Chapter 11

Later at Castle Wyvern:

	"Norman Mathews here, for WVRN news at the site of what has been
described by police officials as a trap set by the radical group called
The Quarrymen, for the elusive Gargoyles. A trap that went horribly wrong
and resulted in the deaths of at least ten individuals. Police Captain
Chavez had this statement about what happened."
	"From what we know, earlier tonight a group of Quarrymen were reported
to be in a pitched battle with a group of Gargoyles at the construction site
behind us, in which at least ten Quarrymen were killed. Upon further 
investigation no evidence of Gargoyle activity could be found, but the body of
an unknown creature was found. Evidence found that this creature was brought 
the site by the Quarrymen, and that it was this very same creature that was
responsible for their deaths. We can only conclude that the Quarrymen intended
to use this creature in either capturing or killing a Gargoyle but instead it
turned on them and killed them. In the course of the battle the use of explosives 
and other firearms damaged the building under construction to the point where it
collapsed."
	"Sources informed this reporter that the body of the creature will be
taken to the Coroner's office where it will be studied to find out just what
it was that caused such considerable damage. The city has asked for help from
Xanatos Industries in the examination of this creature due to their experience
in advanced bio-genetic research. Testing should be complete within the next few
days. This is Norman Mathews reporting for WVRN news."

	"It seems that Detective Maza and Bluestone's story must have been very
convincing," Fox Xanatos said as she turned the television off.
	"The both of them can be very persuasive," Davis Xanatos remarked.
	"What the did, they did for the good of the whole clan," Goliath said
as he crossed the room.
	"Of course," Xanatos said. "Besides, the explanation was partialy true.
The Quarrymen involved were responsible for their own destruction, they weren't
aware of it until it was too late."
	"Father! Father!" Angela came running into Xanatos' office. "Come quickly!"
	"What is it Angela?" He asked.
	"It's Argent! Delilah thinks he might be starting to remember!"
	When they entered the main hall they saw the rest of the group gathered
around Argent, who was trying to explain what happened to him while fighting
with Bloodwulf while Delilah was trying to clean some of his more serious
wounds.
	"Ow, that stings!" Argent grimaced. "Dee, I'll heal up by morning you
know."
	"Stop being such a baby," she scolded as she continued to clean his
wounds. "Just finishing telling the story."
	Argent sighed. "OK, so where was is?"
	"Bloodwulf threatened Delilah," Broadway offered.
	Angela pulled a little closer to Broadway, and Argent could fell Delilah
shiver against him for a moment. "Right. So I was on the ground, and he was
threatening Dee, then suddenly everything seemed to change and I was looking at
a man with red hair and a long beard. He was laughing at me while holding a knife
against the throat of a woman with white hair. He killed her then threw that body
to the ground. The next thing a remember is being face to face with Bloodwulf and
pushing a pice of rebar thru his chest!"
	"Sounds like it could have been somehting ye saw before lad, an old
memory coming to the surface perhaps?" Hudson remarked.
	"That would be so great!" Lex said with a grin. "That would mean that you
might start to get some of your memory back!"
	"I would have preferred a happier memory to start of with," Argent 
comented.
	"It must have been a powerful event to have surfaced at the moment it
did," Goliath said. "Was there anything else that might give you any insight?"
	"He said something," Delilah said while stroking Argent's shoulder.
	"I did? I don't remember saying anything." he said looking puzzled.
	"Yes, you did. It was three words. Oh I wish I could remember what they
were!" She looked thought ful for a moment. "It sounded like Spin..Spen Suc."
Her brow furrowed in concentration, then her eyes popped open. "That's what
it was "Spem Successes Alit!", that's what you said right after he said you had
no hope in defeating him!"
	The Gragoyles gave each other surprised looks at Delilah's statement.
	"Are ya sure that's what he said lass?" Hudson asked her.
	"Very sure."
	Argent noticed the looks that the Gargoyles were exchanging. "Will
someone clue me in as to what's going on? What does Spem Successes Alit mean?"
	Hudson looked at Goliath, who then spoke. "It's old Latin. It means
Success Nourishes Hope."
	Argent considered for a moment. "I like the sound of that." He looked
around at the gathered group. "So I guess this means I must have learned Latin
at some point in my life..right?"
	"It would seem so lad," Hudson said. "Ye must have learned it 
somewhere."
	Lex spoke up. "Do you think that would help Elisa narrow down the
field of missing persons, to find out who Argent is?"
	Goliath considered for a moment. 'It might prove useful. Schools and
colleges keep records. If a student vanished they would have to notify
the authorities. I will give her this new clue when she arrives tomorrow
night."
	"I'll tell Owen to put this new tidbit of information in the search
database, so he can check with institutions around the country," Xanatos
offered. "With luck we might narrow the field to one or two candidates."
	"I'll attend to it right away sir," Owen said as he walked into the
hall. "Young master Alexander has finally gone to sleep. And you will be happy
to know that all security upgrades have been completed sir."
	"Exellent!" Xanatos beamed.
	Owen removed several slips of paper from an inner pocket. "I also
thought you would want these as soon as posible." He handed them to Xanatos.
"I also learned moments ago that the city fire department responded to an
alarm given at the Bio-Med Labs facility. It seems that the entire facility
has been destroyed in what is being called a *labratory accident*."
	Argent snorted. "Sevarius trying to cover his tracks again."
	"That might help him hide from the authrities," Goliath said. "But
I doubt that will help him with Demona."
	"Argent smiled. "She must be really pissed off about losing her
warrior."
	"Do you think she'll have Sevarius make another one?" Angela asked.
	"I don't know," Argent said. But if she tries any funny business
again she'll think twice before grabbing Dee again!" He smiled at her as she
put away the first-aid kit. "My girl's got one hell of a right hook!"
	Delilah gasped and turned towards Argent. "You're..you're girl?"
	Argent looked up at her and stood up. "Of course!" He went over and
took her hands in his. "You are the best thing that has happened to me. If
anything ever happened to you, I don't know what I'd do." He looked deep
into her eyes as they shone with tears of joy. "I love you Delilah, I love
you with all my heart and soul."
	"Hey, what's everyone looking at?" Tamy asked as she breezed into
the room in time for her to see Delilah and Argent embrace and kiss, much
to the delight of those assembled who began to hoot and clap in honor of
their newfound love. "About time you two!" she grinned.
	Suddenly remembering where they were, Delilah blushed While Argent
just smiled.
	"They do make a cute couple," Fox commented to her husband who
was still engrossed in reading the pages Owen had given him.
	"I hate to put a damper on this, but I think that Argnet should
see these," Xanatos said while handing the papers to Argent.
	"What are they?" he asked while keeping an arm around Delilah's
waist.
	"They are reports on the tissue samples taken from Bloodwulf that
the police sent to our labratory facilities," he explained as Argent leafed
through them. "Normally tests like this would take a few days, but since 
they already had your DNA on file they  used yours as a baseline for
comparison. As you can see, they are a perfect match."
	"So? This just proves that Sevarius duplicated what he did to me
and used someone else's brain to put into the new body."
	Xanatos shook his head. "No, you don't understand. I said they were
a *Perfect* match. Sevarius's records showed that in order to give you a
humaniod form he used some of your original DNA."
	"But that would mean..."
	"That he still has your original body in stasis in order to get
a fresh genetic sample," Xantos finshed Argent's train of thought.
	"That must be the main reason behind the fire at Bio-Med Labs,"
Brooklyn commented. "He couldn't take a chance of the police tracing
Bloodwulf back to him."
	"Damn it!" Argent snarled. "If I'd have known that it was still
there I'd have tore that lab apart with my bar hands!"
	"Which is why he lied to you my friend," Goliath said while putting
a comforting hand on Argent's shoulder. "He knew that if you thought you
had no chance of regaining either your own body or you identity, then you
would have know reason to return to him. And knowing your attitude towards
him, that suited his perposes perfectly."
	Delilah's hugged Argent a little closer while stroking his chest.
"Don't worry love, he'll surface sooner or later and when he does..."
Her eyes glowed as she smiled.
	Goliath turned towards the window and saw the first hint of dawn
coming up. "I think we had all best turn in. Derek and Maggie have to
return to the Labyrinth along with Delilah before the sun rises."
	Delilah looked shyly at Argent. "I'd rather stay here for the day,"
she said then looked quickly over towards Goliath. "That is if it's all
right with you?"
	Goliath smiled. "Of course you may." He glanced over towards Angela
who was smiling broadly. "You are welcome here anytime."
	As they all filed out onto the castle wall, Derek took Maggie's hand.
"We'd better get back, Claw is probably climbing the walls to find out
what happened."
	Maggie giggled. "Let's go home."

	Delilah took a place on the wall next to Angela as she watched
Maggie and Derek wing their way home. She blew a kiss towards Argent as
the sun came up. He winked at her and reurned the gesture just as she
turned to stone and froze her happy expression on her face for the rest 
of the rest of the day.
	Argent yawned and turned to join Xanatos and Fox, who were heading
back towards the castle's interior. "We'll time for me to turn in as well."
He smiled thinking of a hot shower and cool sheets. "Hey, where did owen 
go?" he asked.
	"He said he wanted to check in on Alex, and make a few calls," Xanatos
told him. "Have a good rest."

	Argent spent a moment or two just before falling off to sleep wonder
where Sevarius was, and what he was doing but then spent the rest of the day
dreaming of Delilah and being in her arms.


The private study of Anton Sevarius:

	Sevarius sighed as another book smashed into the far wall of his
study, thrown there by demona in her human guise of Dominique Destine.
	"He shouldn't have won!" She shouted, and paced the floor in
front of his desk. "He was beaten!"
	"I warned you not to try anything until for a few weeks, until I
had a chance to run proper tests on Bloodwulf to see if everything was 
functioning perfectly," told her.
	"Everything *was* functioning perfectly, until the moment that
beast put two feet of steel thru my warrior's chest and killed him!"
	"He was not!" Sevarius shouted back ather, breaking his usual
cool demeanor. "If you had gotten him to me I might have been able to
save him, but NO! You had to go and pick a fight..didn't you! The 
readings clearly indicate..."
	Demona's hand shot acros the desk and grabbed him by his shirt
front. "What readings?" she asked thru cleched teeth.
	*Better think fast old boy* he thought to himself. "If you will
unhand me, I will gladly explain.
	"Speak quickly human," she said while letting him go.
	Sevarius smoothed down the front of his shirt. "Thank you. Now as
I was about say. As a precausion to monitor Bloodwulf for any signs of
degeneration I placed in him a tiny transmitter that allowed my computer 
to monitor his life signs."
	Demona's eyes narrowed. "And why wasn't I told this?"
	"I would have, had to brought him back in for a check-up, as you
were supposed to do," He told her while handing her a set of readouts.
"As you can clearly see, everything was working perfectly that is until
you get to the synaptic response readings."
	Demona skipped the other pages until she got to that part of
the readout, while Sevarius continued.
	"As you can clearly see, the synaptic response times were showing
a marked downslide of roughly one percent."
	"That shouldn't have been enough to make him lose," she said evenly.
"Argent was wounded, and down."
	"That may be true, but as you can see the process was progressing
at a greater rate as time went on. Even if Bloodwulf had killed Argent he
still would have been dead within hours, but the fight spead up the 
degeneration process."
	Demona sat down, and considered. "Can the problem be corrected if
you were to create another?"
	"There shouldn't have been a problem at all," said Sevarius. "For
some reason the degenertion started, and even with all the readouts I
still can't find a reason for it."
	"So why is Argent still alive?"
	Sevarius shook his head. "I wish I knew. I've run every test I can
think of, and I can't find anything remarkable about his genetic makeup
or his physiology."
	Demona walked over to the far corner, where a cryo-chamber containing
a body floating inside it stood. She ran her hand across it's surface. "Have 
you tried to indentify him, find out he he was, what his background might 
have been?"
	"No, I didn't see any point to it but considering the current situation
it might not be a bad idea."
	"Do it," she ordered. "Take a laser scan of is fingerprints and I'll
have some of my contacts trace his identity. Sooner or later I want to know
what makes him so special."


The nursery inside Castle Wyvern:

	"Well young master Alexander, are we ready?" Owen said as he came into
the Nursery and locked the door. The still awake Alexander Xanatos gurgled
and clapped as The figure of Owen Burnett vanished and was replaced by the
floating figure of Puck! He reached down into the crib and picked Aleaxander
up, placing him in his lap and floated over to a hanging wall mirror. "Be
good now little one, we're about to call Grandma!" He raised his hands and
moved them across the mirror's surface. 

	"Mirror framed in richest gold-
	reflecting images untold-
	the queen of Avalon i do now seek-
	with Titania I would now with speak."

	The mirror's surface shifted and changed color until the image of
a richly appointed room came to view. There sitting in a high-backed chair
sat a regal looking lady with blueish green skin, bright red hair, delicate
features, and pointed ears. This was Titania, Queen of Avalon!"
	"Well met my loyal Puck," the image said.
	Puck performed as much of a bow as he was capable of, with Alex in 
his lap. "Greetings my Queen."
	"Why have you sought this audience? Is there something wrong with
my grandchild, or my Daughter?"
	"Oh no my Queen. Your daughter is happy and well, as is young Alex."
He lifted his young charge into view. "Wave hello to Grandma Alex." The
child smiled and waved at the figure in the mirror as if it was a perfectly
normal thing to do. Titania smiled back at her Grandchild. "I have called
to inform you of an occurance that might be of interest to you."
	"Oh?"
	"Yes, it involves the newest member of Goliath's clan."
	"What can the doings of a young female Gargoyle be of possible interst
to me?" she asked in a bored tone.
	"Oh no my queen. This has nothing to do with Angela." He gestured
in the air and an image of Argent formed. "This is the newest member of
Goliath's clan. His name is Argent."
	"An interesting looking creature to be sure," Titania said while 
studying Puck's image of Argent. "He does not resemble any type of Gargoyle
that I have ever seen, what manner of creature is he?"
	"The body was made by a human scientist my queen, but the mind inside
it is human and has no memory of his past."
	"So..humans are beinging to create new creatures of their own? Their
science is progressing rapidly, almost to the point of being magic."
	"That is very close to the point of why I contacted you my Queen,"
Puck said while putting Alex down. "Early this evening I was about to give
young Alex one of his lessons why we both sensed something that drew us away
from the castle and to the site of a battle that Argent was engaged in."
The image of Argent that Puck created began to shift, and change to an instant
replay of the last moments of the the battle with Bloodwulf. Both Titania and
Puck watched as Argent drove the glowing metal into Bloodwulf's chest and
pushed him into the laser grid.
	"A formidable warrior it would seem," Commented Titania.
	"Oh it gets better!" the image shifted back a few seconds and zoomed
in to Argent's hand. "Watch!"
	The image progressed slowly. The steel rebar in Argent's hand began
to glow but just before it plunged into Bloodwulf's chest it began to elongate
and change shape! Titania gasped as the metal rod shifted form into that of
a sword that plunged thru his opponent's chest. Greenish fire ran up the
blade, and burned Bloodwulf from the inside out! "Magic!"
	Puck smiled and nodded. "Indeed my queen."
	"This might warrent my personal attention," she said as she drank from
a nearby goblet. "Tell me everything you know about this..Argent."

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Well, there it is, and it's been a long time coming. The completed part
2 of the "Argent Trilogy" Why did it take so long, hey what can I say I've
been a little busy :-)

Hope you've like what you've read so far and stay tuned for the third and final
chapter!!

Comments??? E-mail me at russellg@priment.com