Chapter 6

Castle Wyvern: Sunset

With the sound of cracking stone, and a roar, the Gargoyles awoke from their stone slumber. The clan spread out to prepare for the nightly patrol of the city, but Goliath looked puzzled. He knew that Elisa was working this particular evening with Matt, but Argent was always here to greet them when they awoke.

Brooklyn must have picked up what was wrong, as he too looked around. "Is it just me, or is someone missing?" he asked.

"Aye," Hudson said. "Argent has slept in late it seems."

"Maybe he left early tonight, to go visit Delilah," Angela said as she moved towards Broadway.

Goliath looked concerned. "Perhaps, but he would have left word if he were leaving for the Labyrinth. I'll check with Owen."

While Goliath went to search for Owen, the rest went about their task of preparing breakfast. Before the meal was finished, two familiar figures of Delilah and Tammy entered the kitchen.

"Good evening all," said Delilah cheerfully. She and Tammy were greeted warmly by the others, and sat down to eat with them. "I don't see Goliath or Argent, are they in the library?"

"No lass," Hudson said. "Argent wasn't there when we woke as he usually is, and we thought he had gone to the Labyrinth to see you and the young lassy here. So Goliath went to see if he left word with Owen as to his whereabouts."

Delilah was about to voice her concern, when Argent and Goliath entered the kitchen. "We were getting worried about you," she told Argent with a smile. "Where were you?"

Argent sat down next to Delilah and Tammy. "I was coming out of the infirmary, when Goliath found me."

"The infirmary! What were you doing there, are you all right?" Delilah asked.

"I'm fine," Argent said while taking her hand. "I just wanted to have the doctor look at my eyes."

"You're eyes?" Tammy said. "I thought that you had great vision, better than anyone?"

Argent smiled. "That's what the doctor said when I read the patent notice at the bottom of the chart, with no lights on." He stood up and walked around the table. "Once in a while I've noticed I see a kind of after image. I saw it again today and thought Xanatos's doctor could tell me what it is."

"Was he able to provide you with any answers?" Goliath asked.

Argent shook his head. "He couldn't find anything wrong, but did suggest that it might be my mind adjusting to these new eyes. The human mind might be trying to interpret what the eyes are seeing in a different way that it isn't used to. I'll just have to wait and see what happens... but it isn't serious."

"That's good ta hear lad," Hudson said while downing a glass full of milk. "Ye had us worried there for a moment."

The evenings breakfast was soon finished, and the table cleared. Goliath then assigned the evenings duties. "Brooklyn, you Lexington and Angela will fly North this evening while Hudson, myself and Broadway will go South. Argent, Delilah and Bronx will stay to guard the castle." He gave Tammy a slight grin. "And also make sure that someone does their evenings lessons."

Tammy stuck her tongue out in mock-anger, while the others laughed and filed out of the kitchen to begin their nightly patrols. On the way to the castle library Argent passed a hanging wall mirror and stopped for a moment. A momentary chill ran over him while looking at his reflection.

"Any thing wrong?" Delilah asked.

"No," he said. "Just felt a chill for a moment." He looked at his own image once more before continuing on to the library. He had an uneasy feeling for some reason tonight. <Why do I have a strange feeling that something is wrong?>

The Bio-Med labs building:

"You had better have some good news for me... human," said Demona as she strode in to Sevarius's lab.

"Oh I do indeed!" Sevarius went over to his work station and brought up the subliminal program tape, which Demona had made, that was now downloading into the shadowy figure floating in and upright tank. "Come and take a look for yourself."

Demona stalked over to the computer and gazed at the readouts. Her eyes grew wide when she saw that her programming was 98% completed! "Is this true?" she asked while pointing at the screen.

"Yes, it is!" answered Sevarius with a wide grin. "The maturation process went much faster this time because we had a computer model for Argent to work with. Programming took even less time because the cloned brain was a blank slate... and it soaked up your programming like a sponge."

"How long until final completion?" she asked anxiously.

Sevarius made a big show of consulting his watch while Demona frowned. "By my calculations just about..." An alarm went off, and the light above the tank started flashing. "Now!"

Demona went over to the tank as Sevarius pressed a button that began to slowly void the tank of it's liquid. As soon as it was empty the tank was raised and the figure inside slumped to the platform. She went over to examine her latest warrior up close. He was very much like Argent, except that his body fur was red in color with a long mane of reddish-black hair. His wings were black with crimson highlights, and as his eyes slowly opened she saw that they were deep green in color. She ran her talons down his arm. "Do you know where you are?"