Chapter 3

A few weeks later, at the headquarters for Nightstone LTD. The private office of Dominique Destine (AKA Demona)

"Ms. Destine?" the voice of her secretary called from the doorway.

Demona, in her human form, looked up from her desk. "Yes, what is it?"

"The package you've been expecting from one of the outside contractors has arrived." She entered the office and placed a sealed box on the desk.

"That will be all, and hold my calls for the next hour. I don't wish to be disturbed by anyone... understood?"

"Yes Ms. Destine." The secretary beat a hasty retreat back to her station.

Demona opened the package and took from it a folder of papers, and a laser disc. She went over to a wall console with a large monitor screen, and placed the laser disk in a slot on it's front. She then went back to her desk and pressed the play button on a remote unit, then started to look at what was in the folder. Images of a night-time city-scape filled the screen, and as the disc played the images of Goliath's clan appeared. A few moments later she hit the pause button on the remote, as the being called Argent came into view.

She had hired an outside contractor to covertly film the Gargoyles on their nightly patrols, and as she suspected, he was there right along side them. The covert film unit had staked out known trouble spots throughout the city in order to get these shots, and it had been worth every penny! She hit play once more, and watched as the Gargoyles along with Argent broke up a gang fight. She slowed the action down as Argent tossed two humans backwards, then turned to meet the rush of a third from behind with a short blast from his hand followed by a leg sweep. She noticed the fighting style was similar to Goliath's, and knew he must be training him. The scenes on the screen changed a few times but each one showed Argent and Goliath's clan fighting side by side. She looked down at the file folder for a moment, but when she looked back up she almost shredded the paper that she was holding with her nails in anger. There, on the screen standing next to Argent was the play-toy that Thailog tried to replace her with, the clone... Delilah! The disc played on and she saw her a few more times, sometimes with Argent, and sometimes with the rest of the clan... but when she with Argent, they seemed to be very friendly towards each other. When the disc ended, she studied the papers in front of her more carefully. Her research team had taken all known data she had of her encounters with Goliath, Xanatos, and a multitude of other factors and had come up with one conclussion. That Argent not being a Gargoyle had to be either 1-a robot, 2-a cyborg, or 3- an artificially enhanced or mutated human. The first two were doubtful but the second sounded more promising. She knew that Xanatos, at one time, was capable of creating such a being but he was no longer interested in genetic engineering. That left only one explanation left... Sevarius! She smiled, and thought that a visit to the good doctor, later on tonight, would prove most interesting... and informative.

Dr. Anton Sevarius had been working hard all day at the Bio-Med research labs, and was looking forward to a quiet evening at home while drinking a nice warm cup of tea. He had just exited the building and was about to open his car door when something grabbed him from behind and lifted him high into the night-time sky! <Oh no, not again!> he thought as he closed his eyes. He fully recalled the last time this had happend to him at the Gen-U-Tech labs, and expected that this time... he would be dropped to his death by either a very angry Gargoyle, Mutate, or even Argent but to his surprise he found that he was placed (a little roughly) on solid ground once more. Opening his eyes he found himself on the roof of the Bio-Med building.

"I want to talk to you Sevarius," a voice called from behind him. He turned at the sound, and familiarity of the voice.