F I R E B L O O D
                           Episode Two
                     Created on May 21, 1996
             by Dasha Ariel DeMeredith (Cadence@inQuo.net)
                Music suggestions in parentheses.
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     In an alternate reality, where Elisa Maza is a Gargoyle,
warriors of light and darkness are locked in a terrible
struggle...
                            Prologue:
     The war drags on, and all are oblivious to it but us.
     Years have passed. Many Battles have been fought, although
the warriors did not know they fought for life and death. Some
where even won. Elisa and Goliath were married four years ago,
after an eleven month period following Elisa's metamorphosis.
Times have changed, but for them time stands still. Angela has
not doing well, all of her battles have been lost. Vacations,
Halloween activities, hundreds of nights just enjoying each
other's company, have come and gone.
     However, none of these battles between light and dark have
made any difference. Those were not major battles. However,
another major battle is coming. The second battle, the battle of
Eagle, is about to begin.
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                      Chapter One: The Net
     When I was seventeen, I submitted a job placement form onto
The Net. It probably didn't look too shy, computer experience,
scienc background like biology, chemistry, genetics, geology, and
astronomy, writing skill and published poet, boy scout, and so on
and so forth. I thought there must have been thousands of others
like it on The Net. I got one or two minor offers, and one
peculiar offer from an outfit in New York, which paid an
outrageous sum. The job description sounded greuling, but for a
summer job it was a potential gold mine. I sent in a wrough
resume by E- mail to the address posted with it. In less than a
week, I had been mailed a plane ticket. High School hadn't even
let out for the year, yet.
     The form appeared crude, but it served. It listed me under
"Medical Research Staff". What on earth could a company named
"Nightstone Unlimited" want with Medical Researchers that weren't
even 18? I signed it without thinking twice.
     I expected disappointment, so when I came, I was not
surprised. There were at least forty other kids. Still, out of a
nationfull, that still was not too bad. The seminar reviewed a
lot about genetic research, genetic chemistry, hormones,
polymerases, proteins, and DNA. It was rather relieving to find
that, by the end of the seminar, I had followed all of the
topics.
     That evening as I was preparing to take a short walk to my 
overpriced apartment down the street, I tried to find a phone
down one of the side halls, and accidentally bumped into one of
the people in charge. She was a lady of good thirties or so,
really tall, with lots of sharp red hair, and a small sharp face
that seemed to say "I'm hiding something."
     "Oh, excuse me... I'm sorry..." I stammered.
     The other lady just nodded, and was about to contiue on,
when she stopped, and turned to look me full on.
     I probably didn't look very impressive, kinda' short, no
tan, with an overloaded bookbag.
     "Are you one of the Medical team hirelings?" she asked in a
strong, threatening voice.
     "Yes, sir." I replied, formally as possible.
     "Which team?" She asked, impatiently.
     "G team, sir."
     She looked at me, scrutinizing me down. "There's only one
boy on that team - one of the small ones." she muttered to
herself. A glimmer of recognition came into her eye. "You're the
poet, right?"
     "Yes I am, sir." I replied, a little more bravely than
before.
     She smiled. She was easily twice my height and heft, and I
felt pretty small next to her.
     "Ah yes, I remember you now. Salt Lake City boy, seventeen,
a whiz kid."
     I shrugged. "Not on anything in particular." I replied
modestly. That didn't sound too bad, I thought.
     "Yes, you'll do."
     "Sir?"
     "It's alright, we wouldn't have asked you down here if we
were going to let you go right away." she said. I relaxed. "I'm
picking out a few of the medical teams for a certain...
assingment I'm working on. Could you come with me for a few
mintues, please?"
     I nodded, and followed her down the hall. If she was one of
the ones in charge, perhaps I'd found a way to find out more
about what type of genetic research is done here. That seemed
sensible.
     We rode an elevator to one of the upper levels of the
complex, and entered a small briefing room. Out side of the
window, I could see that it was now getting on into the
afternoon.
     A professor in a lab coat was going through a few pictures
of various parts of animal cells. When we came in, the professor
and the other three boys and four girls looked over at us as we
came in, all about my age.
     "I found the other one. We can get started now." my hostess
said.
     Wait a second. If this was the only group like this, why had
I been picked out? The professor began speaking.
     "We've been looking at cell components, so who can tell me
what THIS is?" he announced, producing a multicolored computer
drafted image of a very large molecule.
     The other students stared at it. The fumbled with it.
     "It's organic." one suggested.
     "Well, of course. But what significance does it have to a
human cell?"
     No one replied for a moment. I stepped over to see it. It
was spherical, with several oxygen and nitrogen atoms in it. Most
of all, it had atoms standing erect from the surface of the
sphere in short chains of alternating oxygen and hydrogen.
     "It's a virus." I concluded.
     "Very good." the professor said. He produced another image,
just like it. "Then what is this one?"
     One of the other students said it was a virus. The professor
said it wasn't. I felt elated I had got the first one right.
     It only contained carbon atoms. Not only that, was the shape
of the atoms. It was smaller than the first, and the lines
between the atoms formed a soccor ball shape.
     "A bucky ball." I said.
     The professor and the hostess looked at me. For a moment, I
felt embarrased.
     "Impressive." the professor said. "No one else has gotten
that all day."
     "The problem is that it has those carbon atoms standing out
of the sides." I replied, trying to make the others feel better.
     "Right again. What would you get it you linked those with
potassium ions?"
     I blinked. That seemed a little pointless. "The bucky ball
is a carbon molecule that is used as a superconductor at room
temperature. It's used in laser weapons and in high power
computers."
     "A chemist." the hostess observed.
     "Potassium ions would only affect the way it bonded. It
would bond only once with the carbons on the end, leaving three
spare bonds."
     The professor overlaid the other picture on top of this one.
"Alright, chemist. What can you tell me about this one? What's
the same, besides the shape, especially in those bonds?"
     I studied it for a moment. The other kids obviously new
chemistry, and tried to see what the similarities were.
     "The hydrogens on the end cancel out one charge on the
oxygen atoms, leaving the same three unused bonds." I reasoned
outloud.
     "Brilliant!" he exclaimed. "Both can be used as viruses. A
nano-robot can be coated in this stuff, and it will be able to
attach to a cell. Run an electric change through the medium, and
the robot will detach again. It gives you complete variablity.
There's a problem, though. Because of the way nanities work, they
can't do this job, and besides, they short out when you coat this
stuff on them."
     "We need to desing a virus that might act as a delivery
system to a cell." the hostess said.
     "Many other doctors could probably do it, but we are giving
the younger generation a shot at it." the professor said.
     I had my doubt about that.

(reduce to summary - rewriting required from this point forward)

     Everything went well for a while. We took the assingment in
hand, and collected everything that was known on a virus's system
of delivery. It entered a cell, and the RNA would begin to make
more of them. Once there were enough, they destroy the cell, and
go on to infect the other cells. Making up the delivery system
from scratch proved harder that I expected. Everyone sort of
leaned on me for chemical relationships. We finished planning in
a week, and when we presented our plans, we were quite proud of
them.
     However, I got the definite feeling that we were not the
ones that our tutors were paying attention to. One day after
hours, while I was cleaning up a few things in our work area
before going home. I overheard a conversation between them.
     "Why have you been duplicating the thing thousands of times
over? Your work is getting messy! How can you even know what you
have there? You can't even tell what you have made in there." Our
hostess nearly yelled at the professor.
     "That's why I'm making copies, so that they can be tested,
before they can be used."
     "You fool, the only way to test it would be to use it."
     "You should only use it once, to make sure none of it gets
out, a prototype."
     "Fine. What's the fastest way?"
     "Use one of them. Their delivery system can be used that
way. That's what you had in mind for it, didn't you?"
     The hostess sighed. "Very well. But! I will do it. Which
one?"
     The professor heaved a sigh of relief, and began to discuss
it with her. I would not let myself be seen, so I was sure of my
hiding place, and did not catch the rest of it before they moved
out of earshot.
     I was a quite a bit nervous for the next few days. I had no
idea what they had been talking about, but their tone of voice
made me uncomfortable. They may have even noticed my discomfort.
     That was why I so dreaded being the one to clean up a few
days later. I did it quickly and quietly as possible. When our
hostess came in, and tried to get a sample of the finished
product we were working on, I asked far too many questions, none
of which she was willing to answer.
     So, in desperation, I secretly brought it up with the others
while we were working, and the professor and our hostess were on
the other side of the lab, working on something on their own. I
tried to convince my friends that there was something wrong. They
wouldn't listen to me. The professor overheard.
     Our hostess pulled me aside. I felt like a little kid being
taken out to be spanked.
     "Well, I think we have a volunteer." the professor scoffed.
     "I'll take charge of him."
     I was too frightened to say anything. All I remember was a
sound of air being released from something, like an injector.
Chapter Two: The Hunt
     Elisa was in a blissful mood when she returned from her
patrol that day. Goliath was not quite sure what had brought
about the lighter mood, but he did not comment too loudly when
she and Angela returned from patrol. She was wearing her denim
shorts and black shirt, as usual. She stuttered a bit on her
approach, and she had a few problems with her landing. This was
nothing new.
     Goliath gathered his dramatic mood, and came rushing
forward.
     "Happy Birthday!" the Gargoyles exclaimed, playfully as they
could. Goliath's laugh was caught in his teeth a bit, but it came
out. He handed Elisa the bouque.
     Elisa surveyed the scene with astonishment. Everyone was
here, all except for Hudson. He was probably still out on patrol.
     "Birthday? It's not my birthday!" Elisa laughed. She looked
at Angela, who smiled.
     "It's been five years now." Brooklyn explained, appearing
from the doorway. "So we planned a little party."
     "On this day." Angela added.
     Elisa blushed. "Oh yes, I didn't really think you guys would
remember!" she accepted the bouque with a giggle. She embraced
Goliath, the bouque still in her paw. "Thank you, dear."
     Angela furrowed her eyebrows. "Wait a second, Elisa. You
would normally be more excited if we'd thrown a party for you."
     Elisa turned. "Oh, it's not that, Angela. It's wonderful!
Only, I have a surprise for you guys, too."
     Everyone turned to each other in bewilderment. Elisa walked
over to her and Goliath's room, one of several rooms erected in
the last years or two. There was something large, the size of a
small watermelon in her arms when she emerged. Everyone crowded
around.
     "You wanted to know what I'd been worrying over all week,
and skipping patrol shifts for. This is it."
     In Elisa's arm, purple speckled with pink and gold, was a
Gargoyle's egg.
     Everyone sighed almost simultaneously, except for Goliath,
who positively gasped. Elisa felt a secret sense of triumph that
her own game of deception upon him had worked. Tora, tora, tora!
     "Where's Hudson? He was the one who was helping me to keep
the secret." Elisa laughed. Angela and Broadway looked at each
other, then back to Elisa.
     "Goliath!" Came Hudson's voice.
     "That would be him just now." Goliath commented. "Hudson,
come quickly! Look what Elisa has!"
     "I know! Isn't it wonderful, lads? Goliath, there's
something going on out at the far side, and I need somebody to
come help."
     "Alright, who's the party crasher tonight?" Brooklyn
growled.
     Hudson stammered, "Armed mercenaries are scamperin' all over
the far side... and no one will say anything."
     "It's okay, Goliath. We can come back to this later." Elisa
sighed, placing the egg back in it's safe place. "Let's go."
     The Gargoyles were in the air in minutes, save Broadway, who
protected the egg.
     This was not the night Elisa's egg would be in danger.
Tonight there was danger on the far side.

     The small army of Gargoyles swept very quickly over to the
far side, over by the river on the east side. Sure enough, they
discovored many white vans full of armed men taking up positions
around a certain section of the city. Ordinarily, they would not
have gotten involved, but something else caught their attention.
      A dark shape glided over the scene, bazzoka in her arm.
Blue colored, in loin cloth and rags, was Demona.
     The Gargoyles did not give themselves away at first.
     "What do you think she's doing?" Elisa inquired.
     "Probably interested in whatever the mercenaries are
interested in."
     "I dunno. My instinct says not to get involved." Brooklyn
noted.
     "Well, mine does." Elisa objected, and dived off into the
fray.
     She scanned the interior of the block in question very
closely with her gaze. She was worried about Demona taking a shot
at her, and stayed low. However, Demona was looking at something
else. On the north end of the compoud, a Gargoyle cried out.
     Elisa and Demona dived in almost simultaneously. Since Elisa
was lower, she got to it first. Blue like Demona, he as young as
Brooklyn and Angela. Elisa had never seen this Gargoyle before.
He ran across alleyways, never thinking to glide.
     What kind of Gargoyle is he?
     Elisa set down in front of him. His immediate reaction was
to register an expression of absolute fear at her appearance, and
then turn to run the other way.
     "It's alright, Elisa Maza, NYPD." she shouted. He stopped.
Elisa showed he badge. He turned.
     He was trembling with fright. His face dripped with sweat,
and blood poured from a beaten and cut eye. There was a collar
around his neck with a radio transmitter on it. He was dressed in
a hospital gown, which had been torn and bloodied in several
places.
     Another cry was heard, as Demona then landed on the opposite
end of the alley. "Maza! I told you never to come near me again!
I warned you to keep out of my business! This one is mine, he has
nothing to do with you."
     The reaction of the young Gargoyle was to cower in more fear
of Demona than of Elisa. Demona did not waste a moment, and fired
the shot from her bazooka. Elisa jumped forward, grabbed the
young Gargoyle, and took to the walls of the alleyway, climbing
quickly.
     The young Gargoyle clung to Elisa like a frightened child.
Quite frankly, Elisa could understand. Demona was a terrifying
sort of Gargoyle.
     The blast was horrendous. Elisa was forced to let go of the
wall and glide out with her cargo, because the entire alleyway
shook. Demona fired her weapon at them again and again. Elisa
swooped quickly back to the covor of the others.
     "Withdraw!" Elisa commanded as she reached the others.
"We've got ourselves a guest."
     
     Upon careful inspection, Lexington discovored the tracking
device on him. "Nightstone Industries" he concluded, and smashed
the device between his paws. "Why do bad guys always need to use
these?"
     "What's your name?" Elisa asked the new Gargoyle. He was
still shaking, but he seemed comforted by the fact that he was
with someone who seemed to be concerned for him. His expression
was dubious and suspicious, however.
     "Michael Seveirson, I'm from Utah."
     Goliath suddenly drew a breath. Elisa clutched a first
together. "He's a mutate."
     "He looks like one of us, though." Angela contradicted.
     "A little too much like Elisa." Goliath observed.
     "You were... human once?" Brooklyn encouraged.
     "Ye... Yes." Michael stammered.
     "It's alright, we may not look like it, but we are your
friends." Elisa said soothingly. "The same thing happened to my
brother and some friends of his."
     "Who was she?" he asked Elisa. "She wanted to kill me."
     "Demona. She's been around for a long time, and she has no
love for humans."
     Michael saw Angela, and took an involuntary step backwards.
     "Do you turn into a human, too?!!!" he demanded, voice
wavering.
     "Look alive, lads! Here comes trouble!" Hudson pointed out
Demona sailing along a few hundred feet above, and had aparently
seen them, because she was heading straight towards them. They
could hear her chanting, and her paw had a single talon pointed
toward them.
     "Nu sciencium! Fulminous benite!" she shouted. Michael
suddenly became very tense. He threw his head back, and grabbed
his head in his paws. He screamed, his eyes glowing an ugly,
radioactive green. The Gargoyles tensed to face Demona.
     Michael cried out again. Demona, seeing her spell take
effect, suddenly changed her angle of descent, and curved away
into the Manhattan night with a howl of frustration. "You won't
get away with this, Goliath! He isn't yours! He belongs to me!"

     Angela had been on Avalon for a thousand years, wroughly.
However only around forty years had passed in Avalon. Angela's
age was, to a human's reckoning, half that, or twenty years old,
plus another year or two for the time she had lived since then.
Upon a little closer inspection, Elisa judged the new Gargoyle's
age to be about seventeen (to a human), about Brooklyn's age.
     He was mildly short for a Gargoyle, which put him a bit
under Brooklyn, who himself was a bit short for his age. His hair
was white, and his skin a red orange, like Brooklyn's. There was
a difference though. Elisa compared the shade of the color closer
to her own amber color, than Brooklyn's. Not only that, for a
Gargoyle, he bore a striking resemblance to Elisa's brother
Derek. He was dressed in nothing but the torn hospital shirt he
had escaped from Demona in.
     "Is it possible Demona has gotten into the business of
messing with my family's DNA? That color and face are a little
too close for comfort. What combination of DNA could she have
used that would make this, that would give her some kind of
advantage?" Elisa reasoned.
     "Demona's goals for the last year or two have simply been to
try and break us apart." Golitah pointed out.
     "Right, let's assume that's her motive behind all of this.
If he has my DNA in him..."
     Their eyes slowly drifted to the egg covored in a pile of
blankets next to Hudson's chair, where Bronx lay next to it,
keeping it warm.
     "The egg!" Lexington exclaimed. "Thailog made a combinate of
Elisa and Demona's DNA to create Delilah, so why can't Demona
make a composite of Goliath and Elisa's to simulate the DNA of
the baby?"
     "To create a whole army of demented brothers and sisters."
Brookyln concluded.
     "This is not cute." Elisa concluded. "She must have used
this poor kid as a test subject to make sure her DNA codes would
work."
     The new Gargoyle boy began to stir from where he had been
propped up against the walls of the clocktower. He groaned, and
slumped forward. His eyes opened, and he looked at his paws. The
only expression on his face was utter remorse.
     "It's alright." Angela encouraged. She was afraid he would
react very badly to her words. "We are here to help you."
     His expression became very puzzled.
     "Who am I?"
     Angela did not reply. She was not sure whether he honestly
did not know, or if he meant something more philosophical.
     "What's my name?" he asked. "Who are you? Where am I?"
     Elisa and Goliath exchanged surprised glances.
     "I'm Elisa, this is Goliath, and Angela. Don't you remember
who you are?"
     The Gargoyle boy shook his head. "I don't remember anything.
I don't remember who I am."
     "That spell Demona cast," Goliath suggested, "it could have
robbed him of his memory."    
     "Or his entire mind. What's Demona's best defense if she
can't get him back from us? Wipe his thoughts out so he can't
help us or give away anything he might have known."
     Angela looked at the boy in pity. He touched his talons in
curiousity, as though he had never felt his hands before. So
terrible it must be, Angel thought, to think of nothing because
you remember nothing. To think thoughts empty of thought...
     "You are my half brother." Angela stated matter-of-factly.
     "What is my name, sister Angela?" he inquired innocently.
     "Do you know what a name is?" Elisa asked.
     "Yes, of course."
     "It was Mic... it is Eagle." Elisa said, creating the name
impromptu. "Goliath, here, is your father."
     Elisa received seven puzzled stares.
     "I play the nuances here, guys."
     Goliath turned to Elisa. "Would not it be better to tell him
the truth?"
     "If Demona has a hold on him, then mabey telling him what
little we know about him will cause the spell to kick in again,
and he might lose more than just his memory, but his mind -- his
very intelligence, and general knowledge. If we can create enough
of a life for him here until we can break her hold over him, than
the real memories might return once we have broken the spell."
Elisa explained. Goliath sighed, and agreed.
     The boy sighed. "I am Eagle, brother of Angela." the idea
that he had a place in the world seemed to comfort him, and he
stood up. He looked Angela full in the eyes, and Angela looked
back at him the same way. They did not neccessarily look alike,
but there was subtle hints in their build that they shared a
family origin.
     There was something in that look between them, that
connected them like a common light.
     "What do I do?"
     "You help me and your rookery brothers protect this city of
Manhattan." Goliath explained, waving to Brooklyn, Broadway,
Lexington.
     "How?"
     "We glide around stopping people who try to do bad things."
Broadway explained.
     "Glide? How do I glide?"
     There was a moment of quiet. If he was a mutated human, he
might never have used his wings before.
     "I get to start him off." Angela declared, as though she
were calling dibs.
     "This could get interesting." Elisa sighed.
Chapter Three:  
     Late that night, Angela sat by the small wooden trough
stuffed with hay that acted as the egg's cradle now. Elisa had
taken to calling the trough, the Manger. Angela had never really
seen a Gargoyle egg before, except when she was very newly
hatched. She could not remember that part of her life very well
at all.
     Eagle stuck close to Angela, probably because of her obvious
friendliness to him. She didn't mind. It made her feel good.
Angela just explained everything she could, and when he came
across something even Angela didn't know, they went to the other
boys, and finally to Goliath and Elisa.
     "Why do you do that?" Eagle asked, as Angela softly caressed
the surface of the egg.
     "I don't know. I like it for some reason. Xanatos's baby
Alexander is five years old, now it is our turn. It's almost as
if this egg means something greater for us."
     "It does." Goliath added, resting a paw on Angela's
shoulder. "It is the life of our clan, our future. Never forget
that."
     "It seems somehow appropriate that our worst enemy should be
time itself." was Elisa's comment. "Believe me, eggs are not as
easy as they look."
     "Perhaps we should drop by and see Demona, on account of
Eagle?" Angela suggested. Goliath considered that.
     "Yes, I want to be certain this doesn't happen any more.
However, Angela, Eagle, I want you two to guard the egg tonight.
This is a job for your mother and I."
     "Goliath is very fatherly, isn't he?" Eagle observed. Angela
nodded.


     (That's as far as I ever got. If anyone wants to pick it up
from there, they are very welcome! Just let me know --
Cadence@inQuo.net)