GARGOYLES: Re-Awakening

Battle Lines: 1

Goliath stretched out his hand and grabbed Demona's, covering the small stick she was holding.

"What are you doing?!" She cried.

He turned to face her. "Stop," he said. "This must end."

She looked at him, astounded.

"This is our chance, Goliath," she said. "I had one of Xanatos' sniveling humans embed a code that gives me control of these mechanical monstrosities. We have the power now! We can finish them and the fix all that has happened. We must!"

Goliath turned to face her. He grabbed her other hand with his and held her tightly.

"No, my love," he said. "The killing must stop. The ending of life must stop."

He looked at Elisa, Owen, and Xanatos, then began again.

"To do this would make us little more than...executioners." Goliath turned his head and looked her in the eyes again.

"And if we go back and change what has been, we will end countless lives. Lives that exist because of the past—because of our past." He paused. "We would be far worse than executioners."

"That does not matter!" Demona yelled. "Life goes to those who are strong enough to survive. That is all! There is no more!"

"That is not strength, Demona. It is selfishness. It is cruelty," Goliath said. He intensified his look into her eyes. He was desperate to get through.

"We had our time, and we made our choices," he said. "It is not for us to erase our errors at the expense of those whose lives have yet to unfold."

For an instant, Demona's face softened and Goliath felt the muscles in her wrists relax. Her eyes sparkled a little stronger—they were moistening ever so slightly. She was within reach, Goliath realized. He just needed one more push, and maybe they could start a new life.

But it was not to be. Just as Goliath was about to lean in to Demona, the doors leading into the castle swung open and Matt, Captain Abott, and officer Rollins spilled into the courtyard with their guns drawn.

"Everybody freeze!" Bluestone yelled.

The exceptionally poor timing of it was underlined by the fact that as he yelled, no one was moving anyway. But there was no chance for the absurdity of the situation to come to light because, with everyone focused on these three new intruders, Xanatos took the opportunity to make his move. Suddenly, he dropped his body weight. The arm of the steel Gargoyle that was holding him was yanked downward. Xanatos knew that it would take the system a split second to react. The robotic arm had to sense the new movement, then stiffen in response. It could handle that one degree with relative precision, but unlike a human, it would be somewhat slower to immediately pivot to the next move, and then it would be too late. Namely, as soon as Xanatos was at the bottom of his drop, he fired his jet pack. The sudden change in direction was too quick for the steel Gargoyle to react to. Xanatos propelled himself upward and the Steel arm, still stiff from the previous movement, was ripped clean off the side of the robot. As soon as he was free and above the scene, he opened fire on the one armed steel Gargoyle and it exploded, knocking everyone back and, most importantly, free from the other steel Gargoyles.

Goliath found himself on his side, several feet from where he had been. It took him a few breaths to reorient himself. To his left, he saw Demona slowly pull herself up. She looked at the chaos around her and her eyes flashed with anger. Quickly, she shot to her feet. She raised her hand, which still held the control stick, and spoke into it.

"Engage all targets," she said.

The rocket packs on each steel Gargoyle fired simultaneously and they rose a foot into the air together. From there, they began shooting at whatever targets were in sight.

Everyone scattered. Goliath jumped to his feet. He watched Demona rush to the doors leading inside the castle. He was able to take a few steps in pursuit but was then stopped by a steel Gargoyle, which appeared directly in front of him with its arm raised and the barrel of its weapon pointed straight at his face. He had no choice but to lunge forward and grab both its wrists. Its strength was impressive. Wrestling with it took all of his focus, and the last glimpse of Demona he could get before being forced to deal with the immediate problem was of her tail disappearing inside the castle.

It was highly unsettling for Goliath to be looking into the face of the robotic Gargoyle he was grappling with. It looked like him, but it was cold and hard. He did not like it. The two spent several seconds looking at one another before the battle of strength began. The steel Gargoyle started attempting to move its arms apart. Goliath tightened his grip. One could hear the strained whirring noise that increased in volume as the steel Gargoyle attempted to free itself. Goliath could sense that they were fairly close in strength. He also sensed that this Gargoyle was crude. Its movements were one directional, so Goliath's path was clear. He suddenly stopped resisting on the right side. The steel Gargoyle's arm lurched to the right. At the same time Goliath stepped with his outside leg into the lurch, pivoting underneath the steel Gargoyle's left arm. With his back now turned to the machine, he swung his own arm sharply downward. That, combined with the loss of equilibrium from his previous move was enough to send the steel Gargoyle over Goliath's head and face first into the stone ground. The impact forced the head backward with such violence that the seam at the neck split. Sparks peppered the ground and smoke began flowing out. Goliath wasted no time. He stepped forward onto the back of the machine, reached into the split with his talons and, with a jerk, yanked the head backward, nearly severing it entirely from the body. The limbs went slack and the battle was over.

His leg still on the back, Goliath looked at the surrounding scene. The rest of his clan was locked in battle, but he could see that they were consolidating their positions. As the Elder grappled with one machine and the red Gargoyle with another, they were also moving toward one another, bringing themselves slowly back to back. His next concern was Elisa. He searched for only a second before seeing her and the other humans positioned next to the staircase leading up the castle wall. They had weapons drawn and trained on the steel clan but they were not firing. It was clear that they were hesitating to fire for fear of hitting the wrong target.

Goliath trusted his clan and he trusted Elisa. He did not take a further look and instead turned his attention to the problem that he knew only he could deal with. He ran toward the door Demona had disappeared through.