Chapter 10

Inside the building site:

Inside the building's superstructure Argent's senses were working overtime filtering out sounds and scents trying to locate not only Demona and Bloodwulf, but Delilah as well. He caught Delilah's scent as well as Demona's coming from the 10th floor above him. He was about to make his way to the construction elevator, intending to climb up but stopped when its doors opened for him.

"Come on up Argent!" Demona's voice called down to him. I Wouldn't dream of starting my little party without you!"

Getting into the elevator he could only wait and make himself ready for the attack that he knew would eventually come. When the doors opened at the 10th floor he found Demona waiting for him, Bloodwulf was at her side, and Delilah was hanging by her wrists from shackles thrown across an overhanging beam.

"So nice of you to join us," Demona said while slinging her laser rifle over her shoulder in a casual manner. She strode over to a small up-right control panel, and with the push of a button closed the elevator doors and sent it back down to the ground floor.

"All right Demona, enough games. What do you want?"

She smiled at him. "I already have what I want," she blew a kiss at Bloodwulf. "The finest warrior ever produced! What I need is another matter altogether. I need your head, and it need not be attached to your body!"

"My head! What the hell for?"

"That's for me to know, and you never to find out. Now we don't have much more time left until the police arrive so let's get this over with quickly, and don't be concered with your little play-toy. I may give her to Sevarius as a bonus, or I just might let Bloodwulf have her for a while as a gift to play with!"

"You bitch!"

Demona's eyes flared red in anger. "Bloodwulf, kill him!"

Argent watched as his near mirror image advanced on him wearing a savage grin.

"I don't know what I'll enjoy more, killing you for my mistress using your play-toy in so many different ways, but I guess I'll soon find out!"

Bloodwulf lunged at Argent, who met the assault with equal force as well as fury. The two of them locked in a struggle to the death!

Outside, on the costruction site grounds:

Lex had been examining the laser grid, while high above the sounds of battle caried down to the group of frusterated Gargoyles. Behind him a car came to a stop. Bronx barked at the arrival of Elisa and Matt while Maggie and Derek flew in from above. Lex continued his examinations as Goliath filled the newly arrived group in on what had occured. After a few more minutes he went back to inform Goliath of his findings. "There doesn't seem to be any way inside that I can find. The laser grid is shielded against attack so there's no way to knock it out from the outside."

So that means Argent's on his own for now?" Maggie asked.

"At least until we find a way to shut those beams down," Lex said. "If anyone tried to glide through them it would be really bad."

"How bad?" asked Broadway.

"Ever hear the story about the poodle in the micro-wave?" Brooklyn asked him. Broadway looked even greener than usual, but he got the hint.

Twin roars of fury broke the group's attention and drew their collective gaze to the 10th floor where the ring of metal on metal, and flashes of light could be seen.

"There must be something we can do to help him!" Derek said while clenching his fists in frustration.

"I got it!" Broadway said. When Lex got the the information on Bloodwulf from the computer at Bio-Med, he said that Bloodwulf had something inside his head connected to some kind of nerve."

Lex slapped his own forehead. "Of course, I forgot all about it!" He dove for his computer and began calling up the file. The small computer screen glowed as it showed an outline if Bloodwulf, and the small device implated inside of him."

"How could that wee thing inside him be help'n us Lad?" Hudson asked with an uncertain look.

"It's device that monitors Bloodwulf's vital signs, but it does something else too." He typed in a command and the screen zeroed in on the tiny device. "It's hooked into the Thalmic nerve, that's the part of the brain that controls pain in the body."

"I doubt Demona would have had such a device implanted in her own warrior if it was programed to obey her as Bloodwulf has," Goliath said while looking up once more as the sound of battle continued. "Sevarius must have placed it there without her knowledge to insure his own saftey in the event that Demona would betray him."

"So how is that going to help us?" Brooklyn asked.

"This has all the information on the implant, including what frequency is being used to monitor him and what the broadcast frequency is it to feed the pain signal into his brain! I can try and modify my communicator to broadcast on that frequency for a few seconds."

"But that's not going to help us get inside to help Argent and Delilah," Maggie said with a worried look on her face.

"She's right," Derek said. "The minute you broadcast that signal and Bloodwulf drops, Demona will kill the both of them."

"I never thought I'd be hoping for a power blackout until tonight," Brooklyn sighed while closing his eyes. When he opened them everyone was staring at him. "What?"

"You're a genius!" Elisa said while running back to her car to use her police radio to try and reach someone at the power company to shut the power off for the block.

"Demona has to be using city power for that grid, as soon as Elisa can get someone to shut it off for this block then we can get inside!" Lex slapped his rookery brother on the back. "I guess hanging around me is starting to rub off.

Elisa came back to the group with a worried look on her face. "I just talked to city water & power. They said it would take at least a half hour before they could get someone down to the tunnels to shut the power off."

"That's not going to be soon enough," Goliath rumbled.

Maggie and derek looked at each other and spoke one word at the same time. "Claw!"

Goliath looked at them.

"Claw is already down in the tunnels!" explained Maggie while derek used his communicator to talk to Claw and explain what they needed him to do."

"Tell him that we will need to time the attack together. Lexington will broadcast his signal to disable Bloodwulf first, them have him shut the power down, That should distract demona long enough for us to make our move!"

Derek spoke into his communicator. "Did you get that Claw, wait for our signal before you shut it down."

"No worries!" came the Mel Gibsonized voice of Claw via his own special communications unit.

"I just hope we don't get up there too late," Gloliath said to the group.

Across town at Bio-Med labs:

Anton Sevarius looked up as one of his interns barged into his private office without knocking first. He steepled his fingers and with a withering glance stopped her before she could utter a sound. "Do you think that if I looked hard enough, that I would have even a remote chance of finding the DNA strand for common courtesy so that you could remember to knock before entering?"

The intern winced. "Sorry doctor, but I thought that you would want to know that the alarm on the life-sign monitor in your lab has just activated."

Only a fraction of a second after she finished her statement, Sevarius was out of his chair and sprinting down the hallway. When he reached the lab he went to the monitor console, and began studying the readout of data that was being transmitted from Bloodwulf's implant. Even for a being like Bloodwulf, they were almost off the charts! "What the hell could he be doing?"

Back at the construction site:

"Why don't you just give up now," Bloodwulf snarled as he threw Argent back against a connecting beam where he slumped to the ground for a moment before recovering.

"Why don't you go to hell!" Argent seethed back at him while wiping the blood from his eyes. While both of them were evenly matched in strength, speed, and power Argent knew that Bloodwulf was winning the battle; he was obviously the better trained fighter of the two of them.

Bloodwulf sneered and grappled once more with the bloodied Argent, throwing him towards the chained Delilah, landing on his back. He strode over and stood over his fallen prey. He placed a foot on Argent's chest while reaching out to pull Delilah towards him. "I think that before I kill you, I'll make you watch as I cut her throat, so she will die knowing that you were too weak to protect her!" He ran a sharpened claw slowly across Delilah's neck. "What do you say to that, you weakling cub?"

Argent looked up and his vision began to blur. The image of the laughing Bloodwulf about to gut Delilah's throat shifted and changed. The image now before him was of a burly man with a mane for red hai and a long red beard who was holding a knife against the throat of a woman with white hair. As he watched the man smiled and drew the knife across her neck and dropped her lifeless body to the ground. "What will you do now... weakling cub?" he laughed. "No!" Argent moaned as he tried to move. "No! Not again!" His anger boiled up from within him as his hands reached out for some kind, any of weapon. His fingers wrapped around a peice of metal rebar that had been left on the floor. "Not again!"