Butterflies

by Dracona Dragillin

Gargoyles belongs to Disney. This is best suited for mature audiences. This happens a few months after Hunter's Moon and I'm ignoring The Goliath Chronicles. For those of you who are curious, I'm no longer going to write The "Little Sis" series. I'm also rewriting the "Angel of Music" series. I think that it could be much better.

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Stalking was the only word for it. Anxiously, he watched her every movement. He often thought that his love for her was ironic. He, who thought himself better than the uncultured masses, was a devoted fan of her. Why her? She was nothing but a cheap novelist. But her words spoke to him and moved him, well to a point. He had to be careful or those gargoyles would get involved. Yes, it was a big risk to take her but she would be the jewel in his collection. That's if she survived her metamorphosis.

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The lightning bolt bounced off the plastic wall. Although he knew that the plastic wall was unbreakable, Claw still flinched. He had watched Fang pace back and forth and then explode with temper. They were both mutates, humans turned into mutants through Dr. Sevarius' genetic engineering. Sevarius had injected them with a mutagenic substance that had changed them into half-human/half-cat creatures with the wings of bats and the ability to store and produce electricity.

Claw was the first to survive Sevarius' treatment but not the first to receive it. He remembered watching helplessly several other people being turned into twisted creatures that died soon after their transformations due to mistakes in Servarius' formulas. He, himself, had to deal with one of these mistakes. His transformation, into a tiger/human blend, had virtually destroyed his vocal cords. Claw sometimes felt trapped in his silent world.

Fang screamed out another strain of curses. Today, Claw had guard duty. Fang had tried to take over the Labyrinth, the underground base of the mutates which they used to house some of New York City's homeless people. Fang was only interested in extorting and bullying the people. Claw still felt guilty because he had let Fang bully him into helping him in his attempt to take over the Labyrinth. But Claw had switched sides and joined Talon and Maggie, the other mutates, helping them win back the Labyrinth. Now Fang was imprisoned in the Labyrinth.

Suddenly the wall behind Fang exploded. Two strange mutate females stepped out of the cloud of dust. They both looked alike: human/house-cat mixes that didn't have wings except one was black and one was white. Claw wondered if they were creations of Sevarius but the thought soon left his mind.

He grabbed a laser rifle and opened the cage door. Claw pointed the gun at three mutates. "I wouldn't do that," the black one warned. They were both carrying quarterstaffs which they pointed at him but did not move. Claw hesitated for a second which the white female took advantage of. She pointed the staff at him. The tip of the staff began to glow with white energy. The energy formed into a ray that hit Claw. Pure pain surged through Claw's body. His unconscious body hit the floor with a loud thud.

Fang turned to the two mutates. "Ladies," he purred charmingly, "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. Why do I have this honor?"

"I am called Ebony," the black one said.

"And I am called Ivory," the white one continued.

"Dr. Sevarius has a job for you to do," Ebony said coolly.

"And you'd better get it done," Ivory continued angrily.

"You hold the keys to freedom in your lovely hands," Fang smiled, "How can I refuse?" They left the Labyrinth with Fang eagerly following.

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Most people think that being a famous novelist is easy. They think that the authors crank out one draft of a book, hand it in, and then the money comes pouring in. They don't know that after that first draft there are countless revisions where an author has to fight to keep her work close to her original vision and get the editor to agree to it. Then after the book is published the author has to go do booksignings, interviews, and start on the next novel. An author has to LOVE to write...to keep from going insane through this long process.

Small and tired, that's how Savannah Sullivan felt when she reached her apartment. She had just spent most of the day sitting in a badly heated bookstore, signing book after book, having people flash bright lights in her face, and keeping a smile on her face. Now at the end of the day, she was just plain exhausted.

Savannah loved her apartment. It was her sanctuary from the world. Small, cozy, tastefully (but not expensively) designed, and in soft shades, she had fought several battles with her agent about her apartment. Kelly, the agent, wanted her to get a professional decorator so they could do photo shoots of "Savannah Sullivan at home". But Savannah adamantly refused. This was the only place where she could be messy and creative, the only place where no one could touch, and the only place where she could be Grace.

Grace Savannah Sullivan was her real name. But her "nom de plume" was Savannah Sullivan because it sounded sultry and mysterious. But no one called her Grace anymore. Even her mother called her Savannah now.

Savannah mused over these thoughts as she closed the door behind her. Hhhmmm...what should she do first? Then the idea of a bath flickered into her mind. Tossing her purse aside, she almost skipped into the bathroom. Savannah turned knob to as hot as she could stand. New York winters might have been considered weak to some but they usually chilled her to the bone.

Savannah waited patiently as the tub filled, turning the water off when it was finished. As she waited, Savannah got a good look at herself in the mirror. The day had taken it's course on her. Savannah's short dark brown hair was even messier than usual. Her brown eyes were now going from slightly to definitely blood-shot. And her flour white skin was looking even paler than usual. She was about to strip off her extra baggy black sweater and ankle length jean shirt. Savannah didn't like to show off her short skinny body. So she usually hid it in baggy clothing.

The sweater was halfway off when, she heard the doorbell ring. Savannah rammed the sweater on and ran out into her living room. "Who is it?" she asked.

"Delivery," a voice, on the other side of the door, answered.

Savannah made sure the chain was still in the lock and opened the door a crack. Suddenly the door was shoved into her. Savannah went stumbling backwards. She jumped up quickly, just in enough time to see the chain snap.

The door swung wide open to reveal some-sort of creature. He was basically human shaped but was covered in brown-black fur. His head looked like a large cat: like a panther or mountain lion or something. On his back were a large pair of bat wings.

"Who are you?" she stuttered.

"The name is Fang," he growled. Savannah was then even more surprised to see a beam of electricity appear from his hands. It slammed into her, shoving her mind into darkness.

Fang picked up Savannah's unconscious body and carried her out of the door.

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There was a loud crash as the trashcan hit the ground. It spilled out it's odorous contents. "What the hell is taking him so long?" Ivory hissed.

"Perhaps," Ebony said, "he is being careful not to be caught. Unlike you. Kicking over trash cans and making a lot of noise will draw attention."

Sevarius had sent Ivory and Ebony to follow Fang and to make sure that he would kidnap the writer. Now the two female mutate stood outside of the writer's apartment building, waiting for Fang to emerge.

"Besides," Ebony smiled, "we have something to discuss..."

"Yeah, when are we going to ditch the dork, Sevarius?" Ivory chuckled.

"Crudely put but true. Before my transformation, I was a nobody and by being Sevarius' henchwoman, I'm still a nobody. Well, there is no way that I'm going to stay a nobody. Not with all of this power. We have to find a way to get rid of Sevarius."

Ivory's eyes lit up, "Then we can cause some real damage!?!"

Ebony chuckled, "As I said, crudely put but true."

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The fog, if she could only get through the fog. Savannah's mind was caught in a mental fog that made her so dizzy. "Where? What?..." her dry mouth tried to articulate the words but her tongue refused to move. After a few attempts, it seemed that she could hardly move anything. Her eyes could open but getting them to focus was giving her a headache.

Minutes passed and keeping her vision focused became easier. Savannah became aware that she was in some sort of science laboratory. She was tied down to something hard, possibly a table but her cloudy senses couldn't tell. But Savannah was very aware of one thing: it was freezing cold.

"At last! You're finally here." Savannah tried to look to the source of the strange voice but her neck would not turn. An odd thought crossed her mind: that the voice sounded like the mad cross-dressing scientist in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Savannah would have laughed if she wasn't feeling so scared.

"I might say that I am one of your greatest fans," the voice continued, "We are both artists. You sculpt masterpieces from words, while I use DNA. I am Dr. Anton Sevarius, a geneticist. You've already met Fang. He was one of my creations. Fang used to be a homeless man, wandering around the streets of New York, until I transformed him. Yes! I was the one that freed him from the chains of that human body. I gave him the strength, speed, and agility of a cat. I gave him the wings to fly and the energy needed to use those wings."

Sevarius walked in front of her. He was tall, red-headed, and had an insane look in his green eyes. She watched him get more and more excited while she became more and more afraid. Sevarius then gave her a twisted smile.

"And now you will be my magnum opus, my Galatea, my greatest creation. I've already started the process. As I can see, you are already feeling the effects of the muscle relaxant. Too many of my patients had seizures and died. So I added this the relaxant to prevent this. You've also been injected with a series a chemicals that will prepare you body for its transformation. My old projects only took a few days to complete the transformations. But too many of them died. So for you I will slow down the process. It gives you a better chance at surviving.

I'm planning to inject you with feline DNA. Don't worry, I'm not planning to add wings or electricity to your design. True beauty, true art comes from simplicity. No, the feline/human combination is perfect."

And through the haze in her mind, a conclusion shone through. This Sevarius was going to change her into a freak of some sort. Savannah tried to struggle but she couldn't move.

Sevarius then walked over to her. Savannah noticed that he was carrying a needle. When he got over to her, Sevarius plunged the needle into her arm. "Now for the first treatment," he chuckled, "This might sting a little. But my little butterfly, it will start your chrysalis." Savannah felt the chemical burn through her body. The flames intensified and she let out a pained moan as she slipped back into unconsciousness.

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Weeks, days, hours, or minutes, Savannah wasn't sure how much time passed as Sevarius held her prisoner. Most of her time was either unconscious or half conscious and in pain. But the most horrible times were when she was almost fully conscious. Although she was tied down, Savannah could see and feel the evidence of her transformation. Her body was covered with a coat of short gray, orange, brown, and black fur. Her hands and feet were becoming more claw-like. A tail had started to grow. Her human ears had disappeared and a new pair of catlike ears had grown on the top of her head.

But maybe the worst thing for Savannah was her face. Day and night, her face felt constant pain as her bones were reshaping themselves. Savannah could only imagine the freakish cat/human face that was now there.

Her senses became oddly acute. Savannah even gained night vision. But that brought no comfort. She couldn't help but hearing the screams and moans of Sevarius' other creations. Other than the stink of chemicals, the only other familiar scent was Sevarius' scent which only frightened and angered her.

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Something was bothering Claw. It had been a bit over a month and there was no sign of Fang. Although there was one possible sighting of him, just after he had escaped but after that there was nothing.

Claw forced himself to focus. They were in an underground abandoned military base in Upstate New York. Goliath had heard a rumor that Sevarius was here doing more of his genetic experiments. So Talon decided to check out the base. Claw went with him but they left Maggie behind to run the Labyrinth.

The two mutates navigated the entrance underground tunnels with great ease. Their cat night-vision made it easy. Still Claw was worried; this was too easy. There wasn't any security so far but they were getting close to the actual base.

Claw was pulling out his notepad to warn Talon when the loudspeaker went off. "Did you two really think that I didn't know you were here?" Sevarius' projected, "You should know me by now. Let's make this interesting, shall we?" That was when the floor collapsed beneath them. Claw and Talon fell down two separate tunnels. Frantically Claw tried to spread his wings but the tunnel was too small. He then tried to sink his claws into the sides of the tunnel but they were too slick.

Talon was trying the same measures and got the same results. He landed on ground in a dark room. There, in the shadows, was a dark shape. The shape pounced and attacked him. Talon threw his attacker. At the same time he got a good look at the attacker, Fang. Fang jumped up and threw a lightning bolt at Talon, which he quickly dodged. Talon responded with another lightning bolt which Fang just missed. The fight continued on. It became apparent that Talon was going to win. Fang tried to throw one last lightning bolt which hit Talon and threw him across the room.

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The sobs wouldn't stop. Claw tried to shut their sorrow out as he tracked them to their source. He stepped into a room that stank of chemicals. Claw cringed with memories of being subjected to Sevarius' experiments. There on an operating table was the source of the crying. She was a mutate, a half human/half cat, but she didn't have wings. Although she was wearing a black sweater and a long jean skirt, Claw could see her fur was gray, orange, brown and black with tortoiseshell markings. She had kept her human hair on her head. It was short and dark brown.

He could see that she was in the last stages of the mutation. But even that would bring no relief. When her physical pain would end, her mental pain would begin.

The woman let out a low moan that struck Claw straight to the heart. He mentally shook himself and started to try to unfasten her restraints. The woman awoke and looked at him with half-focused golden eyes. He also noticed that several IVs were attached to her arms. She flinched as he tried to gently remove them. She shied away from him. "Who are you?" she demanded, a bit groggily.

Claw quickly wrote a note and handed it to her. He looked over her shoulder and reread it as she dizzily tried to read it. "My name is Claw. I am a mutate, a person who was mutated in one of Sevarius' experiments. I'm here to help you. I can't speak but I talk to others through notes."

The woman struggled to get off the table but quickly fell. Claw caught her before she hit the floor. "Thanks. My name is Savannah," she looked up and smiled at him, "If you really want to help, could you please help me out of here?"

Claw smiled and nodded. He quickly dashed down a note. Savannah took it, when he handed it to her. It asked if she needed to be carried. "Only if we have to run," she replied, "I'd rather lean on you and walk. I haven't walked in such a long time that I need the exercise."

She leaned on him as they slowly made their way out of the laboratory. The door slid open before Claw could even touch it. An angry looking Sevarius stepped into the room. "What are you doing up, my dear? Oh no, I'm not done with you yet."

Claw felt her grip on his arm grow firmer yet her hands trembled. No way was he going to let Sevarius hurt her again. He placed himself between Savannah and Sevarius which was a bit hard because she wouldn't let go of him. Claw growled at Sevarius. Savannah buried her face into Claw's back. She just couldn't take much more of this madness.

Sevarius pulled out a gun. "I wouldn't do that," he warned Claw, "The woman is mine and will remain mine. Give it up. You can either stay and die, or leave now without her."

But Claw refused to move. Instead he glowered at Sevarius, silently daring him. Sevarius' trigger finger started to move when..."Hello Anton," Claw recognized the voice over the loudspeaker as the black cat female mutate, "Remember us? Your little henchwomen. Well, we're rather tired with that job. So a career change is definitely needed. Ivory and I are leaving. And we're starting our new career with a bang. You see, Ivory has concocted a delightful little explosive device and it's going to go off in a few minutes. I've recorded a splendid little countdown so you can know how much time you have left. Ta-Ta Anton." Then the transmission ended.

Sevarius dropped the gun and ran off. Claw turned around and saw the fear cross Savannah's face. He scooped her up in his arms and ran off into the hallway. As he ran, Claw heard Ebony's voice counting down the time that they had left

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Talon blinked repeatedly as he slowly sat up. Damn! Fang had knocked him out. Talon stood up. He was still a little bit dizzy from the blast of electricity. Talon limped out of the room.

He paused when he heard a woman start to speak over some sort of a loudspeaker. Although his brain was jumbled, Talon figured out what she was talking about. The place was going to blow up! His pace quickened as he listened to the woman count down. Talon found a door and tired to open it. The huge steel door refused to budge. He pulled at the door using all of his strength and reluctantly the door opened.

Ahead of him was nothing but a dark tunnel. The darkness seemed entirely without light. His cat night-vision couldn't even see a foot ahead of him. Blindly Talon stumbled through the tunnel until he came to another door. This one opened easily so he stepped right through.

A cool night wind hit Talon's face. He was finally outside. The fresh air cleared his thoughts and then he remembered. Claw! He had left Claw behind! Talon turned back and then he heard the loudest noise that he had ever heard in his life. Suddenly he was thrown back by the force of the explosion and a wall of fiery debris. The ground shook as the laboratory was destroyed. Talon hit the ground and once again passed out.

End of Part One