Chapter 7 Quarrymen Headquarters: Most of the heads in the room turned when the red-haired woman stepped into the Quarrymen's offices. She was well dressed, and had an air of superiority about her. One of the members recognized her from a previous visit, and rushed off to inform his supervisor. A few moments later a Quarrymen team leader came in and greeted the visitor. "Ah Ms. Destine, Good to see you again!" The now human looking Demona, gave him a thin smile. "Can we talk?" "Of course," he said. "Step right this way to my office." Once inside he seated her in a chair facing his desk, then took his own seat. "We used the information you gave us on the two Gargoyles that you sighted and almost had a capture..but we ran into difficulties, and they escaped." "That is why I'm here," Demona told him. "My sources tell me that the reason the Gargoyles evaded capture was..shall we say, unexpected interference?" The Quarrymen team leader leaned back in his chair. "Your sources are very good, and quite correct." "I'm here to offer you another chance at getting rid of the Gargoyles for good, and I will even offer you additional help in doing it." The team leader considered this for a moment. "What kind of help would you be willing to provide? Weapons, explosives? We have plenty of those." "What I'm offering you is far better that anything you have for weapons," she said while leaning forward slightly. "And far deadlier!" "I'm intrigued," he said. "What is the nature of this weapon?" "It's biological," Demona answered. "Some sort of toxin?" "No, but I can offer you a demonstration of it's capabilities. I understand that your organization maintains a warehouse near here?" "Yes," he said. "We use it as a training facility." "Excellent! I demonstrate my weapon to you there in one hour." She got up and went to the door. "And please be on time, this offer won't be given again." The team leader watched her leave, and after a few moments he pressed the intercom on his desk. "Wilson?" "Yes sir?" "Arrange for a small gathering at the warehouse in one hour, we're going to be testing a new weapon." "Very good sir." Looking at his watch he wondered if he had enough time to contact Mr. Castaway about Ms. Destine's offer. He decided against it, because if it turned out to be nothing special then he would be blamed..but if it turned out to be something useful, and succeeded in killing a Gargoyle then he would get the credit! Outside the Quarrymen's Headquarters: Her driver opened the door to her limo, and Demona got in. Once settled in she instructed the driver where to go, and at a certain spot she had him stop and wait. The door opposite her opened for a moment as if by magic, then closed again. Demon tapped on the partition and signaled the driver to continue on. The flash of blue light was hidden by the partition, and the darkened windows of the limo. Where one moment ago there was an empty space..Bloodwulf was now seated next to Demona. "Did all go well?" she asked. "Yes mistress, all went as you said it would. I followed your instructions but no humans were present in the building. I waited as long as a could..and then left to meet you here." "Pity..I had hoped that you would have had a chance to crush some humans, but no matter. Your chance will come soon enough." She leaned back. "We will be going to a gathering of humans shortly. None of them are to be harmed unless I order it, is that understood?" "Yes mistress," Bloodwulf replied in a slightly disappointed tone. Demona smiled, and stroked his muzzle. "You'll get your chance my warrior, and very soon!" Castle Wyvern: The ringing of the phone by his bedside, brought Argent fully awake. He reached over and lifted the receiver from its cradle. "Hello?" "I have a message relay from detective Maza for you," answered the voice of Owen Burnette. "She said it's quite urgent." Argent sat up in bed. "All right, put her thru." He waited until he heard the faint click. "Elisa?" "Sorry to wake you, but it's important," Elisa said on the other end of the line. "I'm out at the Perez's Doughnut King franchise, there's been some trouble." Images of Luisa, Rosa, and little Espiranza lying hurt or worse sprang to mind. "What happened?" "It looks like heavy vandalism to me, but none of the signs of gangs doing it." , he thought. . "Was anyone hurt?" "No, the place was empty," Elisa said. "Rosa closed down for a few hours because she had to take Espiranza and Rosa to the dentist, and none of the employees were due in for the next shift until later on." "That's a relief, still I think I'd like to come down and check it out." "I thought you might, give me about ten minutes to finish making the report and clear some of the other officers out before you come down." "All right, see you in ten!" He quickly showered and pulled on his shorts and tunic. Keeping mental countdown in his head, he went down to the kitchen, and grabbed a light snack before heading off, but before leaving he wrote a note and left it so if he were not back before Goliath and his clan awoke, they would know where he went..and why. He leaped off the wall, and became invisible in a blue flash at the same moment and flew off to try and help his friends. Doughnut King: "I don't see why we're hanging around here after everyone else has left," said Matt to his partner. What are you waiting for?" "A friend is coming down to see if he can help out with the investigation," she said while looking at her watch. "Oh and who is this friend?" he asked. Elisa turned to face him. "That's right..you two haven't met yet have you!" A noise off to the side of them stopped all conversation. "What was that?" Matt asked. "I think my friend just arrived," she told him. "Argent is that you? You can come out, this is my partner and he knows all about Goliath and the others." "All right Elisa," a voice said from directly in front of Matt. "I just wanted to be sure he was a friend." "Am I going crazy, or is the invisible man in the room with us?" Matt asked. A blue corona of light formed in the air in front of the two detectives, and the figure of Argent came into view. Elisa smiled. "Argent, I'd like you to meet my partner Matt Bluestone." Argent stepped forward and gave his best *fiendly* grin. "Hi!" Elisa almost laughed at the expression on Matt's face. "Matt, this is Argent. He's a friend that's living with Goliath and the rest up at the castle." Matt stared in wonder at the winged humanoid wolf that stood in front of him. "Ah... Pleased to meet you," he said while holding out his hand. Argent shook the offered hand. "I was wondering when I was going to meet Elisa's partner, she talks about you all the time." Matt shot Elisa a questioning look. "Really? Well she never mentioned *anything* about you." He turned to Elisa. "How come?" "Well Argent is a special case, you remember the brake out at the evidence warehouse a while back?" she asked. "You mean that was him?" Matt looked over towards Argent, who was looking around at the destruction. "Yes. While he looks around I'll bring you up to date on what's been going on." While Elsia filled Matt in, Argent began to look around the remnants of the Perez's small business. A somewhat familiar scent was present in the front, and when he came to the damaged counter-top he saw the many deep scratches in it he got down very close to examine the surface. "That's some story!" said Matt while looking over in Argent's direction. "Sevarius is some piece of work..imagine what he must have gone thru knowing that his brain isn't in his real body!" "I don't have to imagine too hard," Elisa said. "I had a first hand look at what the news *almost* did to him. If it weren't for Delilah and the Perez family, I think that he wouldn't have survived." She looked over and saw Argent looking very closely at the counter-top. "Find anything?" "I think so..but I don't understand it." Argent looked at the two detectives. "I've been picking a scent that is very strong, and I've also found a handprint on the counter." "Where?" asked Matt. "We went over every inch and didn't find any prints at all." Elisa and Matt went over and stood next to Argent. "It's right there." He pointed to the counter's corner. "But there's nothing there?" Matt said with a puzzled look. "Argent's eye's can see things we can't pick up on," Elisa explained. "What does it look like?" "Can a barrow your pen?" he asked. Eilsa handed him her pen, and he traced an outline of the handprint for her and Matt to see. "Wow!" said Elisa. "Whoever it was has a pretty big hand!" Argent bent down and took a sniff of the counter-top, and gave Elisa a worried look. "It has the same scent I'm picking up out here.. and now I recognize it." He then placed his own hand inside the outline, it was a perfect match! "It's my scent!" "Well, Elisa said you've been here lots of times," said Matt. "Your prints are probably all over the place, your scent too." "But you don't understand, I've never been up here in the front," he told them with a worried look. "I've always stayed in the back so no one can see me. There shouldn't be *any* of my prints up here, let alone my scent." "I think we'd better get back to the castle and warn them about this," said Elisa while looking around the room nervously. "Warn them about what?" Matt asked. "And what are you looking around for, we're the only ones here." "We might not be," he told him. "This print could mean that Sevarius decided to duplicate his experiment using someone else's brain..that means there could be another me flying around even as we speak." Matt began to look around the room too. "Or even in the room with us right now as well eh?" "Could be," Elisa said wearily. "Let's not take any chances though and get to the castle right away." The two detectives got in Elisa's car, and drove off, while Argent took to the skies while invisible once more. The Quarrymen's training warehouse: "All right everyone..gather around," the team leader said. "This is Ms. Dominique Destine, a supporter of our cause. She's here to demonstrate a new weapon that she's graciously allowing us to use in our struggle to rid this city of the plague of Gargoyles." A small amount of applause was given as Demona, in her human form, addressed the group before her. "For some time now, you have not been able to score a major victory over Goliath and his clan. This is mostly due to the fact that the gargoyles, even with your weapons, more powerful physically and more mobile. Some time ago I approached a researcher and asked him to come up with the solution to the Gargoyle problem, and he went to work on it from a genetic and a bio-engineering standpoint. After some minor success, he made a major breakthru!" A small murmur of excitement ran thru the group. "What I am about to show you is the result of the time, effort, and millions of dollars spent to come up with a final solution." She stepped back from the group. "Gentlemen..I give you Project Bloodwulf." At the her signal at blue flash appeared at her side, and there in front of the assembled Quarrymen stood Bloodwulf! Cries of alarm, of hammers and weapons begin charged filled the room. The Quarrymen team leader rushed forward and pointed his weapon at Bloodwulf who, despite his instincts, followed Demon's orders and stood still. "What do you think your doing bringing that monster hear? That thing nearly wiped out one of my capture teams last month!" Demona smiled. "You're wrong, this one wasn't even created yet. What you and your men ran into was the prototype. It escaped in a lab accident, and somehow found refuge among the Gargoyles before his conditioning was completed." "She's right sir," one of the others said. "I was there, and the one that attacked us was a different color. The team leader slowly lowered his weapon. "You said conditioning? What type of conditioning?" "The one that attacked you was not fully programmed," she explained. "These creatures are very difficult to produce in the lab, but once they are fully grown they are programmed to obey and protect humans," she lied. "The rogue one is named Argent, and is not under proper human control, this one is named Bloodwulf, he is conditioned to obey my orders and to be my bodyguard." "Just how complete is his conditioning?" the team leader asked while walking around Bloodwulf to examine him from all angles. "If I were to order him to, he would go out and grab the first person he were to see, take them up two hundred feet, and drop them without breaking a sweat, all without pity or remorse," she told him. "Impressive, an artifical being that's totally subservient to mankind." He walked around and stood in front of Bloodwulf. "Does it talk like the other one does?" "Why don't you ask him?" The team leader cleared his throat, and addressed Bloodwulf. "What is your name, and what are your orders?" Bloodwulf growled slightly, but stuck with what his mistress had ordered him to say if asked. "My name is Bloodwulf, and my primary orders are to protect Ms. Dominique Destine, and all others humans against any attacks from Gargoyles, and any other forms of agression." "And if in protecting Ms. Destine, you had to sacrifice yourself, would you?" Bloodwulf answered without hesitation. "Of course, I am to carry out my orders until I can no longer function." The Quarrymen team leader seemed pleased with the answer, he turned to face *Ms. Destine* once more. "I assume that he is just as strong and fast as the other one we encountered?" "Yes, he is. In fact he is what you would call *The Improved Model*," she said. "He has been fully trained, his programming includes everything from hand to hand combat to the usage of weapons, although he doesn't really need them." She motioned to a standing stone figure near the far wall that represented a Gargoyle. "Bloodwulf, strike!" At her command the lupine figure raised both his hands, and let loose an electrical blast that shattered the statue to pieces!" "Very impressive!" the team leader said while waiting for the dust to settle. "Now all we have to do is send him out to find the Gargoyles and have him destroy them!" "*We* won't be sending him anywhere," Demona explained. "I already have enough information to choose the best possible location to set a trap. Once they have been lured there you and the Quarrymen will be waiting for them, with Bloodwulf, to destroy them!" The team leader was taken aback by her anger, he didn't think anyone but Mr. Castaway could hate the beasts as much..but she had just proven him wrong. "The it's settled then, tonight we shall strike a blow against the foul monsters that have invaded our city!" The other Quarrymen cheered. "Sadly though, I shall not be able to be with you," Demona said. "Pressing business forces me to be elsewhere this evening..but I will leave Bloodwulf in your charge. He will follow your orders and I will reclaim him on my return." She turned towards her warrior, and gave him a conspiratorial wink. "Now Bloodwulf, you will stay here and follow this man's orders..I will be back tomorrow to retrieve you is that clear?" Bloodwulf continued to play the *dumb servant* role. "Yes Ms. Destine. I understand." "He really is a good boy," she told the team leader in low tones. "He's just not very B-R-I-G-H-T about some things." She patted him on the head, handed the team leader the folder containing the information on the best place to spring the trap, and strolled off to her waiting limo. The team leader understood what she meant. After all, it was only a genetically altered animal, and although it was very useful it was still just a dumb beast that was conditioned to follow orders. Looking at it, he wondered just how much it cost to create the thing. Something like this could be of great use in other circles, and Mr. Castaway might even want one as a bodyguard. He'd have to remember to inquire when Ms. Destine returned for her *pet* later. Bloodwulf hated to be in a room full of these humans, but he had to follow his mistress's instructions. He smiled and thought of what would happen later on tonight. he thought.