Gargoyles aren't mine. If they were, I'd be sitting in a mansion right now, being fed grapes by my servants. Disney owns Gargoyles. I own Crystal, and Mike, and Sophia, and all those other characters that were never used in the show.

New Life, New Beginnings

February 2005

She landed atop the tower and looked over her city. Well, it wasn't really her city, she had just been born here. But ever since that one fateful night, the city had become more and more a home to her. If she could really call it a home. There was only one place she had been able to call home in her life, and that had been ripped away from her. Her parents had been victims of a drunk driver two years ago when they were driving back home from a play in the city. Being an only child, nearly everything had been left to her in their wills, including the house, but such a large house was not meant to be occupied by one person. Over time, she had spent less and less time there, only to use it when she needed food, and for her day sleep.

She sighed and pushed her hair away from her face. The only real good thing that had happened since her change was that she had extremely supportive friends. Not including her one friend who witnessed her transformation, she had made it seem as if she had vanished from the face of the earth to everyone. When she had come out of her three month hiding, she was relieved when every one of her friends had stuck by her, and all had kept her secret.

As she gazed over the city, memories of her life as a human came flooding back; the strongest of those memories being the night of her transformation.

June 2003

It was the night of her best friend's university graduation, the girl that, over time, had come to be the little sister she never had. She wasn't in the best of moods, her parents having been killed only three months ago. But she had promised her friend years ago that no matter what, she was going to her graduation. And so here she was, enjoying the night as much as she emotionally could, while trying to ignore the pain in her shoulder blades and tailbone. It had flared up every night for the past month, and there wasn't a painkiller in the world that could help her. But tonight, the pain was almost unbearable. She was barely able to walk, and it was near impossible to move her arms. Oh how she wished this night would just come to an end.

"Crystal!" the calling of her name snapped her out of her thoughts. At least now she had something to help take her mind off the pain. She looked around for who was calling her, and saw the girl of the hour making her way towards her. "Crys, you made it!"

"Of course I did. I wouldn't miss this for the world." she moved to hug her, but the pain brought it to a halt.

"I told you not to come if the pain got to be too much."

She forced herself to smile. "Don't worry about it Soph, I just took some painkillers. I'll be fine soon enough."

Sophia was not one to be taken for a fool. A Muslim with long dark brown hair, kind brown eyes, and short stature, she was a sight for sore eyes. She crossed her arms and gave Crystal a look that said 'I don't believe you.'

"Seriously, I'm fine. Now isn't it time for you to get your diploma?"

Crystal found out the hard way that she wasn't able to sit without pain shooting through her body, so for the entire ceremony, she stood by the doorway. It was far from how she expected the night to go, but she was happy just to be there. By the end of the ceremony, she was barely able to stand, the pain becoming unbearable. Seeing her friend in pain, Sophia ran over to her, and helped her to stand.

"Crys, are you all right?"

She could only shake her head in response. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth, she would scream from the pain.

Not knowing what to do, Sophia led her to the washroom and slid the lock into place. As soon as she had, Crystal bent over, screaming in pain.

Crystal's POV

The pain was excruciating. Every bone in my body now ached and felt as if they were rearranging themselves. It only lasted for about five minutes, but it felt much longer than that. When it was over, I fell to my knees and opened my eyes. I looked at Sophia, and saw her staring at me.

"What? What is it?" she simply pointed to the mirror. As soon as I stood up, I knew something was different; my centre of balance was off, and for some reason, I was standing on the balls of my feet. I looked down, and nearly fainted. My shoes were broken, and instead of five-toed human feet, there were larger, arched, three-toed ones. I looked into the mirror, and stared, wide-eyed, at the reflection. My ears were now pointed, and I had four horns coming out of my forehead. The two centre ones were longer, curving over my head and pointing back, while the two outside ones were curvier, and pointing up. I moved to touch them, when I noticed I only had four fingers on each hand, with long hard claws. I even had spurs on my elbows. But that was nothing compared to the shock of seeing wings. They were a tan colour, close to that of my skin. There were small, three-fingered claws atop them, and they had a sort of bat-glider type shape. Lucky for me I went against wearing a dress and opted for an elegant tube top and skirt ensemble, otherwise I'd be short one dress. I peered into the mirror and noticed I no longer had eyebrows, and instead had a bony ridge. My hair was still black, but my natural red highlights were more visible. I was relieved to see that my eyes hadn't changed colour: hazel with specks of red within them. I took a step back and stepped on something, sending pain through whatever it was I stepped on. I lifted up my skirt, and there, looking like a snake, was a tail. My tail. I even had spurs on my knees.

Universal view

"Crystal? Is that… are you okay?"

"Define okay. I mean, look at me Sophi! I'm not even human anymore!" she sighed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you."

"Hey, it's alright. You're handling this better than I would."

"What am I gonna do? My life is ruined! I don't even know what I am!"

"Hey, don't worry about it." she went and gave Crystal a half hug. "We'll get through this."

Sophia was one of the few people who stuck by her. She had gone to what remained of her family for help, and to find out why she had changed, but they turned her away. Only her cousin had stuck around, helping her out on the inside, but never being able to find out why she had become this… this…

"Two damn years and I still don't know what the hell I am." she had heard reports coming out of New York; she had even seen them on television. There was a strong resemblance between them and her, so did that make her a gargoyle? According to the papers and internet she was. All her life, she was naturally inclined to protect those she cared about. After her transformation, that urge had only become stronger, and because of that, she had begun to protect those in the city. Other than those times, she had managed to keep herself hidden from view. But there was always that one person who would look up and see her.

"What does it matter? What are the chances of someone like me finding out I'm here."

Across the border…

"Hey Brooklyn, come look at this."

The crimson gargoyle walked over to his smaller brother who, again, was surfing the internet. "What is it Lex?"

"There's been a gargoyle sighting, in Toronto."

Brooklyn was sceptical. "You sure this isn't some kind of hoax?"

The green gargoyle shook his head. "No hoax. These reports are coming from acclaimed newspapers. They've even given her the name 'Guardian Degel.'"

"Degel? What's a degel? And how do you know it's a she?"

"It's a mix of the words demon and angel. And it's easy to tell she's a she." he pulled up a picture from the newspaper. It was easy to see the gargoyle had a feminine figure. "That's how."

He nodded. "We better tell Goliath about this."

"It was good that you brought this to my attention you two. Brooklyn, what do you propose should be done?"

"I think we should go and see if this gargoyle does exist. And it'd be good to have another ally." what he said was no word of a lie, but he also had his own motives for wanting to go on this trek.

"Agreed. You two and Bronx will travel to this city and find this gargoyle. See if Xanatos can provide a helicopter. I want you three there as soon as possible."

"Please tell me as to why we had to bring Bronx with us?" They had been searching the city for two hours, and Brooklyn had been given the task of carrying Bronx.

"If it'll make you happy, we can land so you can take a break."

Brooklyn glared at his brother, and quickly landed on a nearby rooftop. He let Bronx down, and the beast immediately started sniffing around.

"You think she's been here?" asked Lex.

"It's her city. Who knows where she's been."

She had been sitting comfortably on a restaurant's rooftop, looking at the stars, when two figures flew above and past her. They had wings and a tail just like her.

"I wonder."

She followed them from a distance, careful to make sure they wouldn't be able to see her. When they landed on a rooftop, she quickly dropped down on the next building and watched them. She realized that there were actually three of them, but one was a sort of dog. It was actually kind of cute too. The other two were more like her. One was green, bald, and had webbed wings. The other one was red, had wings similar to hers, a beak, and really cool white hair. Before she knew it, the dog was looking straight at her, and barking. The other two looked in her direction, and she froze, mostly out of being found. When the red one picked up the dog, she ran for the other side of the building, but just before she reached the ledge, they dropped down in front of her. The dog walked up to her and began to sniff at her. Without warning, the dog jumped on her, knocking her to the ground and licking her face.

"Hey!" she said, laughing. "Get off me!"

"Bronx, get off her!" she felt a big weight being lifted off her, and soon was looking into the face of the red one. "Sorry about that. Are you alright?" he offered his hand to help her up, and she graciously took it.

Brooklyn tried his hardest not to stare at her, but he was failing miserably. With hair that reached the base of her tail, a white form-fitting tank top, and jeans that hugged her hips, she was quite a sight to behold.

"Hey, uh, no problem. Just gives me another reason to take a shower later." she couldn't explain why, but every time she looked at him, she could feel her cheeks start to get warm. "Who are you anyway? I've never seen you around here before."

"Well that's 'cause we're not from around here. We live in Manhattan. Oh, and my name's Lexington."

"You've already had the honour of meeting Bronx, and I'm Brooklyn."

"You're named after places in New York. So then, wouldn't that make you the Scottish band of gargoyles that were put under the sleep spell over a thousand years ago?"

"Yea, that would." said Lex. "But how did you know that?"

She shrugged. "I did a lot of reading back in… when I was younger. Things like myths and legends fascinated me." She mentally kicked herself. She had just met these two a few minutes ago, and she had almost told them that she was once human. ~Watch it girl.~ she thought. ~Who knows what they might do if they knew what you once were.~ which then brought a question to mind. "What are you, anyway?"

The two males shared a confused glance. "We're gargoyles, like you."

She looked at the small gargoyle. "Oh, so that's what I am. About time I found that out."

"You mean, you didn't know?" Brooklyn asked.

"How could I? I thought I was the only one. Sure, there were a million stories coming out of New York, but I was always a little sceptical."

Brooklyn nodded. "Well now that you know what you are, how about you let us know your name?"

"Oh, right. I'm Crystal." she looked out to the horizon, and then at her watch. Still another four hours before dawn. "Look, I gotta go. I'll see you guys after sunset." she turned around to leave, when she felt a hand grab her wrist. Sighing, she turned around to see that it was Brooklyn.

"Where are you going?"

"Home. I've got a long way to travel. Don't worry, it's safe to roost here for the day." she tried gently to get her arm back, but he wouldn't let go.

"So then why don't you stay here with us?" there was a twinge of hope and desperation in his voice.

"Because I've got things to do before the sun rises." she had just met the guy, and already he was becoming more annoying than a lost puppy. "So if you'll excuse me." she forcefully tore her wrist from his grasp, and leapt off the roof.

"You know, acting like that isn't going to improve any chance you might have with her."

"Bite me."

She didn't like the fact that she had to lie to get away, but it had gotten to the point that she had to. She had finally found out what she was, and had met others like her. So why wasn't she happy? It was good to know that even in this form, she was still attractive, but she found it a little odd to have a guy of another species hit on her. Since she didn't actually have anything to do, she decided to pay a visit to her friend Mike in his dorm room. They had been going to the same university, but due to her new circumstances, she had to drop out. Since his room was on the ninth floor, she latched herself onto the wall, and seeing that his light was on, knocked on the window. She only needed to wait about a minute before she heard the window being opened.

"Crystal, I'm a little surprised to see you here." he almost fit your stereotypical Italian physique. Short, black hair, brown eyes, the only thing that he didn't fit was he had a very good, quite muscular build.

"Who else would be knocking on your window? Is it all right if I come in?"

"Yea, sure. It's not like I'm doing anything important." he opened the window further, and stepped back so she could crawl in.

"I'll make it short if you promise to help me out."

He slumped into his chair and sighed. "Alright, I'm listening."

She sat on his bed and told him everything that had happened that night. She even caught herself when she realized she was going into too much detail when describing Brooklyn. She kept it as short as possible, knowing the sun was soon to rise, and he had classes in a matter of hours. "So, what should I do?"

He rubbed his chin. "From what you've said, they seem to be trustworthy, and you've always been a great judge of character. In the time I've known you, you've never been wrong about someone's personality and whatnot." he looked at her, and saw that what he was saying wasn't helping her. "Tell you what. How about you let me meet them? That way I can see them for myself, and you can decide on whether to befriend them based from my opinion. How's that sound?"

"That's a big help Mike, thanks." she stepped over to the window, and placed her foot on the sill. "Same place we always used to meet?"

"Same place."

She gave him a thanking nod before she crawled out the window, and glided back home.

That night when she awoke, she rushed through her nightly routine, made sure her cat had enough food for the night, and quickly made her way back to where she had left the trio of her kind. For some reason, she felt that was she was wearing before was no longer suitable, so she had changed into a tight fitting tan-coloured t-shirt that stopped at her ribs (it should have covered her belly, but she had a long stomach), with a plunging neckline, tight jeans that flared slightly at the bottom, and tied up from the back of her knees to the bottom. They were her favourite pair of jeans, and she didn't want to ruin them, but she knew that she would never revert back to her old form, so she had unwillingly made holes for her tail and knee spurs.

When she was just ten minutes away from the building, she began to get nervous, and she had absolutely no idea as to why. Just as she landed, she pushed those feelings aside. There was no way she was going to show weakness in front of those she barely knew.

Brooklyn's face brightened the instant he saw her. "You came back."

"Of course I did. Did you really think I'd miss the chance to see you guys again?" she saw that what she was wearing had caught his eye. She was not only flattered, but even began to blush.

Lex caught the look Brooklyn was giving Crystal, and shook his head. "So does this mean you're gonna hang out with us the whole night?"

"Of course, but first there's someone I want you guys to meet."

"Two nights in a row Crys. If I didn't know any better I'd swear you were spoiling me." Crystal wasted no time in getting the guys to the meeting place, not too far from the golfing range in the city. Before they had left, she had seen the look Brooklyn had on his face when he realized he would have to carry Bronx - again. Not wanting him to - well, suffer - through the flight, she offered to help carry him. What she didn't expect was the near-loving look she kept getting from him since then.

"Flattery will get you flattened." she went to give him a hug, and out of habit, he reached and slapped her butt. She quickly pulled back, and lightly slapped his chest. "Mike!"

He simply shrugged. "Couldn't help myself."

She smiled and shook her head. She did a quick introduction between the four, and was going to wander off, when she noticed the glare Brooklyn was giving Mike. Knowing something was going to happen, she stuck around. There was no way she was going to allow a new acquaintance to harm one of her best friends.

Four hours had gone by, and Crystal needed something to do, and soon. The boys had remained civil - to a certain degree. Mike and Lex had hit it off almost immediately. If she didn't know any better, she would say that those two had been lifelong friends. Brooklyn on the other hand, wasn't as kind. He was just one step short from being an interrogator. He had asked Mike questions about his personal life almost non-stop, and it was getting on her nerves. Brooklyn had no to reason to hate Mike, so why did he? She suddenly envied Bronx, knowing the gargoyle beast never had to worry about things like these.

In those few moments where she was lost in thought, she could feel herself becoming tense. She started paying attention to what was being said, and nearly went into shock. Mike was telling the guys of how the two of them had met. This was something she really didn't need. This was not how she wanted them to find out she was once human. She wasn't sure if she even wanted them to know she was once human.

"Uh, Mike?" she interrupted. "Can I speak to you for a minute?" she didn't even wait for him to reply, she just grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of earshot. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"You can't tell them how we met!"

Mike looked confused. "Why not?"

"Because, genius, we met in high school. Remember?"

"Yea, so?"

She was getting frustrated at his stupidity. "I haven't told them I was human before, and I'm not sure if I want them to know either."

It was like a light switched on in his head. "Oh, right. I almost forgot."

"Good to know I can trust you on these kind of things." she replied sarcastically. She pushed him back to the group. "Sorry about that, guys. Just had to check something."

"Is everything all right?" Brooklyn asked.

"Just fine Brook, just fine." she roughly patted Mike on the back.

"Ow, yea."

Lexington quickly started up another conversation with Mike, something which sounded a lot like techno babble, and in no time, both Crystal and Brooklyn were bored.

Knowing that this could go on for a while, Brooklyn walked up beside Crystal. "Hey, wanna go for a walk?"

Not wanting to die of boredom, "Yea sure. Anything to get away from," she waved her hand at the two geeks. "This."

They both had the same thought running through their minds. If they knew that they were going to be too shy to break the ice on the first time being alone together, they would have never gone for a walk. One of them needed to say something, and soon.

"So, uh… how long have you been living here?"

~Oh thank you for starting!~ she thought. "My whole life, actually." she was about to ask him the same question, when she remembered that he had been living in Manhattan for ten years. "So, how old are you anyways?"

"Well, do you want it in human years, or gargoyle years?"

"You mean you age at different rates?"

"Yea, half as fast, actually."

"Really? Well there's something you don't hear everyday."

He cast a quick glance at her. "How could you not know that? No, wait," he shook his head. "What I really meant to ask… was… what happened to your clan?"

She cast her eyes down. She again would have to lie to him, but was going to make her story as close to the truth as possible. "I never… knew my clan. As far as I know, I never had one."

"You're not saying you grew up alone, are you?"

She had to smile at that. "No. I was raised by a human couple, and they took care of me up until two years ago, when they were killed by a drunk driver."

He placed his hand on her shoulder, and she stopped walking. He stood in front of her to face her. She looked into his eyes and noticed they were hazel. She always had a thing for eyes, and the fact that his were just so… alluring and deep… it just made her tingle inside. "I'm really sorry to hear that. I know how it feels to lose a family."

Crystal nodded and lowered her head. Just thinking about her parents brought back memories, and nearly brought her to tears. Before she knew it, Brooklyn had cupped her chin with his hand, and raised her head. He looked lovingly into her eyes, as they slowly brought their heads closer together. Just before their lips met, she turned her head, and he ended up kissing her cheek. He pulled back with a confused look on his face. She placed her hands on his, and lifted them off her. "I'm sorry. I… I can't do this."

"It's okay. I understand."

"Maybe we should start heading back."

"Before we do, there's something… I wanted to ask you." he had known her for less than a day, and he could barely believe he had such strong feelings for her. There was just something about her that made him fall for her almost instantly. "I… would you… that is… I was wondering…" ~Damn it, just spit it out!~ "Come back to Manhattan with me? With us?"

"What? Oh, Brooklyn, I don't know. My whole life's here. Not to mention there wouldn't be anyone to protect the city." what he asked came completely out of the blue, at least for her. She cared for him, more than she thought she could in such a short amount of time. But she couldn't just leave her home behind, could she? Would she be able to just leave her house and ask her friends to watch it for her, or would she have to sell it? She would be leaving so much behind, but in turn, she'd be gaining a family, with members that were like her.

Her hesitation didn't bode well for him. "Will you at least think about it?"

That brought a smile to her face. There weren't many things that made her happy these days, but a person - even better if it was a guy - that was willing to wait for her, was one of the few things that did. "I definitely will."

"Well, look who decided to come back and join us." Crystal ignored Mike's comment, and pulled him away again. "You know, you really have to find another way to have a private conversation with me."

Once they were far enough, she let him go. "What do you think of them?"

"I think they're great, especially Lex, but I'm not too sure about Brooklyn. He seems to have something about him that I don't quite like."

"Don't worry about that. It's been dealt with."

He knew something was up. Whenever she wouldn't meet his eyes, it always meant she was hiding something. "Crys? Something wrong?"

She suddenly found her fingers interesting. "Well… Brooklyn… he asked me to go back to Manhattan with him."

"Well that, somewhat, explains his behaviour." she quirked an eye ridge. "You went on a walk with him, you should know then that he likes you." he smiled. "I noticed the look he gave me when I slapped your ass. It was one of jealousy." he looked off to the side. "Don't look now, but he's giving me that look again." she looked out of the corner of her eye, and saw that even though Brooklyn was having a conversation with Lex, he would look up every now and then and glare at Mike.

"I'll talk to him about it."

"Nah, don't bother. Now, I want details. What happened on that little walk of yours?"

She pretended to be hurt. "I can't believe you would think like that. Do you really think I'm that easy?" the look on his face told her everything. "Thanks, that's really thoughtful of you."

"I'm kidding. Now c'mon, tell me what happened!"

"Nothing… happened." he simply looked at her and did his liar cough. "Alright, alright. We almost kissed, but I turned away at the last second."

"You didn't!" she nodded. "So you aren't as easy as I thought. Good to know."

She glared at him. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"

He looked at his watch. "Well look at that, you're right! Wanna walk me to my car?"

"I would, but I'm afraid that you'll say something stupid and I'll act upon the thought of throwing you into the lake."

"Right. Gotcha. See you soon." they hugged once more before he ran off to his car.

"So guys, ready to leave?"

Lex stopped scratching Bronx's belly. "Leave where?"

"To my place, of course. Did you really think I was going to let you sleep on a rooftop again?"

The flight had been a long one, with both Brooklyn and Crystal complaining about having to carry Bronx. "Well, look at it this way. Where we're going, Bronx can run around freely, without anyone seeing him."

Brooklyn repositioned his arm around Bronx's front leg. "So how much farther?"

"We should be there in about another minute or so."

Lex took a look at the surroundings. "You weren't kidding when you said you lived in the middle of nowhere."

Within a minute, they had arrived at Crystal's home. It was somewhat large, and was an 'L' shape; the house itself being one half, and the garage, the other. They touched down on the driveway, and let Bronx start running around.

Lex looked around. "You know, in a way, this place kinda reminds me of the days of Wyvern."

"How'd you get a place like this anyway?"

"My human parents left it to me in their will. C'mon, let's go inside." she led them across the driveway and up the steps of the veranda, before she suddenly stopped. "Uh, can Bronx stay out here on his own?"

"We better bring him in, just in case." Brooklyn whistled. "C'mere Bronx!"

Bronx tromped his way across the lawn and jumped onto the veranda, nearly knocking Crystal over. He stopped and sat right in front of the door, his stub of a tail wagging furiously. She took the key out of her pocket and unlocked the door, still laughing from the gargdog's behaviour. She made sure to leave room as she opened the door, knowing - and proved to be correct - that the beast would just blast through once there was enough room for him to fit through.

"Welcome to my humble abode." because of the amount of space within, the house looked much bigger than it did on the outside. "While you guys are visiting, consider this your house. Nothing is off limits."

"Cool place you got here, Crystal." exclaimed Lexington. "You wouldn't happen to have a computer with internet access, would you?"

She chuckled. "Yea I've got a laptop, it's in the kitchen. Knock yourself out."

Not wanting to seem too eager, Lex sped walked to the kitchen, with Bronx following behind him.

"Why is it that you two keep using my full name?"

"We've had a bad experience with giving a nickname to a girl." she motioned for him to follow her into the family room, where they could sit on the couch. "There's this girl, Angela, she's the daughter of our clan's leader, and the first female we had seen in over a thousand years." he decided to leave Demona out of the story for now. He'd tell her about the she-demon soon enough. "Anyway, Lex, our brother Broadway, and I all wanted to be the one that she would choose as a mate, thing is, we really didn't know how to go about it." he let out a little laugh, remembering how stupid he and his brothers had acted. "Besides acting like complete idiots, we had given her the nickname 'Angie,' and she really didn't like it. She ended up yelling at us in order to make us stop calling her that."

"Cute." she giggled. "Very cute. But no need to worry, I'm pretty much fine with any nickname…. except Christie. Never call me Christie."

Brooklyn smirked. "You don't like having the name of a cookie company?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You've been warned." she smiled and looked down at her watch. "Shit! The game!" she jumped to her feet. "You hungry Brook?"

"Uh, yea. A little." she nodded and raced into the kitchen. He heard a few words being shared between her and Lex, and within a few minutes, Crystal had returned with a few cans of coke and a bag of chips.

"Pizza should be done in about ten minutes." she quickly grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels.

"Whoa, slow down there Crys. What game are you talking about?"

She didn't remove her eyes from the screen. "The hockey game of course. Toronto Maple Leafs versus San Jose Sharks." she found the channel and saw that it was still the pre-game show. She turned her head to look at him. "Don't you watch hockey?"

"Well Hudson, our clan elder, watches Celebrity Hockey. I watched it once with him, but I just couldn't take to it."

She scrunched up her nose. "Ugh, fake hockey. Believe me, this is way better. And remind me to have a word with Hudson about that."

Inside he smiled, thinking that she was going to agree to go to Manhattan with him. "So, how much longer 'till it starts?"

"About another five minutes." unconsciously, she moved to sit closer to him. She didn't realize she had until she felt her tail accidentally brush against his. Not wanting him to think she was rude or anything, she decided to just stay where she was.

The game was an exciting and eventful one for both of them. Even more for Brooklyn, to his delight. Every time her team, the Leafs, scored, she would jump to her feet and do a little dance, and he enjoyed every second of it.

By the end of the game, the two of them had consumed two pizzas, two bags of chips, and four cans of coke. Crystal flopped onto the couch after doing her victory dance, and was a little exhausted from being so into the game. "Man, that was a good one. So what'd you think Brook?"

~There's more to this chick than I thought.~ "Better than I expected. You seriously know your sports."

"You ready for Round Two?"

"You mean there's another one?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "One thing you need to know while in this country: we're hockey nuts. Nothing is more important than our game."

He smirked. "So you're telling me you're insane?"

Crystal pretended to look offended. "Why I never!"

"Oh yea?" he poked her side with his tail, causing her to giggle. "Ticklish, are you?" he poked her again, and before either one of them knew it, they had gotten themselves into a tickle fight. They tousled for a while before falling onto the floor, with Brooklyn on top, straddling her hips and pinning her hands above her head.

"Ahem." the two gargoyles looked up to see Lex standing at the entrance of the room with his arms crossed. "Do what you want, but could you at least keep it down?" he left as suddenly as he had appeared, mumbling something about them being overzealous and immature.

For some reason, Crystal no longer felt comfortable in the position she was in. "Uh, maybe we should do a round of patrol."

He didn't want to, but he knew it had to be done. "Yea, I guess we should." he got up off her and helped her to her feet. "You wanna break the news to Lex that he has to get off the computer, or should I?"

"Actually, I was thinking we just leave him there. Besides, we need someone to make sure Bronx doesn't tear apart my house." Brooklyn opened his mouth to say something, but she quickly silenced him. "Just trust me." she led him out of the room and pushed him towards the front door. "Hey Lex! We're going out for a bit. You don't mind staying here and watching Bronx do you?"

"See you guys later."

"See?" she closed the door behind her. They climbed onto the roof and glided towards the city.

"So you patrol, every night, by yourself?"

"Well not every night, but yeah, since I'm the only one in the city." she paused to take a look at the city. "How'd you do it?"

He looked at her. "Do what?"

"Live your life, thinking you were the only one of your kind."

"Well, I had my clan there with me. We were there for each other. But Crys, you've lived without a clan your whole life, and you've always thought you were the only gargoyle. I admire you for that. I don't think I would have been able to do it."

"Uh, yeah." she couldn't keep the lie going. It wasn't fair to him, and in the end, she'd only make it worse for herself. "Listen, Brook, there's something I gotta tell you." It was at that moment that two shots rang out. One hitting her arm, and the other pierced her wing. "Aahh!" she tumbled out of the sky and landed in the middle of the road.

"Crystal!" he swooped down and landed beside her. "Crys, are you okay?"

She propped herself up with her other arm. "I will be tomorrow night."

"C'mon, let's see if we can get you fixed up." he was helping her up when he heard a bullet being loaded.

"You ain't goin' nowhere." Brooklyn looked up, and was staring down the barrel of a gun. He looked further up, and saw the gun holder wearing an all too familiar blue uniform and mask. "Looks like we got ourselves a little something extra, don't we boys?" Brooklyn looked around to see that he and Crystal were surrounded… and in the middle of the street.

"I guess you morons don't care about subtlety anymore."

"What do you care monster. You'll be dead soon enough anyway."

He growled. "Not if I have anything to say about it." his eyes went ablaze, as he snapped the gun out of the man's hand with his tail. Before he knew it, half the group had tackled him, and he was having a hard time dealing with them. He managed to throw most of them off him, but to his displeasure, one of the Quarrymen shocked him with his hammer, bringing the crimson gargoyle to his knees.

"Brooklyn!" his head snapped up at the sound of his name, and saw the Quarrymen carrying Crystal off into their van. She was desperately trying to fight them off, but she was injured and badly outnumbered. They shot her with a tranquilizer, and she desperately tried to fight off its effects.

"Crystal! NO!" he struggled to his feet, and continued to fight off the rest of the Quarrymen.

"Brook... lyn!" that was the last thing she was able to scream out before the drugs finally took effect. To Brooklyn's surprise, as soon as they had loaded Crystal into the truck, they stopped attacking him and jumped into the truck themselves.

He roared. "COWARDS!" he scaled the nearest building and followed the truck. There was no way he was going to let these monsters get away with this. He followed them to an abandoned warehouse, near the edge of the city. He knew he couldn't just barge in; they'd kill him, and probably Crystal too. He was going to need help with this, which meant he was going to have to get Lex.

"LEX!" he nearly smashed the door when he opened it.

The green gargoyle quickly shut off the computer and ran to the front door. "What? What is it?"

The anger and worry Brooklyn was feeling was now at its breaking point. He felt like yelling, screaming, and crying at the same time. "Crystal... she... the Quarrymen... Damn it Lex! They have Quarrymen here! They took Crystal!"