
     "Sorcery! Demon!" Another shouted.
     "Wait! Perhaps they are the Called Ones!" An older Gargoyle
woman shouted.
     There was quiet for a moment.
     "I am no enemy of yours, I only wish to know who it is you
flee from."
     "The curse of the human sorcerers! If they touch you, you
will vanish, too!"
     Elisa considered that. Suddenly, a thought came to mind. "To
me, Angela! I have a plan!"
     Angela dived, and Elisa met her in the air. The other
Gargoyles scattered, as the swarm closed in upon them. "Stick
with me, I want to lead them after us."
     Angela and Elisa swooped off, in the direction they had
come. The swarm found not a single Gargoyle with another, except
for them, so it went after the larger target. The swarm followed
them, gaining on them.
     "Evade!" Angela commanded. Elisa did not question her, and
ducked to the left. Angela shot up straight. Angela weaved in and
out of the swarm, while Elisa swooped down over the beds of lava
rushing from the erupting volcano. "Angela, over here!"
     The swarm followed the two Gargoyles. Elisa swooped up to
the fountain of burning rock spouting from the volcano. The
little bugs were gaining on her, about to touch her. Elisa batted
them away with her igneous piece of her face. She then dived into
the stream from the volcano, and ducked behind it. The swarm was
enveloped in flame. Angela screamed, and Elisa dove after her,
before she also hit the stream of burning stone. Together they
dived down the mountainside again.
     "What were those things?" Elisa called to the mysterious
Gargoyles below.
     One of these other Gargoyles, a middle aged Gargoyle woman
of that clan approached them. "Those things will return again,
but your efforts were appreciated."
     "How?"
     "The humans have cursed all the Gargoyles of the desert
valleys with this plague. Twenty of our kind have already
vanished after being touched by one of those things."
     "Vanished?" Angela inquired.
     "Thrown through time and around the world by sorcery."
     "But why?" Angela insisted.
     "No one knows."
     "Who are you?" Elisa inquired.
     "We are the Gargoyles of the Arabian Night, and we used to
protect the book."
     "Book?"
     "The book of our ancestors contained spells collected by our
kind for a millennia. The humans stole the book for their own
ends."
     Elisa and Angela sort of stared at each other. "Arabia? I
didn't know there were volcanoes in Arabia."
     "Oh, there are. This is not Arabia, but an Island outside of
time. This is the Island of the Volcano, we were trapped here by
the humans months ago, outside of the world and time."
     "Why do you not leave?" Angela inquired.
     "To what end should we leave?"
     "Better than to remain here and be prey to being thrown
around the world." Angela observed.
     "Who are you to be telling us what we should do!" One of the
male Gargoyles said.

     "We mean no harm." Elisa said, turning to Angela. "We were
brought here by mysterious forces, and awoke under the fountain
of the volcano."
     Elisa showed them her igneous face.
     "I am a... an American Gargoyle." Elisa stuttered. She could
possibly be the first such Gargoyle to be called so. "This is
Angela... my daughter."
     Angela stirred a moment, and looked at Elisa. Elisa's
expression in turning to Angela was one of "Aren't you?". Angela
smiled, and nodded it was so.
     "The magic that brought you was supposed to bring us help."
The Gargoyle woman explained. "Although we were not aware it
would bring other Gargoyles to us."
     "We did not know Gargoyles still lived in Arabia. We are
glad to meet you, and be of service if we can." Elisa said.
     There was an uneasy pause. "Are you working with the
humans?" one asked.
     "If we were, would we tell you? No, we are not. In fact, I
have no idea which humans you are referring to." Elisa said,
annoyed.
     The Arabic Gargoyles stirred nervously. They were apparently
unwilling and suspicious of the newcomers, however, something had
them convinced that they were the help they had sent for. As for
Elisa, she was convinced they were. Fate had a tendency to do
that to them, after all.
     "Please, would you and your daughter care to join us for the
evening meal?"
     "If it's not any trouble." Angela observed. Elisa extended
her wings, and wrapped one around Angela in comfort. Angela
looked at Elisa, who smiled back, folded her own wings, and
placed a hand in hers. The idea of Elisa as her mother was
strange, but she wondered if she would like it.

     "You haven't seen them for over twelve hours?!!!" Matt
exclaimed in horror. "What if she turned to stone gliding and
crashed to pieces?"
     "Why, Matthew lad. We didn't know you cared so much for the
lasses." Hudson asked laughingly.
     "Well, I like to think we're friends. You haven't seen them,
though?"
     "I must admit I am worried as well." Goliath ceded. "We will
begin sweeps of the city. Brooklyn, you'll need to assign
everyone a quarter to take. She may only be with..."
     Suddenly, the top of the tower was filled with a brilliant
white light. The Weird Sisters appeared out of the air, levelling
their faces at Goliath.
     No.
     You shall not continue to follow them.
     Lives are depending on you not following after them.
     "But why?" Goliath asked, confounded.
     They shall be safe.
     Although thou art her protector...
     We must be her protectors this night.
          And then they were gone. Goliath blinked in confusion.
                    Chapter Six: Game Played
     The Arabian Gargoyles had built a structure near the foot of
the volcano. It was like a large hotel. Elisa and Angela were
given a room, one that had been occupied once by a Gargoyle.
Angela was looking at a small hand drawn portrait of a family of
Gargoyles - perhaps the only possession of the previous owner of
the room.
     Elisa jumped in the air and landed with a flop onto the cot,
and gave a long, audible groan. "I haven't done that for DAYS.
Why do you suppose that have hammocks?"
     "Mother?"
     Elisa blinked, and turned in the cot to face Angela. There
was something about being called that, which stirred a feeling in
Elisa. "You don't mind calling me that, do you?"
     Angela shrugged. "I like calling you that. I don't think
that a woman like Demona can be the person who I want to call
mother."
     Elisa smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment."
     "Are you and Goliath going to become mates?"
     Elisa sat up. "It's not a question of simply mates to me,
Angela. For a human, being married is a commitment that last for
life and beyond."
     "Beyond?"
     "I have never been able to believe that people who have
loved each other for life can be separated by death. That is IF
there is a life after this."
     "I have never considered such a possibility."
     "Humans believe that being married means devoting yourself
entirely to that person. When you are married, not only are you
mates, but you remain so for life. Every person has one mate, and
they share their lives together."
     Angela seemed to feel a very profound impact by this
statement. "That is not the Gargoyle way."
     "Am I a Gargoyle? Truly?"
     Angela did not reply.
     "Someday, if Goliath and I have a child, she will need to
learn that her mother is not a Gargoyle, but a human. If your
father and I are married, it will be a very human marriage. It
will be a very Gargoyle life, though. There is little chance of
the 'house of the hill' with the 'little white picket fence'. I
suspect home may be just like the clock tower. I hope not. I want
an apartment, at least, with a window to the outside. We would be
safer there. Yet, how can a Gargoyle possibly have an apartment?
It just doesn't work that way. That is why it is so hard to marry
Goliath, Angela. I'm just not ready for that life."
     Angela laid her claw on Elisa's shoulder. "What ever life
you choose to lead together, I will follow you. There is some way
that you can be happy. I want to see you happy."
     "Will you be our daughter?"
     "I will. I want to be your daughter."
     "So, there's no need to lie to the others, then." Elisa
smiled. "When the sun rises in the mornings, you and I, and your
father, can all stand side by side to greet the dawn."
     They embraced, a warm sense of family already growing within
their hearts. "Elisa?"
     "Hmmm?"
     "Will you miss seeing the sun?"
     "Always. Perhaps some day we shall all see it together."
     "You would wish me human?"
     "I wish whatever is good for you, Angela."
     Angela smiled. "Thank you, mother."
     "Why?"
     "I was always on my own, on Avalon. Princess Katharine
always told me I was too independent. I was always doing things
on my own, and I never wanted to be with anyone else. That's why
I liked Gabriel. He always knew when I wanted to be left alone."
     "Don't stay alone for too long. That's what happened to your
mother. Demona was alone for a thousand years." Elisa sighed. "We
can't live without each other."

     "Let me get this straight, then." Elisa remarked, business
like. "You called us here, thinking you would get some great
magician, and now they are all disappointed that friends of their
own kind came instead? Since we first met your people, we have
been treated as the enemy."
     The Mystic looked up at Elisa from the darkness of the cave.
His deep, cold eyes seemed to cool the fire in Elisa's heart.
Angela loved the look of him. An elder Gargoyle of small, frail
build. He seemed holy and wise, and there was a spirit of wisdom
about him. He held his paws on his knees, as he sat cross legged
on the floor, his tail wrapped around him like a blanket. His
wings drooped slightly with age, and his golden color had drabbed
a bit to brown.
     "I did not call any one in particular, my daughter. I simply
called. Since the call came when you were gliding nearby, then
the magic itself chose you." The Mystic Gargoyle said in a quiet,
sonorous voice.
     "Or fate, perhaps?" Angela suggested. Elisa nodded at the
possibility.
     "Whatever your name for it, then. You and your daughter, my
dear, were chosen."
     "For what task?" Elisa asked, rubbing her talons on her
temples, as if to stay the onset of a headache. Obviously, Angela
noted, Elisa was becoming tense with these Gargoyle's lack of
clarity about their reasons.
     "Only a few may get off our island at one time. There is a
great wind around the island which must be passed, followed by a
long, harrowing flight to reach land. From there, one may deal
with the humans who have begun the attacks." the Mystic said.
     "Then let us begin." Angela suggested, and turned to leave.
Elisa caught Angela's arm, and turned her back to face the
Mystic.
     "I don't want to be hasty, here. The Mystic has presented
many problems, and I do not want to be caught off guard. I
presume others have attempted this mission." Elisa explained.
     "Yes." the Mystic replied, clasping his claws together in
his lap. "That is why I sent for you."
     "How did they attempt to brave these winds?"
     "It has been suggested to take them from a great height,
there they have proven less of a threat." the Mystic explained.
"However, none of them returned, except those washed back upon
our shore after crashing back into the sea, out of tiring in
their glide, or having turned to stone and drowned."
     "Can you help us with that problem?" Elisa asked. The Mystic
smiled.
     "No, I have no solution to this difficulty. Most of our
warriors have attempted it and failed. However, since you asked,
and you are the ones I called from afar, I do have one gift that
may help you." he said. He produced a small ring from beneath his
cloak, and handed it to Elisa in his palm. "A great sorceress,
must like you, one wore this. With it she did many mighty deeds.
I believe now is a good time to turn this power over to another."
     Elisa accepted the gift with thanks and bafflement. She
looked at it, carefully. It was a gold ring, with a round blue
stone set in it. As Elisa looked at it, she puzzled over their
predicament. Suddenly, she looked up at Angela with a smile.
"Stone!"
     "What about it?" Angela inquired.
     "Remember the volcano? I'll bet you what happened is that
the spell made us reappear as stone over the volcano. We were
dropped in, and our stone forms met with the molten rock. Instead
of melting, the cool temperature may have cooled the liquid
stone, so that it froze around us, and we were spat back out
again by the volcano, and the freezing liquid stone absorbed the
impact of landing again."
     "Stone can not withstand those temperatures." Angela
debated.
     "Angela, what do you think happens while you and I turn to
stone during the day?"
     "What?"
     "We absorb heat and light given off by the sun, and it
strengthens us. I think our stone forms simply absorbed the heat,
and it at least gave me strength enough to survive long enough to
break free with your help. How did you break free?"
     "I simply was not covered as thickly as you were. You landed
much closer to the opening, and were rained on thickly." Angela
surmised. "I still do not see how this helps us cross an ocean."
     "I having an idea, hang on." Elisa nodded. "What is needed
is somehow to rest during the journey, so that we are not
crashing into the sea."
     "Warriors have tried bringing boats, they were destroyed by
the winds before they departed." the Mystic warned.
     "Not boats," Elisa reasoned, "but just something airtight
that can hold us up during the day, to keep us from sinking."
     "There is nothing here that could hold us up." Angela
stated. "It would break under the strain of two stone Gargoyles."
     "I disagree." Elisa said. "Do you know what happens to your
clothes during the day, Angela?"
     "They turn to stone also. The Magus told us how he studied
these things many times." Angela replied, with a note of regret.
     "That may be the only magic we need, Angela."
     "How so? Whatever we wear turns to stone, and stone does not
float."
     "That's where you're wrong, Angela. I had an engineering
class in college, and we designed and carved a boat from granite,
and went on a trip in it. It was hard to take out of the water,
but it never sank." Elisa recalled.
     "How is that possible?"
     "It has to do with forces. The boat exerted enough force on
the water to prevent it from sinking. If we can devise a stone
boat that is low enough to move through the winds, but large
enough to displace the weight of two stone statues..."
     "Truly, there is wisdom in your words, Gargoyle mother." the
Mystic said, levelling his eyebrows at Elisa. "It is unusual to
have such powers of reasoning among a Gargoyle. Such powers were
deemed at birth only to humans."
     "What, are you saying all Gargoyles are stupid?" Elisa
interjected. "Because I can tell you all about some of the clever
Gargoyle minds I've encountered - some were demented, but still
clever."
     "Isn't it unusual, too that you and your daughter are so
differently colored. An amber mother, a blue lavender daughter."
the Mystic was just a little too keen.
     "What are you suggesting?" Elisa asked, feeling hostility
rising in her mind.
     "You are not Gargoyles. You are humans sent to kill us." the
Mystic said. The ring vanished from Elisa's hand. Elisa looked up
in shock at the Mystic.
     "This is outrageous. I have never been so insulted!" Elisa
began to yell furiously. "Would someone please tell me what is
going on here?"
     Elisa could feel the warmth, like fire in her blood,
creeping into her body. She could feel it like fire in her eyes,
as they glowed.
     The cave, the Mystic, and all around Elisa and Angela began
to shift, and fade.
     "What sorcery is this?!!!" Angela screamed.
     "How much do you want to bet it isn't friendly?" Elisa
added.
     Elisa and Angela hung in empty space, yet for some reason
there was light enough to see themselves. All around them was
black, like hanging in out space itself.
     Suddenly, there were three stars in this space, appearing
before them.
     "The Weird Sisters, I presume?" Elisa asked, a voice full of
irony and sarcasm.
                  Chapter Seven: Light Warriors
     We give you greetings, mortals.
     "That's us, don't wear the name out." Elisa scoffed,
irritated.
     We do not wish to harm you in any way.
     "I presume you're responsible for that little masquerade?"
     Yes.
     Do not fear for them.
     You are not to encounter them for a few seasons to come.
     However, the idea you have planted in the mind of their
spiritual leader will lead to their rescue.
     "What do you want of us?" Angela inquired, outshining Elisa
in patience.
     We have no quarrel with you, human, gargoyle.
     However, a great battle is going to be raged soon.
     You two will find yourselves the warriors of the battle.
     "What word does Oberon have for human battles?"
     Oberon does not care for humans affairs, true.
     He does, however, care for the Gargoyles.
     "What?"
     One thousand years ago, Oberon walked among men.
     He despised their kind.
     Their actions caused our lord to despise their kind.
     Human cruelty caused Oberon to be despised among humans, and
Oberon ordered his children not to protect their kind any longer.
     He bears no qualms with gargoyles.
     A gargoyle once did him a great service
     Gargoyle, you are immune to his arts by his decree.
     We can not harm you.
     Human, you were not a Gargoyle when the decree was given.
     Yet, it should be known that ye are not an enemy of Oberon.
     "I'm sure he's not pleased we sided against him in the
matter of Titania's grandson."
     He was annoyed, true.
     Lord Oberon does not consider that matter relevant, as it
was all a ploy manufactured by Lady Titania.
     "Ah ha." Elisa nodded.
     Oberon considered Goliath's actions commendable, for his
standing up against Oberon in a matter Goliath felt so strongly
about...
     Against such impossible odds.
     To side with one's worst enemy...
     "I see." Elisa muttered, taken aback. Angela could see the
fire had left Elisa's eyes.
     However.
     It is not by his dealing that the two of you are chosen.
     Fate itself holds the two of you in it's grasp.
     Your own destinies have been compelling you to this battle
since the days each of you came into the world.
     "Why this battle? What is so important about it?" Angela
inquired on.
     Each of you holds a pivotal role in the way the world shall
turn in the future.
     Oberon believes it is in his best interests...
     ...to aid the Gargoyles in this battle...
     ...and to fight for the survival of those the dark warriors
seek to destroy.
     It's allies are many.
     It's enemies are few.
     Oberon would be counted among it's enemies.
     It our job to prepare two warriors of light to face the
coming darkness.
     You have passed our test of courage,
     strength,
     and wit,
     and now you shall be engaged in the battle, as Oberon's
challengers.
     The Angels of the Night.

     And then, they were gone. The sun rose again over Manhattan.
(Aria - Yanni)
     "Alright, twenty seconds..." Matt counted on his watch. The
Gargoyles were still asleep on the railing. Matt watched the
numbers tick by.
     "Ten seconds... five seconds... four... three... two...
one... NOW!" Matt exclaimed at the right moment. There was pause
of silence. The Gargoyles had not reawakened, but remained frozen
in stone. Matt tapped his watch.
     What the heck?...
     A shattering of stone filled the air, as the Gargoyles
awoke.
     "I guess there's no accounting for the movement of the sun."
Matt murmured to himself. It wasn't his watch's fault.
     Goliath turned to the detective.
     "Don't worry Matt, we'll find them soon."
     "I hope so." I'll feel kind of ridiculous trying to put out
an APB on Elisa while she's a Gargoyle." Matt replied.
     "That's okay, Matt. We're right here." Elisa cut in.
     The Gargoyles and Matt alike turned to see Elisa and Angela
simply floating in the air a few feet from the balcony.
     "Elisa! Angela!" they all exclaimed at once.
     Both Gargoyles were dressed in pure, shining white robes,
low hemmed in back to accommodate the wings, the skirt was wide
an billowing as they slowly let themselves hover down to the
level of the railing. It was belted with gold woven cloth, and
slender steel sword sheathes gilded in gold hung from them.
Goliath look at his love and his daughter in complete wide-eyed
astonishment. He was completely dumbfounded. Before him were two
Angels of the Night.
     "I know, Goliath. We've got a lot of explaining to do. I
guess you're the officer I make my reports out to now, aren't
you?"

     "So Oberon feels that, whatever this evil is he is
expecting, that it is our common enemy?"
     "Yes. I got the feeling he was rather proud of you." Angela
confirmed.
     "The best part is that it doesn't even get dirty." Elisa
noted, looking admiringly down at the white blouse. She pulled
the sword from the sheath, and twisted it through the air once or
twice. "I don't think it's the type of weapon for a gargoyle,
though."
     "I think it was only meant as a symbol." Angela commented.
"I don't think he expected us to need prowess with a sword to
fight any battle he could not fight himself."
     "That still puzzles me, Angela. What kind of battle can we
fight that he can't?" Elisa asked in puzzlement.
     "I hope we shall soon find out." Angela sighed. Together,
they approached Goliath.
     "Goliath?" Elisa asked. "I have a very important question."
     "What is it?"
     "Do you believe... well, that is do you feel that you... I
mean..."
     Angela cut in. "Do you love Elisa?"
     Elisa blushed at Angela's bluntness. "Yeah... what she
said."
     All the activity in the clocktower ceased, all eyes,
including Matt's, focused in on them. That was not how Elisa
wanted it put.
     Goliath's eyes became suddenly very tender, and Elisa braced
herself -- not knowing what for. There was something new and
untried about this. She felt very strange about it, yet it made
perfect sense, and it felt right.
     Goliath held Elisa's amber face in his claw. "Was there ever
a doubt?"
     ...and then their lips touched.

     The battle has begun, my sisters.
     Indeed.
     We are winning.
     So far.
*   To be continued   *