First and foremost, I apologize profoundly for taking so long to update. I guarantee you I have perfectly good explanation for this and that is… I have just finished wrapping up my final quarter at the Art Institute of Dallas.

That's right I'VE FINALLY GRADUATED!!!

Chp. 3 Coffee Break and Reminiscing

*****

Castle Wyvern

Brooklyn had been staring out into the rain and frustratingly waiting for it to stop. If it were to continue on like this it'll be sunrise before he and the other could start the search again. Never before in his entire life had he ever felt so helpless. He had always put up a good fight in battle. He was always there to lend a hand to his comrades. When Goliath chose him as his new second in command he did his best to up hold his new responsibilities whenever the burden fell on his shoulders. Yet now, now he felt absolutely useless as he sat alone in the computer room. This was one of Lexington's favorite places in the castle whenever he wanted some time alone. It seemed like the perfect place for the brick-colored gargoyle to go to for privacy.

The others were waiting for a report from either Elisa or Xanatos. Fox had just recently heard from her husband that his progress was giving negative results. Even with the added help of the steel clan and their high octave sensors they still haven't found their lost hatchling. They still haven't heard from Elisa or Matt on their progress and feared that they weren't having much luck in their search as well. Broadway had notice Brooklyn's absence and went off in search of his brother and Second in Command.

*****

Flashback

As Brooklyn had stared into the dark abyss of the storm his mind began to drift back to a time when he and his brothers were young back in Scotland. He and Broadway had grown big enough to be considered youngling in the clan and were allowed more freedom to explore their surroundings. Lexington, however, had been a late hatcher and had been pretty small compared to all the others. Everyone had treated him like a hatchling for the longest time even when he was old enough to join in Hudson's lessons on tracking and wrestling. But because of his size no one had ever took him seriously whenever he wanted to show his skills. Brooklyn remembered one brother that had been particularly cruel to Lex and was always putting him down by literally pushing him around and acting as if he hadn't seen him. He had been one of the much larger younglings with a more fit body that made Brooklyn look scrawny in comparison.

Strange but it was that night that Brooklyn saw how his littlest brother had been treated like this that had sparked his curiosity. Truth be known, that what Lex lacked physically, he made up for in his intellect. His attention to detail made him one of the best trackers of the cluster's generation and his problem solving skills showed he was more than capable of adapting to his surroundings. However, it was apparent that he didn't know how to use these skills in a physical fight. Whenever it was time to practice; their much larger brother would literally pick him up off the ground with ease, walk towards the boundary of the practice circle and drop him on the other side. All the while, boasting that Lex hadn't been a real challenge and wished that Hudson would stop allowing him to humiliate himself. Unfortunately the rest of their brothers found it comical that the 'runt' had even been trying to compete with them and would often leave him out of their sparring practice circle.

Brooklyn may not have been the biggest himself at the time, but he had known what it had been like to be picked on. His big beak and scrawny appearance had been a constant target for the other hatchlings to hit on. However, seeing how much worse off his smaller rookery brother had been, made something within him snap. One night, after their practice was done, Brooklyn had set off to find the web-winged youngling to talk to him. He found his small brother wrestling with a puppet he had made from sticks and leaves. The strange thing had been that Lexington had been taunting it that exact same way their bigger rookery brother had done to him earlier that evening.

"You're no real challenge," The tiny creature told the puppet after shoving it to the ground, "If given half the chance you'd wouldn't even stay on your feet let alone fight." It became pretty clear that he had been reenacting the earlier incident and had reversed the roles with the inanimate object. "Runts are useless in battle so do the clan a favor and go back to the nest!"

Brooklyn had seen the beginning tears to form in those large round eyes and had allowed the sight of them to fuel his annoyance, "You're not going to let him get away with that, are you?" Surprised that someone had actually been watching him, the tiny gargoyle had turn with a jump, "Come over here and show me what you know."

The near hatchling size youngling stared back at his slimmer rookery brother with astound confusion in his large round eyes. "W-what?"

"You heard me," Now the taller youngling had crouched into an attacking position and readied himself for a pounce, "It's a challenge. Let's just see if there's any truth to what our brother said if you were given 'half the chance'."

Ever since that night, young Lex had become part of his small circle with Broadway and they both helped him use his small size to his advantage during paring. Even back then, it wasn't hard to see that he had been a lot faster than them and by working with speed instead of brawn they had managed to create new way of fighting the best suited his size. By the time they had been through, it was time for the next sparring practice, and their biggest brother had been left stun, dizzy, and surly beaten. They had become the inseparable trio since that time on.

*****

End of Flashback

The brick colored second in command hadn't even heard the door opening behind him as he continued to stare out into the night. "Where did it all go wrong?" His larger aqua brother sighed deeply in a mixture of relief and guilt. Relieved for having found that Brooklyn hadn't snuck out into the fierce storm alone, and guilt for the way he had found him. "We used to be so close…" The beaked gargoyle raised a hand to his head in remorse. "Where did it all go so wrong?"

"Brooklyn?"

He turned towards the familiar voice in a mild startled jump. "Broadway, …have they found anything?" His larger brother's dishearten look had answered his question before hand, "Graa! This is all my fault!" The second in command screeched in rage and self-hatred and slammed his fist into the windowsill.

"Don't talk like that Brooklyn." Broadway pleaded as he made his way towards his distressed brother's side. "It not your fault Lex got spelled…"

"But I am the one who started this whole mess!" Frustrated beyond measure, Brooklyn sat on the chair and had held his head in his talons, faced the window and stared out into the rain again. "If I hadn't gotten so mad and jealous of Lex, this never would have happened."

"Everyone gets like that sometimes." The aqua colored gargoyle tried to reason with him as Brooklyn switched to pace in between the computer and the couch at the far end of the room.

"I'm the Second in Command. I'm supposed to set a good example for all of you." The brick colored gargoyle had paced heavily back and forth from one end of the room to another with restless energy. "I'm supposed to keep my cool when things get to me. Not explode on you guys and make you feel inferior to me." Again, in his anger, he hit his fist against the wall. "Not have you sent away like some dog."

"You didn't have Lex sent away." Broadway fisted his hands at his sides as they shook with emotion. All this negative emotional stress had really been getting to him. "We're the ones who suggested it."

"But only after I…"

"Stop it!" Along with growling with frustration, Broadway's eyes had now been brimming with tears. "Just stop it! I'm tiered of hearing everyone blaming themselves for this!" His wings flared opened in his aggravation. The stress of the whole ordeal had finally gotten to him and it was his turn for a rant. "Elisa's blames herself for losing Lex, Fox's blames herself for suggesting that he leave the castle, Goliath blames himself for agreeing to it, I've been blaming myself for just following along and now you?! Just stop it!"

"Broad…"

"No! None of that matters anymore!" the aqua gargoyle had to breathe deeply before continuing, "It's more important now that we find Lexington and bring him home." He wiped at his eyes once to dry them. "It doesn't matter whose fault it is. All that matters is that he's out there and we have to find him before something terrible happens."

"Yeah, you're right," Brooklyn had realized as he watched his brother stared at him, waiting for a response that he needed a leader right now. "All this worrying isn't helping anyone, especially not Lex." Once again he went to the window and this time rested his elbow on it while resting his head in the palm of his hand so that he could think. "If only we had a clue to where the wind had carried him off to."

"Yeah…" The aqua colored gargoyle sighed heavily as he thought about the entire situation for the umpteenth time that night. "It's not like he'd leave a trail after climbing out Elisa's window."

It had been at that very moment that realization had hit the brick-colored gargoyle like a sledgehammer. "Window…"

"Yeah." Broadway conquered what he had thought to be a question. "Lex was playing with the curtains and…"

"Elisa lives in a penthouse…" Brooklyn stated in a near whisper as his mind had suddenly race back through his early memories as a youngling.

The larger, aqua colored gargoyle raised a brow at that second in command of his clan. Normally his white haired didn't bother to state the obvious but the statement was more like he had just realized what their human friend lived in. "Well, yeah Brooklyn, that's why we're never seen…"

"And the wind was blowing in from the… Hudson!" With new hope building in his chest, the beaked gargoyle practically flew pass his brother running down the hallway, "Hudson!"

"Did I miss something?" Broadway stood alone in the computer room for moment of utter confusion before following his rookery brother out into the hallway.

*****

The Castle Court Room

Through the conversation between the two brothers upstairs, the rest of the clan had in the courtroom listening in on Xanatous's report on the growing situation. Owen was at the main computer control with Fox as she was talking to her husband and passing information back and forth. It was obvious the element where not at all happy and had been making it painfully clear by bombarding anything and everything with unrelenting winds and rain. This was how Brooklyn found them.

"My steel clan and I have searched nearly the entire city." Xanatos voice spoke loud and clear through the voice communication link despite the thunderous noise of the storm around him. "And unfortunately we still haven't been able to find him."

"There doesn't seem to be any interference from the storm." Stated the steadfast assistant as he monitored multiple scans and frequencies at once in his ever-efficient manner. "It could be that perhaps Lexington is too small for the sensors to pick up from the sky."

"Guess that means you'll have to fly lower and risk being seen, dear." Fox informed her husband as she watched the screen that monitored the homing beacon in each on the robots. Especially, the larger red dot that represented her beloved husband's signal.

All at once the stone hallway was filled with the near frantic cries of the youthful brick colored gargoyle. "Hudson!" The young, now very breathless Second in Command nearly passed them entirely in his wild sprinting. "Hudson! I think I've figure out a way to find Lexington!"

"Ye have lad?" The old winged Scot looked towards the youth, hoping that he had indeed thought of a way to find the hatchling. "How?"

Soon Broadway had managed to catch up with his brother in time to hear the huffedexplanation. "Alright, remember back in Scotland when you were teaching us how to use our wings to glide?"

Hudson nodded his head showing that he was following him. "Aye"

"Remember when you told us to always fold our wings at a small arch in order land?"

"Aye, but what does that have to…" It was at that moment that the wise elder had recalled a night when a small female youngling forgot to do so. "Your sister."

"She forgot to arch her wings and wound up being blown into that small ledge just below the cliffs of the castle." The wind had been strong that night too, and Brooklyn remembered how helpless she had been in the swirling current. His smaller rookery's specific build would have had a similar effect. "Lex is a web-wing and can't help but stretch his wings straight in a fall. If we can figure out exactly how hard and where the wind was blowing; than we might figure out where he landed and start the search from there when the storm lets up."

"That's a great idea!" Broadway cried happily as he too remembered the incident. The caretakers were able to retrieve their sister with ease despite the current they had that night. "It is just like what happened that night. It just might work."

"Then lets get started then." Hudson made he way to a table were there lay some maps and blank paper. Taking pencil, he began sketching a birds eye view of the city.

"Good thinking Brooklyn." The aqua brother complimented as they began to gather around the table to help with the plan.

"Your idea."