"Crossroads Of Life" by Ryley Breen A.K.A Shadow Master
E-Mail Address=ubreen@fox.nstn.ca

	Well so far I have created two masterpieces and sent them to "The Gargoyle
Home page" for you simple mortals to enjoy. In the past two stories I have
told you of tales concerning the magical protectors of the city called New
York, the people known as Gargoyles. Though they are by far the most
isolated citizens the gargoyles aren't the only protectors who make it
their business to keep the citizens of that fair city safe.  Nor are they
the only people who have to keep their abilities and appearances a secret.
In this story we will see what is probably the most important meeting
between the two most powerful teams in all of New York State.  I mean the
teams of your ever popular Gargoyles, ancient protectors of Scotland, and
the X-Men(the ones from the cartoon show not the comic book), humans who
because of an abnormality in their DNA have been given miraculous powers.
Here they will meet and from this confrontation they shall both learn how
alike they really are.  Also I invite any who read this story or any of my
other stories to use any elements they wish.  If they wish to write a story
based on the changes I've made(ie-Elisa becoming gargoyle for keeps)they
are free to do so so long as I am given credit for my work.  I would really
like to see what other writers can do with what I've done.  Without further
chatter let us journey "once more unto the breach."


"Crossroads Of Life"


	"What's up Beast?"asked Jubilee as she entered the laboratory.  She had
spent most of the morning in the danger room running through some training
sessions with Rogue and Jean and was glad to be out.  She knew that they
had to train their powers to battle psychos like Sabretooth and The Friends
Of Humanity but did they have to train four hours a day!  After the over
stressed work out she decided to check out what was going on in the rest of
the mansion.  In the main living room she found Gambit and Wolverine
playing a game of poker and she could tell from the look on Logan's face
that he was five minutes away from cutting the deck in his own style.
Storm was tending the backyard and the professor was in the war room using
cerebro.  "That leaves Beast, knowing him he's probably down in the lab
working on some way cool gadget" she thought as she walked down the stairs
to his private work area.  She had been right of course, he was in his lab
but instead of working on a machine of some sort he was scrolling through
something on his computer.  As she walked closer she could see that he was
looking at some sort of techno ad by a company called Xanatos enterprises.
It took Dr.Hank McCoy only a few minutes to notice her presence and he
immediately swivelled his chair around to greet her.  "Ah, to what do I owe
the extreme pleasure of seeing yon beautiful maiden Jubilee?" he asked in
his usual Shakespearean dialect.  She could never get over how he always
seemed to surprise her with his very large dialogue, just how many words
did he know?  "I just finished up in the danger room and wanted to see how
things were going down here" , she replied as she began to read parts of
the article on the screen, "I thought you'd be working on some weird new
gadget but it looks like I was wrong."  Noticing where her gaze was
directed he made two quick clicks on the mouse and a large diagram of a
high tech mirror appeared.  "True enough, I had decided to give mine eyes a
rest so as to catch up on the latest scientific achievement made by various
monolithic companies" , said Beast as he continued to bring up more and
more pictures of things she couldn't make heads or tails of, "All were
extremely satisfying but I found the discovery by Xanatos Enterprises to be
most entertaining."  As she looked at the screen full of writing she could
just barely understand the idea of it but she decided that it would be for
the best if she let Beast explain.  "What've they done, hopefully not more
killer robots?" she asked.  She didn't mind when companies made stuff to
make their lives easier but it seemed nowadays that all they seem to be
doing is making more and more robots to kill mutants or take over the
world.  "They have made a major breakthrough in the field of temporal
mechanics and tacheyon manipulation" said beast as he brought up a detailed
drawing of what she guessed was supposed to happen when they flipped the on
button, "in fact the C.E.O of Xanatos Enterprises is going to be showing
off a finished model tomorrow night."  It was obvious that Beast was way
interested in this, he would probably give his eye teeth and some of his
greatest gadgets to be able to attend.  Come to think of it she'd like to
see this high tech closet herself.  "Time travel, just one among the many
things that we have to deal with in this world" , thought Jubilee as she
listened to Beast ramble on in geek talk about this time portal, " I wonder
if there's anything that those corporate hotshots can't make a reality?"
	"Time travel sure would come in handy right about now" thought Xanatos as
he leaned back in his chair.  Owen was just going over the basic security
and seating plans for the unveiling of the temporal gate.  He had organised
a long evening of entertainment as well as discoveries for tomorrow night
and he was already beginning to regret it.  He knew that it was necessary
to hear the security arrangements for the party, showing off one of the
most potentially devastating tools of all time was not something to be
taken lightly.  In the wrong hands he could risk losing everything, his
company, his family and even his life would be fair game.  "I will have
metal detectors as well as infrared sensors placed at all entrances" , said
Owen in his usual humming tone, "I also have the radar antennas operational
and twelve steel clan robots prepared in case of aerial assault."  "Good,
good,  that should be satisfactory" he said as he flipped through the
security status reports on his computer.  There were definitely a lot of
them but they were all necessary to protect what was inside his tower.  He
had been surprised when the Illuminati gave him the loan he asked for
without so much as a warning of impending death.  It had cost nothing short
of two hundred million dollars to repair the castle and replace all of the
electronics that had been destroyed by Loki a week ago.  If it hadn't been
for Detective Maza and her magical ability the entire tower may have been
laid to ruin.  "Sir, forgive me for saying but you seem to be a bit less
than ..content with the security measures being taken" said Owen as he
pushed his glasses up farther on his nose.  He had always valued Owen, from
the first day he walked in the door for the job as his assistant.  He liked
him even more now that he had found out that Owen was also an all powerful
child of Oberon named Puck.  "Oh it's not that, I'm sure that the security
measures are the best" , he said as he got up from his seat and looked out
the window behind his desk, "It's just that it seems to be all so futile, I
mean our past encounters with Oberon and Loki show just how insignificant
and useless any security measure is."  "I realise that those two
confrontations were a rather deep blow to your ego sir but I very much
doubt that 'lightning will strike in the same place' a third time" said the
tranquil form that was Owen.  "I know but still, if someone really wanted
this device they might be able to get the means to steal it" he said as he
looked at his trustworthy confidant.  "If it will make you feel any better
I'll see about adding some 'special' security to the event" said Owen with
a small grin forming on the edges of his lips.  "Whenever he does that I
know that it's going to be bad news for whoever is on the receiving end of
it" thought Xanatos as he resumed looking at the screen of security
systems.
	Night was falling once more on the city streets of New York, the end of a
day and the promise of a new one.  High above the city streets, high above
even the top of the Xanatos Enterprises building sits the stone Castle
Wyvern. Resting on the main tower of this ancient tower rests nine statues.
Some of them as old as the castle itself and others somewhat newer.  On
the lower half of the tower rests six while on the top lay three others
stand ready to fend off whatever horrors and dangers threaten their home.
Not two long ago there had been a mighty battle atop the Xanatos
skyscraper, though the police and the people had been told that it had just
been an experiment that had gotten a bit out of hand.  The truth was that
the defenders of this antique home repelled and attack forces not of this
earth.  As the light of the sun is extinguished by the watery horizon and
the light of the moon replaces it forces that are actually of this earth
are about to be released from their thirteen hour sleep.  An eerie light
falls over the statues, the silhouette of their winged forms being
highlighted.  At first it begins like a  slow tinkle of stone hitting the
ground, like a far away train that was slowly getting closer and gaining
speed.  Soon the air was filled with the sound of cracking and falling
stone but those were not the only sounds that would reach the ears of the
citizens.  They would also hear the groans and roars of the cities secret
protection against the forces of evil and chaos.  One by one the strange
creatures would erupt from their stone shells and announce their awakening.
With eyes glowing and sharp teeth bared there are few who would challenge
their right to soar through the city skies on their bat like wings.
Tonight surprisingly they have a guest to greet them as they wake, or
rather to greet those on the top portion of the tower.
	Goliath awoke from his stone sleep as intimidating as ever and the only
difference he felt was the fact of the new gargoyle in their clan and the
fact that the castle had returned to its usual appearance.  It had almost
been completely obliterated by the god Loki's attack last week.  It had
also been last week that he discovered Elisa's true feelings for him,
though he pretty much had know them all along.  When he turned around he
was surprised to see Owen standing next to the staircase waiting for them.
"So Owen, what's up?" asked Elisa as she did one final stretch and then
hopped off her perch.  "Mr.Xanatos is having a social gathering tomorrow
night to show off his companies latest invention in the field of temporal
manipulation" said the four-eyed assistant.  "How does that concern us?"
asked Goliath as he crossed his arms in front of him.  He had never really
liked it when Xanatos had made some new machine, especially one such as
this.  He had heard Lexington talking about it the night before and from
what he could make out it was an artificial Phoenix Gate.  "Mr. Xanatos is
worried that his own security forces will not be adequate to keep the
device safe" , Owen said as he took some papers out of his pocket and
handed them to Goliath, "in an effort to eliviate his worries I would like
to hire you and your clan to provide additional security."  Goliath was
rather surprised that Xanatos didn't have any faith in his own security
forces and Owen would wish to ask them to help.  It was true that they had
aided Xanatos in aiding in the defence of the city and the world but
Xanatos had never asked them to provide protection like this.  Still, if
such a device were to fall into the wrong hands it could prove devastating
to all, human and gargoyle alike.  "Very well, we will attend this
gathering but what is that you have?" he asked pointing to the papers in
his hand.  "I felt it would be best if Xanatos Enterprises had written
documentation concerning your temporary employment" , replied Owen as he
unfolded the papers to reveal the words of legal context, " I would prefer
that you remain out of sight until you are needed and in the event that
anyone discovers you or you are needed we will have the law on our side."
	Elisa was a bit worried when she heard the word temporal mentioned, the
thought of time travel always scared her a bit.  She had seen all three of
the "Back To The Future" movies at the theatre and learned that time is
just something they weren't meant to have control over.  As Owen's
explanation of their involvement concluded she felt a bit more comfortable
in the area of time travel, it was the way he said "law on our side" that
worried her.  Though he wasn't specific she knew that the assistant to
David Xanatos didn't have to be.  Things must be getting steadily worse
down in the city below, bad enough for people not to take the word of David
Xanatos seriously.  She watched as Owen passed out the contracts for the
others and herself to sign.  She briefly skimmed over the contents of the
agreement and found that it was actually half decent.  She had thought that
it would have been written up so Xanatos would be legally in the clear if
anything went wrong but it protected them as well as the company.  With a
feeling of reluctance still vibrating in her mind she took a pen and signed
the contract, but instead of using her real name she wrote down "Donna
Wyvern".  She didn't want people to know that the once and former human
detective Elisa Maza was now a taloned gargoyle.  When she passed her
contract back to Owen she noticed a slight rise in his eyebrow as he read
her signature.  She noticed that the others had waited until she had begun
to sign her contract before beginning on theirs.  "With their legal
knowledge several hundred years out of date I'm surprised they know what a
contract was" she thought with a smile as she watched them write on the
dotted line.  It took her a while to notice but she saw that Luna hadn't
left her perch, she was just sitting there gazing out into the night sky.
"Hey Luna, are you going to join us for breakfast?" she asked after walking
up behind the lavender gargoyle.  Luna had hardly said a word in the past
few nights, though losing two of your sisters and being punished in such  a
cruel way could do that to a person.  "I shall join you later, I just want
to be alone for a little bit" Luna replied as she twisted her head around
slightly to look at Elisa.  Elisa knew better then to bother someone in
mourning so she began to walk towards the opposite side of the tower.
"Okay, maybe after we can go catch a movie or something" she suggested to
the newest member of the clan.  "Perhaps" said Luna and with that she
returned her gaze to the open air.
	They have treated her amazingly well considering the harm she and her
sisters had thrown their way in the past.  At the mention of her sisters
tears begin to trickle down the side of her face.  She missed them greatly,
it seems as if it were yesterday that they were battling Loki here atop the
Xanatos building.  Where she had saved Goliath, the leader of the gargoyle
clan, from certain death at the hands of Loki.  It was here that Loki was
defeated by Elisa Maza and confined for the rest of eternity in the shell
of a mortal man.  A fitting punishment, he will undergo much suffering and
pain in trying to adjust to a life without magic.  In a way so would she,
after violating the supreme law made by Oberon so long ago she had been
banished from Avalon and confined in the form of a gargoyle.  Her magical
abilities, which over a week ago were strong enough to best almost all her
brothers and sisters, were now as restrained as Puck's.  She could only use
them in the supervision and teaching of Elisa on those rare occasions when
the gargoyle absorbed any magic.Elisa's new abilities intrigued her, to
have the ability to absorb and rechannel that magical energy into anything
she wanted was definitely useful.  Unfortunately as she knew all to well,
the chances of another magical confrontation so soon after Loki's escape
from the Kjolen Mountains was highly unlikely.  Perhaps sometime in the
future she would get to use her abilities once again but for the time being
she would have to be content with the natural abilities and duties of a
normal gargoyle.  Those abilities and duties weren't all bad, being strong
enough to tear metal apart with her bare hands and having claws that could
rip through solid stone were definitely some of the positive perks of her
new form.  Being able to fly was alsoa joyful distraction from the mundane
world to which she was now confined.  True, compared to the abilities she
once possessed these were about as useful as being able to feel and to
sense certain sensations on her skin.  Insignificant if compared with the
awesome abilities a child of Oberon had at their disposal.  "Still there is
nothing I can do about it so no sense crying over spilt milk" , she thought
as she gracefully stepped of the perch where she had slept during the day ,
"If I am going to live in the mortal world I might as well learn to live in
like everyone else."  Looking out into the night for a final time she
jumped over the side of the tower and glided down to the entrance to the
castle.
	"Alright, not a authority figure in sight" , thought Jubilee as she
tip-toed her way towards the front door of the Xavier Mansion.  For the
past few nights she had been grounded for going into Beast's lab without
anyone else there and nearly blowing everyone sky high.  She didn't mean
for anything to go wrong, it had just seemed so easy for Beast to whip some
way cool chemical or gadget that she thought she could do it.  She reached
out for the door handle, feeling the joy of freedom well within her grasp,
but then felt her feelings hit rock bottom when she felt a restraining hand
fall on her shoulder.  "And just where do you think you're going Jubilee?"
, sang Jean Grey's lovely voice, "If I remember correctly your still
grounded which means late evening excursions are out of the question."
Jubilee turned around to see the green bloused slim figured form of her
friend and teammate standing there with her hands on her hips and a stern
cross look on her face.  "Ahh c'mon Jean, you know as well as I do that
this the professors punishment was way too severe" , she pleaded trying to
push Jean's 'sympathy button as hard as she could, "besides I'm only going
out to see a movie!"  "What's playing now?" Jean surprisingly asked.
Jubilee was definitely a bit uneasy now, people giving you the punishment
lecture rarely worried about the little details.  "It's called
'Independence Day', its about aliens coming to destroy the earth and Will
Smith has to stop them" replied Jubilee as she waited for the 'No' answer
that was the usual response to any violation of the rules of Xavier.
"Sounds like fun, let's go!" said Jean as she opened the nearby closet to
get her coat.  "What, your actually going to let me go?!  What about my
punishment?!" exclaimed Jubilee in disbelief.  She couldn't believe her
ears, Jean was actually breaking a rule that she had just drilled her on a
few hours ago.  "Sure you deserve a little reward for your workout in the
danger room this morning, besides Wolverine is in another one of his moods
and I think it would be best for all concerned if we weren't around to
bother him" , she said as she began walking toward the door, "unless of
course you want to stay home and avoid Logan's tantrum all by yourself?"
"Not a chance! Let's go"exclaimed Jubilee as she ran out the door towards
the garage.
	"So it's a done deal then Owen?" asked David Xanatos as he looked at the
signatures of Goliath's clan.  He had to admit that he was a bit surprised
when Owen revealed that he had hired the gargoyles to provide extra
security but he was even more surprised that Goliath and the others agreed
to sign the contracts.  "Yes sir, Goliath has agreed to provide security of
the perimeter of the building and to remain hidden from the guests" replied
the blonde clean cut butler.  He didn't really like going over the mundane
details of security again but Owen insisted that they go over it again to
accomadate the gargoyles.  To make it a bit more informal David said that
they would do in down in the arboretum.  David had always been impressed at
how clean cut Owen had been able to keep himself, even under the most
'physical' of circumstances.  Of course that impression did waver a bit
when it became known that Owen Burnett was actually the changeling Puck.
He was a bit disturbed when he saw Owen's eyes look over his shoulder to
the elevator behind him.   He turned around to see a fairly well dressed
man dressed all in black and with a pointed black goatee.  "Excuse me but I
don't remember having an appointment scheduled at this time, do you Owen?"
he said as he tried to deduce the mans 'profession' by his clothes and body
language.  "No sir, you don't have any appointments schedules for the
entire evening" replied Owen as he began to walk toward the mysterious
stranger.  "It is true that you do not currently have an appointment with
me but at least wait until you have heard what I have to say before your
assistant attempts to throw me out" , said the man as he removed his
gangster like fedora, "Mr name is Mr.John Essex and I am very interested in
your latest discovery."  "So I have been told by a great many people, how
does that concern you?" asked Xanatos as he managed to place a reputation
to the name.  Essex was a very recluse scientist and investor in the modern
business world, He was rarely seen in public and definitely had a few
skeletons in his closet.  "I have an interesting business proposition for
you, one I am sure you will find most intriguing" Essex said as he took a
portfolio out of his trench coat pocket.  "Well I might as well find out
what he's offering me" , thought Xanatos as he reached out for the papers,
"it might just prove useful."
	"I have you now you horned showboat!" exclaimed Lexington from in front of
the television set.  The trio had been at that video game since after
breakfast and showed no signs of giving it up any time soon.  Goliath
didn't like the fact that they were spending so much time in front of the
television, no matter how 'awesome' it was.  Being lazy like that dulled
the fighting skill they had built up through the nights they had lived.  He
had tried to pry them away from the video game once before but they just
brushed him off with a "just one more game" and "awww, just one more game"
and more excuses like that.  He figured that he would have to take more
drastic measures later on but for now he would let them have their fun.  He
had more important matters to attend to, mostly concerning the gathering
that Xanatos was holding tomorrow night.  According to what Owen had given
him it would be held down in the arboretum, which would definitely have
some advantages since there were skylights on both sides.  "The windows
will make it difficult to keep a close eye on the proceedings but there
should be enough room on either side of the windows to stay hidden and keep
an eye on things" he thought as he turned to the next page.  Out of the
corner of his eye his spotted a form moving towards him and turned to meet
whoever it was.  "Hi Goliath, how's my favourite lavender hunk?" asked
Elisa as she draped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.
"Goliath my boy, things are definitely taking a turn for the better
nowanights" he thought as he returned the hug and folded his wings around
her.  He had been quite a bit more comfortable with things like this since
they both made their feelings known to each other, though he wished that
Elisa's had been revealed under somewhat less 'tense' circumstances.  "What
have you planned for tonight my angel?" he asked as he lowered Elisa to the
ground and eased her out of his leather cape-like wings.
	"'Independence Day' that's what" replied Elisa as she showed him the
advertisement in the evening paper.  "A movie eh, are you going alone or
would you like some 'company'?!" Goliath asked in a mocking tone.  "Maybe,
I thought that I'd take Luna to the movie to help get her mind off her
sisters for a while but I'm not sure if she wants to go" she replied as she
looked over to Luna who was sitting by Hudson near the fireplace in an easy
chair.  "Well I'd love to join you but I  must familiarise myself with
these security sketches" he said as he picked one of the countless sheets
in front of him.  "Hey no need to explain to me, I used to have to do it a
lot of times when I was a detective" she said as she briefly looked at the
sketches that Owen had left.  "You still area detective, you're just
working undercover" he said with a crooked sly grin on his square-like
face.  "Yeah, so undercover not even Captain Chavez can get a hold of me"
she said with a small chuckle.  It had been almost two weeks since she had
become a gargoyle and almost as long since she had seen the Captain.  The
last time she had disappeared for a long time Chavez had half the prescient
out looking for her along with a few agents from the federal government.
It had surprised her that one missing cop and a missing prisoner had caused
this much fuss.  She had already met up with Matt soon after her species
change and told him to try and keep things halfway calm at the prescient
and to tell Chavez that she was okay but that would only work for a little
while.  Sooner or later Chavez would want to see her and find out what she
had been up to, but for now she was going to keep things under wraps.
"Well I'd better get going if I want to catch the start of the movie" , she
said as she started toward the door, "Hey Luna, are you going to come with
me or are you going to stick around here?"  It was a few seconds before the
white haired gargoyle did anything but she soon got out of the chair and
started for the door as well.  "I believe I shall go with you, it has been
a while since I last witnessed mortal entertainment" Luna said with a
slight smile.  "How Long exactly has it been?" asked Maza.  "About one
hundred years, give or take a decade" said Luna and with that they were
both out the door.
	It hadn't taken Elisa and her more then five minutes to get outside and
airborne but it still seemed to take forever for her.  That wasn't
surprising since she was used to much quicker methods of travel, like
teleportation among others.  Still she did kind of enjoy the restraints
that had been placed on her, it would help to toughen her and get used to
mortal life.  Gliding through the air was definitely one of the few
pleasures that this form offered, having the wind in your face created such
an unbridled sense of freedom.  As she looked down to see where Elisa was
leading her she was puzzled to find that they were not heading for the
theatre but rather for her apartment from when she was a human.  "Elisa,
why are we stopping here?" she asked as they landed outside her large
rooftop window.  Looking inside she saw that Elisa did have quite a unique
style when it came to interior decorating, her special personality was
shown off everywhere.  "I just want to pick up some cash before we go" she
said as she opened the window and stepped in.  "Why do you need money, from
what the young ones have told me you have your own private 'box seats' "she
asked as she entered behind the black haired gargoyle.  "I know but I just
couldn't go there and watch the movie without leaving something to make up
for the eaten popcorn and the movie itself" , she replied as she opened a
drawer in the kitchen, "I guess I just can't go back on what I was taught,
I just have to obey the law, even if it is inconvenient."  Luna could see
that she wasn't the only one who was facing new challenges by a drastic
change in her appearance.
	Elisa couldn't help but feel a bit out of place among all the human
trappings within her apartment.  Even the clothes she wore seemed a bit out
of place, they seemed different and yet the same.  All the other gargoyles
wore nothing but the loin clothes that they had worn since almost birth.
Sure every couple years they had to make a change in size but aside from
that they stayed the same.   Still deep within her she knew that she would
stay wearing these clothes for as long as she could.  They were a symbol of
her past, of the humanity still within her.  While the wings and the talons
of her new gargoyle form would remind her of the new beginning in her life.
It would remind her of the sacrifice she had made and the price that went
with it.  "Enough of the philosophical talk Maza" , she thought to herself
as she put what money she could find into her pocket, "that's Goliath's
department, besides you've got more important thingsto worry about."  As
she began to make her way to the window she began to hear footsteps in the
hallway and they were getting closer.  "Oh no" gasped and she immediately
ran for the window.  "What is wrong Elisa?" asked Luna as she tried to
deduce what was happening.  "There's someone coming!" she whispered with
authority.  Immediately they jumped through the window and hid among the
stone pillars of brick and cement on the rooftop.  There Elisa waited,
listening for any signs that her apartment was being entered.  Slowly she
could hear the door lock clicking back into it's housing in the frame of
the door and the door sliding open.  At first all that could be heard were
the pitter patter of big feet on the tile-carpet floor of the apartment.
Elisa first thought that it might just have been the landlord just checking
in to see if she had returned but she was soon proven wrong.  "Well looks
like she didn't come back today Peter" , said the sorrow filled voice Elisa
knew as Diane Maza, "Oh where do you think she is, why hasn't she called?"
It pained her to the very core of her gargoyle being to hear the sadness in
her voice, so much so that she just wanted to run right in there and tell
them everything but she didn't.  She couldn't tell them right at the moment
what had happened to her, maybe some other night but not right now.  With
one deep breath she leaped off the building and glided into the night.
Glided off and thinking not about the events that happened in the past but
what was going to happen in the near future.
	"Ohhh, this line is taking forever!" exclaimed Jubilee as she leaned a bit
over the guard rail.  They had already been waiting for ten minutes already
and they weren't even close to the front of the line.  "Take it easy
Jubilee we'll get there soon enough" said Jean Grey as she pulled Jubilee
back into the line.  Jubilee didn't like the catch of having to have a
chaperon but it was definitely better then having to stay at the mansion.
It was a nice place to live and relax but not all the time, there had to be
some time off from looking at the same scenery all the time.  The line
started to move quite a bit quicker as she was gently pushed forward by
Jean.  Apparently there had just been one large group at the front.
Jumping to see over the heads of the other citizens of New York she could
just barely catch a glimpse of the group as they went in.  She couldn't see
their faces very well but they were obviously slobs, that much she could
tell by the stains on the back of their jackets.  "I hope I don't have to
sit next to those creeps" mutter Jubilee as she took a few more steps
forward.  Jean's face twisted as a frown came over her face, she obviously
didn't like that comment very much.  Jubilee had always been told from the
very beginning of her stay at the Xavier school for the gifted, not to call
people names no matter how much they might deserve it.  That was how people
like the Friends Of Humanity and Magneto thought and the X-Men were
supposed to be better than that.  Just as she was about to resume looking
over the heads of the people in front of her, for a few seconds she saw two
shadows dart across the ground and the back of the person in front of her.
Jerking her head to look up she tried to see what had made those two
shadows but all she saw was what looked like a flapping piece of cloth and
then it was only for a split second.  "What is it Jubilee?" asked Jean as
she followed Jubilee's gaze skyward.  "I thought for a second that I saw
something fly over us just a minute ago and land on the roof" she replied
shaking her head.  Jean gave out a slight giggle at her statement and
Jubilee agreed with her.  "Must have been just the shadows playing tricks
on me" she thought as the line surged forward.  As she dismissed the
thought from her mind, had she only looked up for a little bit longer she
might just have seen two glowing pairs of eyes looking down at her.
	"Why did you hide from your parents like that Elisa?" Luna asked as they
sneaked into the theatre through a rusted metal panel in the roof.  "I just
didn't want them to see me like this just yet" , replied Elisa as she made
herself comfortable.  The hole in the roof led right into an apparently
abandoned balcony area, rotted chairs and decaying popcorn buckets
scattered around the floor.  Luna couldn't help but feel a bit
'uncomfortable' with sitting in these surroundings, they were so lewd and
dirty.  "Must we sit in such squalid surroundings Elisa?" she asked the
orangish-tanned gargoyle.  "Yes, unless you would rather take your chances
down in the crowd below" replied Elisa as another small handful of popcorn
went from the bag to her mouth.  Looking down at the people below them she
decided that it would be best to just bear with the 'unsanitary'
surroundings rather then face a potential mob scene.  Within a few moments
the movie started and all was dark and quiet.  The contents of the film
after half an hour or so were your basic struggle against seemingly
unbeatable forces.  It wasn't much different then the battles she had seen
in the past century, except there was a definite increase in dialogue and
bravado.  "Why must humans always see anything new and different as a
threat?" she thought to herself as an action scene began.  It seemed to be
the main thing that filled the thoughts of these mortals, being wiped out
either by themselves or others.  When she turned to Elisa she noticed that
her attention seemed focused on something other then the movie.  "What is
it Elisa?  What do you see?" she whispered to her gargoyle companion.  She
followed the detectives gaze down to the left isle of the theatre and saw a
rather large group of men making their way to the front entrance of the
theatre.  Not giving a word of explanation Elisa jumped up from her seat
and made her way out of the theatre.  "Well, I might as well follow her"
thought Luna and with that she dropped her bag of popcorn and followed her
comrade.
	"Something's just not right about those fellas" thought Elisa as she made
it to the roof of the theatre.  Normally she wouldn't have given those
punks a seconds thought but the fact that more than one person was leaving
a theatre just after paying six bucks to see it seemed a bit stupid which
meant something was definitely amiss.  There were about five of them there
and they were all very large, though it wasn't hard to see that from the
tightness showing on the backs of their trench coats.  Gliding over to the
building across from the theatre she strained her eyes to get a look inside
the theatre but could not see past the front ticket booth.  Suddenly shots
rang out into the cool evening air, screams and cries of pain soon
followed.  "A robbery" , she muttered as she stood up and spread her wings,
"Man are they going to get the surprise of their lives!"  It was only a few
seconds after the first shots were fired that the five figures emerged from
the theatre, each carrying a bag.  "Alright Luna it's time to show these
punks that crime doesn't pay" said Elisa and with a shrill gargoyle battle
cry she dove off from the roof of the building and glided quickly down at
the robbers.  They were shocked out of their wits when they first heard the
inhuman scream and they didn't get any better when they saw the source.
She thrust a side kick right into the rib cage of one of the crooks and
sent him flying through the front doors of the theatre.  After she landed
she saw as Luna rammed at break-neck speed into the side of another and
sent him tumbling in to a brick wall.  "Didn't your mama's ever tell you
that crime doesn't pay!" she said sarcastically as she spread her wings and
lit up her eyes like blow torches.  The adding of the glowing eyes
obviously did the trick as she watched the three conscious thugs take a few
steps back.  "S-s-stay b-back!" stuttered one of them as he took a snub
nosed pistol from his trechcoat.  Elisa could almost admire the kids guts,
even is it was really pure stupidity.  Like a bull whip striking out at
it's target so did her tail lash out and wrap around the hand of the ugly
customer and through him head over heels ontothe top of a parked car.
When the others saw this they began to clumsily try and run away but they
obviously didn't remember that that escape was also cut off by a white
haired gargoyle named Luna.
	"Alright girl, time to show these pieces of pond scum what happens when
they commit a crime in this city" thought Luna as she saw the two remaining
criminals heading her way.  In the past week she had been the basics of the
art of gargoyle fighting by both Goliath and Elisa.  True once upon a time
she would have been able to kill these cretins without so much as a twitch
of a muscle.  Now thanks to her actions considering Goliath she was
forbidden from using her powers in such a manner.  Therefore it was
required for her to learn a somewhat more 'crude' form of dealing with
these villains.  Fortunately she was a quick learner and by her fourth
night of training could pretty much match Elisa blow for blow.  Returning
her thoughts to the task at hand she focused on her prey and spread her
wings and let out a low pitched growl as her eyes became a dark red.  The
first to attack her was not much of a challenge, he threw out a hay maker
that anyone with any skill could dodge.  Taking advantage of the off
balanced fool she grabbed him by the scruff of his coat and rammed his head
into a nearby lamppost.  With a dull thud the body slumped to the ground
and there it stayed, this only left the remaining criminal to deal with.
By this point he was scared out of his wits.  Seeing his fellow sewer rats
taken out obviously left him less then happy about facing two ferocious
creatures.  Suddenly another noise made itself known and it was one that
all members of the clan knew meant it was time to leave.
	"Jean, did you hear that?!" asked Jubilee as the sounds of a pitched
battle rang throughout the theatre.  The telepathic redhead made no comment
as she got out of her seat and began to make her way to the site of the
battle.  "Well I'm not gonna miss out on a fight this time!" she thought as
she followed Jean as she ran down towards the entrance.  From what they
could hear it was like a zoo out there, the sounds of a cougar growling
filled the air.  As they approached the doorway they spotted the
unconscious form of one of the peculiar individuals that she had spotted
earlier.  "What tore into him!?" she asked as she examined the limp form.
Aside from some small slash marks on the front of his coat he seemed
perfectly okay.  Then she heard another growl from the front entrance of
the theatre and from what she could see some creatures were attacking this
guys pals outside.  Neither Jean nor herself waited another moment they
immediately left the fallen thug and went to investigate what was going
outside.  At first all she could see was some sort of winged animal ramming
the head of one of the creeps into a lamppost.  "Ouch, those things have
one mean attitude!" thought Jubilee as the limp form of yet another trench
coated thug fell to the ground.  As soon as they were four feet from the
doors the beast whirled around and looked at them.  They didn't look all
bad, for the most part they looked almost human.  Definitely female in
appearance with large wings on its back and a long powerful looking tail.
With a quick word to another nearby beast like it they both took off across
the street.  "They can't seriously think they can avoid people just by
running through the alleyways" thought Jubilee as she saw the two forms
almost reach their destination.  She found out she was right but at the
moment she wished she wasn't, with a look of surprise and shock on her face
she watched the two winged forms begin to climb the brick front of the
building across the street with their bare hands.  The sound of crumbling
stone shocked her even more as she noticed that the two forms were digging
into the solid brick wall with their own fingers.  Looking at the equally
awe struck Jean Grey she watched as the two creatures leaped from the top
of the building and flew off into the sky.  Fortunately Jean was a might
bit quicker to recover from her state of confusion than Jubilee and was
apparently trying to read the two flying form's minds.
	They had gotten out of there by the skin of their teeth, but not without
being seen by two of the movie goers.  Elisa could already see the
headlines, "Gargoyle attacks innocent movie goer" or "Gargoyle Robbery
Foiled" or some other such piece of gutter trash.  As she flew higher and
began to gain altitude a peculiar feeling came over her, a feeling of an
intrusion.  She could tell that Luna could feel it to, something weird was
going on and she didn't like it one little bit.  When she had been at full
power, when Oberon had first filled her mind with all those thoughts she
could sense the thoughts of the people around her.  What  they were
thinking at the moment, what they had been thinking during the day and even
what thoughts were beginning to take shape.  "Is someone trying to read my
mind?" she asked herself as she tried to identify what the unknown presence
was trying to do.  The alien presence seemed to have no real purpose, it
seemed just to be probing her thoughts, her memories and perhaps just a
little more.  In the past week Luna had taught her many things, everything
from the simplest of spells to how to absorb the magic present when a
gargoyle is turned from a solid stone statue to a living breathing
creature.  There wasn't a whole lot of magic involved in the transformation
and even if there was she knew she couldn't take advantage of it.  That was
one of the problems with sleeping as stone, you have little or no control
over your thoughts until you are just about to wake up.  "Well, this mental
peeping tom is going to get the shock of her life" , thought Elisa as she
began to build the minuscule magic to its fullest potential, "you who
trespass into my mind, whether or not you are the villainous kind, fly from
my thoughts and read the sign, my thoughts are secret my thoughts are
mine!"  As the last words formed in her mind a bright green aura began to
form around her head.  Slowly a contrasting blue aura seemed to be forced
from within Elisa's mind to a point outside the aura and far away.  "That
should keep that phsycic voyeur out of my head for a while" Elisa thought
as she looked to see if Luna was alright.  Apparently she had been able to
fight off the alien intruder as well but with considerably more effort
involved.
	She had never felt such a powerful presence since she had been chastised
by Oberon for involving herself with the Arch-Mage.  Of course it was
significantly harder to fight off now that her magical abilities were
denied to her.  Elisa had apparently learned how to absorb the energy from
her stone transformation quickly.  The former NYPD detective had been able
to call on her small reserve of magic to ward off the attack by the
telepathic warrior but the strain had apparently weakened her a notch or
two.  "We must get back to the castle, if there is some sort of telepath in
town Goliath must be informed" said Elisa trying to mask her fatigue.  Luna
had observed this trait many a time over the centuries of walking the
earth.  It was apparently a primal reflex to try and hide weakness, to
maintain an aura of respect.  Over the ages it had been confused with pride
and dignity but in the end it was all basic instinct.  Nodding in agreement
with Elisa they climbed another few feet and glided in the general
direction of Xanatos tower.  Over the years of watching mankind it
surprised her how much man had become obsessed with greed, with amassing
power.  Upon further investigation she had found it to be a simple wish to
be superior to others, to have a sense of being special.  Perhaps that is
why Elisa had decided not to reveal to the others that if given enough
magical energy that she could transform herself back to her normal human
form.  True that was probably part of the reason but Luna knew that the
main reason was because of Goliath.  The fact that as a gargoyle she would
now be able to have a romantic relationship with him without any fear of
their differences.  "I doubt that even if the sphere hadn't turned her into
a gargoyle, that they would have never eventually showed their boundless
love to one another" , thought Luna as she made a slight turn so that she
brought herself right next to Elisa, "The love between them is so strong it
is almost tangible, I hope they never stop loving each other."  It was such
a delightful sight to see them together, sharing their love with one
another.  Of all the possible matches that may have occurred between them
this one seemed to be almost predestined to become permanent.  In reality
it was, according to the book of time, it had already been foretold.  That
and a great many other things to come that would settle any doubts she may
have.
	The meeting with Doctor Essex had been among the more curious events to
happen in the past two years.  From what Xanatos could make of him he was
definitely a manipulator and a very skilled one.  Already he had
manipulated himself into the swaray tomorrow night and even managed to be
allowed to show off some of his own merchandise.  Of course he realised
this completely and it was only through his good graces that he was allowed
to proceed with his scheme.  The Doctor had left a little more than a
quarter of an hour ago and already he was making plans to turn the tables
on Essex if anything went wrong.  "What do you think of him Mr.Xanatos?"
asked Owen as he looked at the illuminated lights indicating the floor that
the good Doctor was on.  "He is definitely a man of mystery and he
obviously has something planned for the party tomorrow night" he said as he
remembered the conversation they had just had.  The good Doctor Essex had
just made a major breakthrough in robotics and wished to display them to
the cultural elite.  When he had asked why he didn't simply make his own
separate presentation on his own all he got was a look of false modesty and
the familiar "I don't know how" excuse.  It hadn't fooled him in the least
but why not see where the tide took him with this unexpected change in
plans.  "Obviously but the main question is what does he really want?"
asked Owen with the signs of a concerned look beginning to form.  "The only
two feasible goal is that he means to either do exactly what he said he
will or.." he said as he purposefully left the sentence hanging for Owen to
prod and poke at.  "And?" he said in a rather puzzled tone.  "Or he plans
on ransacking the place and he needs to get something inside the building
to accomplish it."  The butler  seemed to be a bit relieved when the last
bit of information reached his ear.  As Puck the trickster of the gods he
no doubt was the one to usually keep people hanging on his every word.  The
opportunity to turn the tables on one so powerful was simply to tempting to
pass up.  "Shall I increase the security at the party sir?" he asked as he
reached for his cellular phone in his blazer pocket.  "No I think that we
have enough security to handle whatever the mysterious scientist has in
mind" he replied as he began walking towards the elevator himself.  He just
hoped that his smug comment rang true, for if it didn't it could mean
another large loan from the Illuminati.
	"The human fool fell for it as I knew he would" thought the dear Doctor
Essex as he left the base of the large skyscraper and into a waiting black
limo.  Once inside he put his long cane beside him and rolled up the dark
tinted window.  He had heard of this scientific achievement of Xanatos
Enterprises quite a while ago but decided to wait for just the right moment
to 'remove' it from that dunderhead's private inventory.  As the limo
pulled  away from the curb and began it's swift journey down the concrete
road an amazing transformation began inside the sleek interior of the limo.
The man who was known as Doctor Essex looked as though his entire body was
shifting in place, like the scales of a reptile move when it slithers along
the ground.  His trench coat seemed to shift as well as though it was a
piece of his skin as well.  If his true identity were truly known this
occurrence would be considered common place.  For as the skin turns a pale
white and his clothes tighten around him and become an alien metal like
skin this beings identity is revealed.  In past years he has committed many
crimes which most people would consider cruel but for him nothing matters
except for his pursuit of the ultimate in genetic evolution.  He, who has
followed the lives of two who will produce the strongest and most powerful
mutant of them all.  He who has allied himself with everyone from the
untamable Sabretooth to the Master of Magnetism himself.  To his comrades
and servants he is simply called "Master" but to all the rest he is simply
known as Sinister, Mr. Sinister.  "Ev'ryting goin' 'ccordin' to plan boss?"
asked the slightly furry chauffeur from the front of the limo.  "Yes
Hairbag, Xanatos fell for it like the fool he is" , he said as he began to
interface on his computer at HQ, "In forty-eight hours we will have a
working time portal to use and millions in riches with which to spend."  He
was pleased with how things had gone but he was still a bit disappointed
with David Xanatos.  He had the reputation for being an underhanded
manipulator but he hadn't caught any of the most common ploys that he had
used.  As he looked through the sun-roof of the limo to look back and smile
he noticed something very odd.  Two winged shapes were approaching the
Xanatos building and they didn't exactly look like a pair of pigeons who
had lost their way.  This definitely peaked his curiosity and made his
smile stretch even farther.  "Maybe Xanatos is not the fool I had taken him
for" , he thought as he continued his observation of the strange
silhouettes as they apparently landed, "What has that boisterous
billionaire have in his possession? What were those things?"  A second
later the mysterious shapes were gone and all he was left with to remember
them by was the single question"what were those things?" dancing in his
head.
	Jubilee was still waiting for a response from Jean when suddenly the red
haired X-Man swooned and staggered back to the brick wall of the theatre.
All she had been able to deduce from watching Jean was that she had been
trying to probe the minds of the flying creatures which they had just seen.
Though from her point of view she wasn't so sure that she wanted to find
them.  So far they had just given five big creeps a ticket to the hospital
with ease and made finger sized holes in solid stone.  "Whatever they were
they are definitely not the kind of creatures you wanted to get angry" she
thought as she rushed to the side of her mutant comrade.  Apparently they
had been able to shake Jean's mental probe eventually which added a
powerful mind to the powerful body.  "Jean are you alright, what happened?"
she asked as she helped her gal pal to stand up straight.  It took a few
minutes for her to regain her thoughts but she seemed none the worse for
wear.  "I-I'm fine Jubilee, I just wasn't prepared for such a counter
attack" replied Jean as the strength in her legs returned.  "What were
those things?" she asked as she remembered the look on the gargoyle's face
a few minutes before.  "I'm not sure, I wasn't able to get much from either
of their minds" , replied Jean as they walked to the Xavier mini-van, "It
was as if they had some sort of protection from telepaths."  This worried
her some, the professor had said on so many occasions that Jean's
telepathic power was almost as strong as his own.  To know that there were
a people that could stop her from dipping into their minds definitely made
her feel uncomfortable.  "Were you able to get anything from them?" she
asked as they got into the van.  "Only a place, a place very important to
them" , said Jean with a look of supreme concentration on her face, "A
castle high above the clouds and I was able to get a name from the dark
haired one."  Eager in anticipation Jubilee awaited Jean's stating of the
name, anxious to learn what was inside the head of one of those one lady
SWAT team.  "The name was Maza, Elisa Maza" , Jean said as she started the
car, "we'll ask Hank to search for any reference to the name whenwe get
back to the Mansion."  As the final bit of information sunk in Jubilee was
startled to remember that nobody knew they had gone in the first place and
that she would be in deep trouble no matter what valuable piece of
information they had recovered.
	They had made it back to the castle with little trouble, apparently the
magical shock she had sent to the telepath had discouraged him from
attempting again.  Still that wouldn't last forever, now that he had a look
inside their heads there would probably be no end to it.  She had been able
to shake it off before anything valuable came to light or at least she
hoped she had.  Last thing she needed was some creep to be giving her
friends and family trouble.  She knew that that wasn't the only problem
that was facing her and the rest of the gargoyle clan.  If the telepath
found out where they slept during the day or even what happened when they
slept it could mean big trouble.  The second she landed in the courtyard
she strode quickly inside to find Goliath and the others.  Surprisingly
they were in the same spot they had been before, even the trio were still
playing the video game.  "Elisa, what are you doing back so soon, I thought
the movie was two hours?" asked Goliath as he noticed her approach.  "We
have bigger things to worry about than whether or not I saw the movie" she
said as she gave him her "We're in deep trouble" look.  "What happened?" he
asked as an all to common look of concern came over his face.  "We had just
stopped a robbery outside the movie theatre when Luna noticed that the
crowd had heard all the noise" , she explained as calmly as she could, "as
we glided away someone was trying to peek into our minds, trying
telepathically to get info from us."  Goliath frowned in response to this,
she knew then that he didn't like where this was going.  The word 'robbery'
had drawn the trio from the game and Brooklyn was the first person to talk.
"What happened then?" he asked with a look of concern forming on his brow.
"Both Luna and I were able to shake loose of the mind probe but neither of
us know how much this person may have gotten." she replied as she saw
Goliath's frown grow worse.
	This was definitely a problem but they had to remain calm and look at this
rationally.  They all looked at him for an answer, a course of action which
they should take.  Obviously since they didn't know who the telepath was
they would have to restrict the amount of time they spent away from the
castle.  Also Xanatos would have to be informed of this development, if the
person had uncovered where they slept he would have to deal with it as
well.  "From now on no one is to leave the castle except for an emergency"
, he said as he looked at their reactions, "we can't afford to give this
mind reader any more opportunities to pry into our minds."  "What if this
telepath has already learned of our home and how we turn to stone during
the day?" asked Angela as she walked up to her father.  The look on her
face showed her concern but most of all her fear.  She had only once faced
such a dire situation, that time being with the Hunters.  "That is why I
must go and speak to Xanatos, if some one comes looking for us it will be
up to him to deal with it" he replied as he made his way to the door.  He
could feel all their eyes focused on his back, their eyes begging for
reassurance that everything would be alright and that they would be safe.
Even when he was half-way down the hall he could feeling their hopeful
gazes.  He hoped that when he returned from speaking with Xanatos that he
would have something reassuring to tell them.  As he approached the door to
Xanatos' office he could hear the multi-billionaire busy at work preparing
for the party tomorrow night.  Opening the doors and stepping in
immediately drew the attention of Xanatos away from the layers of paper
that covered his desk.  "Goliath to what do I owe the pleasure of your
visit?" he asked happily as he got up from his desk to offer his hand.  "We
have a problem Xanatos" , he said at first but then decided to remove Xanato
s from the picture, "that is my clan and I have a problem."  This raised an
eyebrow of interest on Xanatos' bearded face and Goliath hoped that was a
good thing.  Though the pony-tailed businessman had been acting rather
honourable of late that didn't mean that he was no longer the
opportunistic, scheming person he had been once before.
	This was certainly a surprise and an opportunity he couldn't afford to
pass up.  Xanatos had been asked for more favours by just about everyone
around him at one time or another but one from Goliath was certainly a rare
treat.  There had been a few times that he had helped Goliath and his clan
without being asked but having him say those words definitely sweetened
things.  "How can I be of service?" he asked in faux gentleman fashion.
Goliath obviously noticed this which would make him even more reluctant to
ask for help.  "Earlier tonight Elisa and Luna had stopped a robbery at the
theatre they had gone to" , he said in his usual thunderous tone, "As they
left the area they felt as though their minds were being probed
telepathically..."  Rather then listen to Goliath's drawn out explanation
he decided to just cut to the chase.  "...And you want help to prevent the
location of your home from becoming public knowledge." , he finished as a
look of detestement fell over the forehead of the lavender gargoyle, "It
would be my pleasure to aide a good friend such as yourself."  He walked
over to the intercom unit on the wall and called for Owen to join them.
Soon the door opened and the stalwart form of Owen Burnett entered the
room.  "You wished to see me Mr. Xanatos?" he asked in his normal dial tone
fashion.  "Yes Owen, it seems we have a mental peeping tom on the loose who
just recently scanned Detective Maza and Luna" , he explained as he
returned to his desk, "Goliath has asked for aide in the damage control
department and I have agreed to aide him."  "I fail to see how I can be of
service, I am not exactly a telepath" retorted the glass wearing executive.
"I realise that but you are able to become one" he said with a minute
grin.  From the moment that he had discovered Owen's alter-ego he had felt
a sense of freedom, he felt as though another weight had been lifted off
the large stack mounted on his back.  "Sir, you know that I am forbidden
from using my powers except in the teaching or protecting of Alexander"
said the navy-blue wearing stuffed shirt.  "True but it shouldn't be hard
for a master of subterfuge such as Puck to bend and twist things to
accomadate the problem" said Xanatos as he noticed a slight grin form on
the face of Owen.  With no more than a slight adjustment of his glasses the
form of Owen Burnett vanished in a puff of smoke and the maniacal Puck took
his place.
	Puck had always liked the way Xanatos thought, it was so much looser than
Oberon's strict way.  It was in these rare moments that he actually felt
some freedom return to his being.  Oh sure he had been allowed to use his
powers to their full extent once or twice before but even then he hadn't
really been free.  "Alright Xanatos I'll lend my expertise for the job" ,
he said is his usual nonsense fashion, "but if either Oberon or Titania
punish me for this be prepared to receive an unpleasant surprise within the
hour."  The billionaire simply raised an eyebrow at this open threat, that
at least meant that he was concerned a bit and concerned he should be.
Though none of his brothers or sisters had been able to prove it he had
pulled of some of the most humiliating pranks of all time on them all.
"Let's go down and see just how much knowledge was pilfered from the two
bachalorettes" said Puck as he began to float toward the door.  As he left
the room he could hear the heavy footfalls of Goliath and the softer
footfalls of Xanatos behind him.  When he entered the living room the
resounding groans and muttered curses erupted almost immediately.  "Thank
you, thank you and thank YOU!" said the miniature Vulcan as he proceeded
towards Maza and Luna.  It was obvious by the former weird sister's
expression that she would have rathered an agonising death to being in his
presence.  Maza's wasn't exactly the same but the show of bitterness did
not lessen any.  "Alright, let's get this over with." , he said as he
proceeded to do a bit of detective work on the detective, "I still have
papers up to wazoo to look over before the party!"
	Luna didn't relish the thought of having her no-good brother poking around
anybody's head, especially not hers.  Unfortunately it was necessary if
they were to discern how much the telepath had uncovered in their minds.
He went over to Elisa first which came as no surprise considering he felt
the same way about her as she did about him.  "Now Maza, if I am to find
out what was discovered by the peeping tom I can't have your powers getting
in the way" , said the floating prankster named Puck, "So I'd appreciate it
if you practised controlling your absorption ability during the process."
With a slight nod Elisa closed her eyes and began to concentrate, trying to
control the power within her.  Taking notice of her entranced state Puck
began the process of telepathy.  "Your mind has been invaded, and another
mind pervaded, reveal now what has been seen, and sent down a telepath's
beam" chanted Puck and with a small puff of air a purple mist danced
through the air towards Maza.  Soon it touched her and began to surround
her entire head, drifting around her like fog does in London.  Luna looked
closely on the taunt skin of Elisa Maza and watched to see if the spell had
taken effect.  With the opening of her mouth came the signal that Luna had
been looking for, the spell had taken effect.  From the small opening
between her soft lips came the response to Puck's request, in the from of a
slightly greenish mist.  Soon the mist had traversed across the open air
between Puck and Maza and entered the waiting mouth of the the silver
haired fairy.  With a look of puzzlement the floating comedian sifted
through the information he had received.  A minute later his expression
returned to it's normally jovial, comical self.  "Well I have done all I
can and I have to say Maza that you need a real clean-up job in that head
of yours" , Puck said as he turned up his nose in disgust, "but the state
of your mind is beside the point, the fact is that all that was discovered
was your name and whatever you were feeling emotionally at the moment."
The look on Maza's face was one of the most unusual she had seen in a long
time, it was a cross between angry, afraid and relieved.  When you try and
put something like that all on one face it is not a very pretty sight.
	Elisa wasn't pleased with what she heard, not one tiny bit.  Although all
that had been revealed was her name and emotions that still might be enough
for the telepath to find them with.  All they would have to do is ask all
of her friends at the police station and her family and they might have
enough info to deduce that the gargoyles are living in Castle Wyvern.  Matt
knew where the gargoyles were and his conspiracy developing mind probably
had a few ideas as to where she was.  If a telepath began to ask him
questions thoughts of the castle might crop up and that would all the
person or persons would need.  "I have to call Matt and warn him about
this" , she thought to herself, "he's the only one besides me who knows
where the gargoyles live now and that could mean trouble."  Slowly she
sauntered across the room and picked up the phone.  It took about five
rings but eventually the phone at Bluestone's apartment was picked up.
"Matt here, what's up?" said a fatigued voice at the other end of the line.
"Matt, it's Maza.  Look I don't have a lot of time to talk" , she said as
she saw confused expressions sprout up everywhere, "for the next few days
try not to think of the guys at all."  Her former partner was obviously as
confused as the others were, that much could be heard from the quick gasp
on the phone.  "Elisa man am I glad to hear from you, your parents and
Chavez are pounding me for answers and I'm running out of answers!" , said
Bluestones frantic voice, "and what's this 'don't think about the guys'
your talking about?"  She should have expected that he'd ask for more
details but she had hoped that this one time she would stop being a cop for
a minute.  "Look, there's somebody out there with telepathic abilities
looking for gargoyles" she explained impatiently, "she scanned me tonight
and was able to get my name, they might come to the prescient asking
questions so I need you to give them the run-a-round."  With a deep sigh of
realisation her partner said"Alright I'll try but you better talk to your
parents where you've been for the past two weeks or I could be in major
trouble!"  She knew that he would say that, she did owe everyone back at
the prescient and at home an explanation.  The only thing that had stopped
her the past few weeks was fear, fear of how they would react and how they
would think of her.  "This would have been a lot easier if that stinkin'
telepath had just minded his own business" thought Elisa as she prepared to
say goodbye and hang up.
	"What was it you thought you saw petite?" asked Gambit from his relaxed
position.  The second that she and Jean had arrived home they had gone to
tell the professor the unusual news.  At first he was skeptical at her
claims but Jubilee knew what she had seen and didn't care if he didn't
believe it.  Fortunately Jean's word seemed to hold more weight with the
professor than hers.  Following a detailed explanation of what had happened
the professor sounded the emergency klaxon and telepathically summoned the
scattered X-Men.  Most of them were a bit testy when they sauntered into
the war room but they didn't say anything.  They didn't have to say a
single word, the expressions on their faces said it all.  The only one that
didn't seem tired was Gambit.  Though that is hardly unusual for the ragin'
cajun', every night is a late night for him.  "I saw what looked like a
human but it had bat like wings fangs and eagle like feet" she replied with
a tone of bitterness present, "and I wasn't seeing things!"  "Nobodies
saying that you were Jubilee but you must admit that the idea of a bat
winged human is a it hard to swallow" said Cyclops as he adjusted his
ruby-quartz visor.  He was right of course, if she hadn't been there in
person she wouldn't have believed it either.  Beast had been listening the
entire time but hadn't said a word, he was to busy typing in the
information and entering it into the main computer.  Finally he stopped and
a holographic image appeared above the floor.  It was almost exactly what
she had seen except for a few slight differences.  "Is this what you saw
Jubilee" asked Beast as he eagerly awaited her reply.  She simply nodded
and that was all it took for Beast to bring up a news broadcast of a riot
that had taken place a few weeks earlier.  "Then I believe what you saw
tonight was a gargoyle, not of stone but of legend" , he said as he took of
his blue rimmed glasses, "there had been a riot in front of Manhattan
General a few weeks ago concerning gargoyles and that particular gargoyle
was present."  A look of curiosity, caution and wonderment set itself on
the professor's face and he knew that a long standing mission was
forthcoming.  "It seems as though we have a delicate task ahead of us" ,
said the Professor, "we must try to locate these gargoyles and if necessary
stop them."
	They had spent the entire night debating what they could do to further
protect themselves from the probes of the telepath but to no avail.  The
only reasonable course of action was the one he had suggested from the
start, they must stay in the castle until it was safe to leave.  How long
that was seemed to be solely in the hands of the telepath and how
determined he was.  He may just be a child who was just discovering his
unique ability or he could be another Hunter.  Given the choice he
definitely preferred the former to the latter.  "The sun will rise in a few
minutes and then we will be safe for the day" he thought as he gazed at the
brightening horizon.  As stone there would be no mind for the telepath to
penetrate, no secrets to be found.  He remembered the last time his mind
had been under siege, but that time Demona had been involved.  This had
been back before they had been driven from their home by Xanatos after
their awakening.  She had tricked Brooklyn into stealing the Grimorum
Mahknorum and delivering it to her.  Through a spell in that book she had
enslaved his mind and forced him to strike out against Brooklyn, who by
then had discovered Demona's trickery.  Throughout his entire life he had
never quite felt like that, even when he had tried to return to the castle
a thousand years ago he had some comfort in knowing that he would not be
able to witness what was about to happen.  Under the control of the spell
it was like he was asleep but could see everything that his body was doing.
It had been one of the more unsettling moments he had gone through since
he emerged in this strange new world.  True he had eventually escaped that
magical torture but the thought of what he might have done still caused him
to shudder.  Watching as Elisa took her perch on the ramparts next to his
perch drew his mind to quite another subject.  "What is going through her
mind?" he wondered as he followed her example and took his place on the
tip-top of the main tower.  Elisa had far more to lose of what the telepath
had found out came to light.  She might lose all she ever cared about and
that is a fate he would not wish on his worst enemy.
	Things were going a bit fast for her tastes but she could handle it, or at
least she hoped she could.  From what Puck had told them the gargoyles were
safe for the time being.  Though her old life as Elisa Maza was about to
get right in her face if they didn't find out who or what had intruded upon
her mind.  Although all they got was a name, that alone could lead the
telepath to Xanatos and to Castle Wyvern.  A little research done into
gargoyle lore would be the final nail in the coffin that would once again
open hunting season on gargoyles.  "Oh stop worrying, if it comes to that
I'm sure I can handle it" she thought to herself looking at the advancing
blue blanket sweeping over her head.  If the person who probed her is led
to the castle a quick memory wipe spell will solve the problem in no time
at all.  From the right she could already hear a sigh fall from the lips of
Luna, which happened every time she thought about anything involving memory
wipes and things of that nature.  She seemed to keep forgetting that though
she as a child of Oberon that she was forbidden to meddle with the affairs
of mortals while Elisa Maza the gargoyle wasn't.  "Though you are not be a
child of Oberon by birth you might as well be, for it is avalonic energies
which birthed your new form and those same energies that have given you
abilities greater than any other mortal" she had said on the first night of
tutelage in the magical arts.  I suppose that half of that may be true but
what about the other half.  How much of that other half consisted of Luna's
conscious or subconscious desire to gain a sister through her.  The loss of
her sisters at the hands of Loki must have been traumatic for her, so much
so that she is trying to forget about it by building a new group of three
that started with the gargoyle sorceress.  In a way a part of her wanted to
do the same, to build a new family so that she could leave all the coming
troubles in the dust.  She would much rather start a new family than have
to face her true family with all the changes that her life has gone under.
"Luna is probably hoping that I'll give in and leave my old life behind" ,
thought Elisa as she prepared for stone sleep, "and I think I probably
would, if only to save my family and friends some not needed grief."
	"I know what she is thinking" , thought Luna as she gazed up at the
vanishing moon and then to the rising sun, "and then I do not, far from all
powerful am I since the transformation."  It had been only a week since she
had been frozen by Oberon in the form she had chosen.  Some would wonder
why she chose the form of a gargoyle, especially when there are so many
better ones to choose from.  One explanation which people would agree with
is because of the offer that Elisa Maza had made just moments before and
others would say that she didn't choose the form at all.  Truth be known
she chose the form of a female gargoyle because of the way it so matched
her former existence.  The life of a mysterious, lonely, feared and perhaps
even hated species, to be called upon to maintain order and to fight
against chaos each night.  Then there came the reason that she was even
less proud of but one she knew existed , the reason that was the longing to
belong somewhere.  More specifically to have sisters once more, sisters who
shared the same mystical energies that Seline and Phoebe had shared with
her once.  In the short nights she had spent teaching Elisa how to use, how
to harness her abilities to aide the clan, she had seen traits in her that
so well mirrored that of her departed sisters.  Perhaps it was just her
mind playing tricks on her but she actually did see a bit of Seline and
Phoebe in Elisa.  "I should be ashamed for thinking about such things,
Elisa doesn't desire a life as my sister nor a member of a mystical trio" ,
she thought to herself, "still I can't help but wonder what would happen if
Elisa, Fox and myself were to join together to form a reborn sect of Weird
Sisters."  The thought was indeed intriguing, already thoughts of possible
scenarios flipped through her mind and she entertained each and every one.
Pushing those thoughts to the side she struck the fierce pose she would be
frozen in for the day and waited ever patiently for the feeling of stone
sleep to sweep over her body.  She was not disappointed for no more than a
few seconds later the stone cold stiffness began to race across her
gargoyle form and sent her to a reluctant sleep.  As she began to dream the
dreams of dreamers the thought of the possible Weird Sisters resurrection
loomed in her mind, waiting for reality to grab hold and assimilate it.
	Jubilee had tried to get some sleep that night but it had been no use,
images of the gargoyles she had seen just kept flipping through her head.
The way their eyes glowed, the sight of their sharp fangs and their long,
wide wings spread out beside them.  Those images would fill her dreams the
entire night, some would be pleasant and others not so pleasant.  So
disturbing were some of her dreams that she actually got up early and went
to the Danger Room to practise and get her mind of it all.  She pulled up
the Juggernaut program first and fared pretty badly.  Then came the
Apocalypse program then Omega Red, one after another she attempted but to
no avail.  The images of the creep she had spotted at the theatre lying on
the ground, the appearance of the gargoyles right in front of her.  It all
seemed so weird, for the longest time she had thought that gargoyles just
some statues on buildings.  Now all in one night she found out that they
were living breathing creatures, creatures that could create gashes an inch
or more deep in solid stone.  "I believe I may have the cure for your
constant lilt of questions" said a voice from behind her.  She turned to
see Professor Xavier in the doorway of the Danger Room, a look of concern
that all to often was plastered on his face.  He apparently saw the look of
curiousness scrawled on her face because he immediately indicated the note
pad on the arm rest of his high tech wheel chair.  "I was about to leave
with Jean to try and uncover what information we could about the name that
was present in the gargoyles mind" , said the professor as he brought the
floating hover chair closer, "There seemed to be very little about her on
computer other then the basic identification file."  Well she wasn't sure
if it would answer her questions or just produce more but it was worth a
try.  "Sure, so where to first?" she asked as she picked up the note pad
and put it in her yellow trench coat.  "From her file we know what
prescient she worked at so we had best start there" replied the professor
as he turned his chair around.  At the conclusion of the statement her
mouth twisted into an all to common look of puzzlement.  "What do ya mean
'worked' professor" she asked as she began to follow him.  "Detective Maza
hasn't reported in for two weeks, which means she has either been kidnapped
or killed" he replied and with that they left the artificial confines of
the Danger Room and began their quest for the truth.
	"Do you have it?" asked Sinister from his place among the seemingly
organic walls of his aircraft.  "Sure ting bos', got de tape right here"
said hairbag as he passed the black tape to his equally black master.  He
had ordered Hairbag to bring him a recording of the recent uproar of
apparent 'gargoyle' attacks all around the city.  As he began viewing them
the sightings and bits of video clips were sketchy at best but when it came
to the WVRN news broadcast from almost three weeks ago.  The anchor person
was accusing creatures he called gargoyles of being responsible, they even
had some remarkable video clips showing an up close and personal look at
the fearsome creatures.  These creatures of myth and legend were even more
magnificent then their reputation led people to believe.  The one thing
that intrigued him more than their appearance was the possibilities that
their DNA could present him with.  Their strength, speed, agility and
ferocity would definitely increase the raw power of his mutant army
greatly.  Suddenly a picture came on the screen, it showed a red and black
helicopter land atop an abandoned church.  For a while he was as clue less
as the people who had been there in person but when he saw the side door of
the chopper open up to reveal a man in a dark black suit waiting it all
became so clear.  Though he couldn't see the face clearly enough there was
no mistaking it, David Xanatos had been the one to save the gargoyles.
"Hmmm, it may be that Xanatos was not the fool I took him for" he thought
as he watched the tape play on the screen.  This would definitely call for
a change in plans, he would have to add a few things to his already
substantial invasion force.  Hairbag had been watching all the while and
hadn't said a thing.  "So my fur ball of a friend, what do think about
these 'gargoyles', hmmm?" he asked as he flipped off the view screen.  "Dey
don't look so tuff to me!" , said the primal beast as he turned up his nose
at the fading picture, " 'f dey git in my wey, dey be extinct b'fore I'm
trough with dem!"  Though he usually had faith in Hairbag and his brawling
skills he definitely felt that he may have met his match with these
gargoyles.
	Things were proceeding exactly as he had planned them, with the exception
of having to add more security.  Xanatos had already informed the 'human'
security teams that the gargoyles would be assisting them and he hoped that
he could count on them to work with Goliath without much friction.  Some of
his personal 'goon' squad as he remembered Maza calling them, still had
some personal grudges against the 'stone by day' gargoyles.  Add that to
the still present mistrust on the gargoyles side and there is definitely
the potential for disaster.  That is why he had decided to arm his men with
nonlethal ordinance, much to the protest of his men.  He didn't want there
to be the slightest window of opportunity for disaster to rear it's ugly
head.  Currently he was overseeing the placing of the Steel Clan in their
hidden compartments in the room.  Most he had placed in the wall panels and
a few beneath the fountains but he had placed three below the stage just in
case.  "Mr. Xanatos?  I have done what you asked concerning all persons
with telepathic abilities and have produced some possible suspects" said
Owen as he walked up in his yellow hardhat and passed him an envelope.
Inside were pictures of three women and a crippled man, not exactly a
motley group but he trusted Owen's abilities.  "The first is Jean Grey, a
resident of a private school in West Chester, New York.  The second is a
thief for hire who calls herself Psylocke, her current location is unknown
but it is believed that she is in Europe" , explained Owen as he watched
his employer flip through the photos, "the third is not a confirmed
telepath but several of her guesses have been known to be unusually
accurate, her name is Emma Frost.  Lastly we come to Professor Charles
Xavier, owner of the school that Ms.Grey lives."  Any one of these could
have been the one that scanned Maza and Luna but unfortunately there was no
way to be certain.  "Oh well, I guess we'll find out one way or another
when one of these people come looking" , he thought to himself as he handed
the photos back to Owen, "if I know anything is that people can't get
enough of the rare and exotic and gargoyles are as rare and exotic as they
come."  With that discussion dealt with for the for the moment, the only
thing he could do now was sit back and wait for the fish to come to him.
	As they left the cop house Jubilee was not at all in a good mood, mostly
due to the fact that she felt pretty much useless.  Jean and the Prof were
having all the fun, looking  into the mind of every police officer they had
spoken to.  The only reason they probably dragged her around with them
because a child helped to keep things honest between them and the cops.
When she looked on the faces of the officers they seemed to instantly put
on their best faces and attitudes, which were pretty pathetic if you asked
her.  For the most part the search had been a complete waste of time,
neither Jean or Xavier had hooked onto anything and if they had they
weren't saying anything.  When they reached the van and got in she knew
that she had to ask now or risk being left out completely.  "So did you
guys get anything from those flatfoots?" she asked as she stuck her head
into the front of the car.  " ' police officers' Jubilee and yes we did get
something" , replied the Prof. as he drove the car, "Apparently Detective
Maza is friends with these gargoyles and is very protective of them."  That
stunned Jubilee for a moment, the thought that someone could actually talk
to those things without freaking was impossible.  She gave herself a mental
slap in the face for thinking something like that, she was beginning to
sound like one of those Friends Of Humanity creeps.  Jean sat in the
passenger seat and seemed to be confused slightly, as if she was confronted
with the mother of all crossword puzzles and only had one word to go.
"Were you able to find out where they are?" she asked eagerly as they came
to an intersection.  "Not exactly but we think we may know who does" ,
answered Jean as she came out of the self-inflicted trance, "the CEO of XE,
David Xanatos himself."  Jubilee was a bit uneasy when the name of David
Xanatos popped up, the fact that he had a major invention up for display
tonight and the gargoyles being connected with him had to be more then a
coincidence.
	It was an hour before sunrise and already guests were arriving, probably
because they had engagements to be at later in the evening.  The Hardy
Foundation had already sent its represenitive, not surprising that it was
Felicia Hardy herself who had been sent.  Her mother had always played
favourites when it came to things of this nature.  Although Xanatos himself
was not scheduled to appear until later he felt it would be prudent to
mingle a bit at first.  Ms. Hardy and he exchanged the normal pleasantries
and began talking about the events that would take up most of the night.
Dr.Essex had arrived only half an hour earlier with his equipment and was
already beginning to set things up on the stage.  Walking towards him he
looked over two of the workers that were assisting him, a white-haired
woman and a white haired man.  They weren't one of his so they had to
belong to Essex.  "How is the assembly coming along Doctor?" he asked as he
jumped onto the stage.  At first Essex seemed to have been oblivious to his
question but then he turned around and smiled at him in a sly manner.  "It
is proceeding most excellently Mr. Xanatos, things should be set up in time
for the presentation" , answered the dark glasses wearing scientist,
"Though I am quite puzzled as to why your people aren't setting up your
invention, is it alright?"  "It is perfectly alright, but no assembly is
needed" , he replied as he began to examine the parts lying on the ground,
"its quite compact for its advance technology but that is mainly because
the power source is independent from the actual portal itself."  This
seemed to produce a slight hint of disappointment in the good doctors
expression but it was barely anything noticeable.  "Well I look forward to
seeing it up close, now if you'll excuse me I have to run a diagnostic on
the main console" said Essex and he walked away down the stage.  Xanatos
was pondering whether or not he should have him followed but before he
could decide signalled him from across the room and indicated he had guests
in his office.   "Well it looks as though the telepathic fish has come to
swim in my pond" , he thought as he made his way towards the elevator, " I
wonder who it is?"  As the doors of the elevator opened he noticed that a
set of eyes were firmly locked onto him but before he could turn to see who
it was the doors closed and he was on his way up.
	The place was kinda a cool, Jubilee thought as Jean the Prof and herself
waited in the CEO's office.  "This is a pretty cool mixture of castle and
computer" , thought Jubilee as she gazed about the room, "but I still
prefer a more modern look to this Camelot motif."  Still she was a little
relieved that they had gotten up here to see this David Xanatos, especially
after the hard time his Frankenstein-like assistant had given them upon
their arrival.  That stone-cold assistant of Xanatos' was definitely
without emotion and seemed totally devoted to his work.  They had been
waiting in this room for five minutes already and still there was still no
sign of any CEO.  Suddenly as if to answer her prayers of future excitement
the door to the room opened and in stepped a guy that fit the bill of a
wall street tycoon and billionaire playboy to a T.  He was of above average
height, had brown hair and a brown beard to go with it and had a poker face
that would fool even Gambit.  "Sorry to keep you waiting, I was just
overseeing some last minute arrangements for the party I am having" said
Xanatos as he walked around them to his desk and sat down.  He was
definitely smooth but she doubted that even he could prevent Jean or Xavier
from finding out what they wanted to know.  "Perfectly understandable, what
we have to discuss won't take long" , said the professor as he opened a
side compartment on his hover chair, "We are looking for a detective whom I
believe you know, a Detective Elisa Maza of the NYPD."  The
multi-billionaire looked at the photos with a glazed look on his eyes and
soon put the photographs down on his desk.  "Its true that Ms. Maza and I
have met on several occasions and exchanged a few words but that hardly
makes me privy to her whereabouts" , Xanatos said with a confused look on
his face, "What led you to believe that I may know where the dear detective
is?"  "It has been noticed by her fellow officers that she made an
appointment to stop by this building almost every night before she
disappeared" Xavier said as he picked up the photos off the glass desk and
put them away.  Xanatos seemed totally oblivious to this news, it looked as
though they had hit another dead end.  Either that or this guy had the art
of bluffing down to a science, either way it didn't do them any good.
	This was not exactly a ideal situation considering the circumstances but
if David Xanatos had learned anything in his years as CEO, it was that
there is always a good side to everything.  From what he could tell by the
expressions on their faces they were determined to find the gargoyles,
perhaps even obsessed concerning their quest.  "It is true that the
Detective did have appointments with me frequently but it was all business"
, he replied as he observed and studied their reactions, "She merely asked
for information that she felt a man of my calibre and power would have
access to."  The red head seemed to be oblivious tothe news as she
continued her stare at his head.  The bald professor seemed to be a bit
more fluent in his facial movements but still maintained a aura of
concentration around him.  The third black haired teenager seemed to be
listening to his voice rather then trying to read his mind.  She obviously
wasn't a telepath but he wouldn't be the one to say it officially.
"Information on what, exactly Mr. Xanatos?" asked Xavier who seemed to be
the most intellectual of the three.  "Mostly information about rival
companies and their supposed black market purchases, nothing illegal." he
said with a slight hint of arrogance to make them suspicious.  If he could
draw their attention away from Goliath and his clan it would make things
easier.  "Did she ask for any significant information before her
disappearance?" asked Ms.Grey whose navy blue eyes never left him.  "Not as
far as I know, there were a few things but nothing that would cause her to
be kidnapped or any such thing" he said as he took a brief look out at the
setting sun and knew that it would be in their best interest to brush these
people away as soon as possible.  "Wait a minute, maybe I should keep them
here" , he thought to himself as he gently stroked his beard, "it would
give Maza a chance to get a good look at them and keep an eye on them as
well, if only for the evening."  He returned his gaze to his three guests
and put on the most sincere and happy face he could muster under the tense
circumstances.
	It was obvious that whatever the rich-man knew he wasn't going to spit it
out willingly.  "I'm afraid I have to return to supervise the remaining
preparations but you're welcome to stay and attend the festivities" , said
Xanatos as he walked to a position behind them all, "I'm sure that Owen can
find some suitable formal wear and it would be quite an honour to have you
all attend, especially you professor."  He obviously wanted them to stay
here so they would waste more time and let whoever he was protecting get
away.  Jubilee herself knew that nobody with half a brain cell would fall
for such a stupid ruse, specifically not the Prof or Jean.  "We would be
delighted to attend, I'm sure Jubilee will find it most interesting" ,
replied the professor in a unmistakable sincere tone, "seeing such an
achievement such as the one you will be showing tonight would be a rare
treat for her."  Jubilee couldn't believe what she was hearing, the Prof
must have gone nuts trying to probe Xanatos' mind.  She didn't know which
to be more afraid of at the moment, the fact that they were falling into
what could be a trap or that she would have to listen to Hank McCoy-like
scientists blab on and on in geekenese.  Jean took notice of her apparent
case of shock and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.  "Don't worry
Jubilee, it's all part of the plan" said Jean's voice in her head
reassuringly.  Personally she trusted Jean with her life but under these
circumstances that faith was being sorely tested.  With a bit of effort she
calmed her face down and tried to put on a happy face for the bearded
billionaire.  It seemed to fool him as a smile also came to his suave face
but that only made her more tense.  That smile either meant one of two
things either a)he thought that she was just a bit nervous due to the party
and was glad that she had gotten over her upset mood or b)everything was
going according to whatever plan he was following.  A few moments later Mr.
"I'm a walking stiff" Burnett entered the room and invited them to follow
him to where they could get their 'formal wear' for the evening.  As they
left she glanced briefly back at the jet setting billionaire and couldn't
help but feel a little bit of fear.
	Everything was going according to plan for Doctor. Essex A.K.A Sinister,
his 'equipment' had been set up and Xanatos was none the wiser.  Now that
his mind was no longer focused on the assembly it was now free to fantasise
on the quarry for the night.  The temporal portal that Xanatos' people had
created was phenomenal in its design as well as its power source.  From what
files he had 'removed from Xanatos Enterprises many installations the power
source was a very rare crystalline material found only below ten thousand
feet below the Himalayas.  It was quite rare and took centuries of
unbelievable pressure to create and Xanatos owned one of the largest
deposits in the world.  Though the reports weren't specific as to the
crystals power output it was safe to say that it made nuclear power pale in
comparison.  "Ahhh, what marvellous experiments could be conducted with
crystals such as those" he thought to himself with a wide mischievous
smile.  Though the power source itself was a wonder the actual invention
was magnificent, it was what every scientist and historian wished he had.
Once before he had the avenue of time travel open to him when Apocalypse
had hired him to kidnap Jean Grey.  For those few hours he had the ability
to begin an experiment thousands of years in the past and see its fruition
over a million years later just with a few simple steps.  Unfortunately the
X-Men and Magneto foiled his plans and in the process destroyed the
mystical nexus of time.  After he and the Nasty Boys had returned to their
own time he had sworn to pay them back for depriving him of such an
opportunity but had up until today failed miserably.  The sound of the
elevator chased those thoughts of hatred away as he saw the fit form of
David Xanatos emerge.  "Well there will be time enough for that later" , he
thought to himself as he smiled at the rich fool before him, "yes, soon
I'll have all the time in the world to explore my whims!"
	Xanatos had been pondering whether or not he should tell the gargoyles
about Xavier and his friends the entire ride down and had come to a
decision.  He decided that he probably should so they don't get the wrong
ideas about his motives.  Looking about the room he could see that most of
his private security forces had been deployed.  Men lined the walls and
were at the prescribed five feet apart which would leave room for the steel
clan to manuever if needed.  As well, most of the guests had arrived and
were already mingling with each other and chatting about the events
scheduled for tonight.  He hoped that they wouldn't receive any unexpected
surprises in the schedule but he was prepared for any inconveniences.
Looking at the stage he could see that Dr. Essex had already finished
assembling his equipment and was waving and smiling at him.  He gave a
polite wave back and walked over to the captain of the commando squad who
was just a few feet from him.  "What's our status captain?" he asked as the
captain stood up straight and saluted.  "Perimeter secured and all other
security details are in position, sir!" said the captain in his best
military commander voice.  "Good, you should be receiving back-up aerial
wise in about twenty minutes" , he said as he looked at his watch,
"remember, they're on our side this time and the unemployment line awaits
anyone who gets careless concerning their welfare, Understand!"  It was
obvious by the locked jaw and audible gulp that the Captain new exactly
what he meant to a tee.  He hoped that it would be enough to keep Goliath
and his clan reasonably safe if something went wrong.  He proceeded across
the floor, shaking hands and smiling, and soon stepped onto the stage to
talk to Dr. Essex.  "Is everything all set Doctor?" he asked as he briefly
eyed the unique components of the large console beside him.  "Everything is
satisfactory Mr. Xanatos, just cue me when I'm on and I'll take it from
there" replied the doctor with a smile.  The smile was a bit unsettling for
Xanatos but he wasn't worried.  After all he had two telepaths attending,
he was sure that if there was anything fishy swimming in Essex mind that
they could spot it and warn him.  At least he hoped they would.
	As they walked down the hall towards the elevator Jubilee stared at Jean
with her "I hope you know what you're doing" look every five minutes.  The
tall telepath definitely took notice of what she was doing but only smiled
in response to her questioning gaze.  They came up to the elevator and saw
that Mr. Burnett was waiting to take them up to the dining hall where the
party was.  She was sure that he had transformed into even more of a
comatose stiff since she had last seen him but didn't make such thoughts
visible on her face.  Once they entered the elevator she felt a presence
enter her mind and knew that Jean had decided to fill her in on what they
had found out and what their plans were.  "It's about time you filled me
in!" she exclaimed in her mind as she looked at Jean.  "Sorry, but we
couldn't take such a risk of speaking openly" , said Jean's telepathic
voice, "I wasn't able to learn much about Elisa Maza but Xanatos knows
exactly where she is"  "You think he kidnapped her?" she asked mentally.
"No, his knows where she is but I sense nothing that would suggest that he
had her tied up or anything" , said Jean's voice, "more like she was a
guest or friend who was seeking his home for refuge."  "Then she was on a
case two weeks ago and got in over her head" , she thought as she watched
the elevator doors open, "and has been hiding out here waiting for the heat
to die off."  To this suggestion she received a shrug of the shoulders and
a slight "quiet" gesture from the gorgeous telepath.
	Essex was startled for a moment, then grinning with glee when he saw
Charles Xavier and his mutant pals step off the elevator.  This night might
just turn out to be more profitable then he had originally anticipated
which sent his joy even higher.  Not only would he get the temporal window
and the riches of the scientific elite present but he would also have the
tools for his next project.  As he gazed about the room, dollar signs and
genetic symbols danced in his head and he ate it all up.  This was
definitely going to be one of his better nights, no doubt about it.
Suddenly his attention was attracted to a large rectangular reinforced
storage container was wheeled up and onto the stage via a small ramp.
"Ahhh the prize of the night has arrived!" he thought happily to himself as
the container got closer.  From what he could estimate he decided that it
would be no problem for him to steal it once his plan went into effect.
Once the container was opened the exact appearance of the temporal window
became known.  It was not a one piece full length mirror in appearance but
rather one that had to be assembled.  It was made up of four wide sheets of
glass like material that were held together by thick hinges on either side.
As he watched them take it out of the container he saw that once on sheet
was lined up perfectly with another they snapped firmly together and hid
any sign that they had once been separate.  By the time it was fully
unfolded and placed on the stage it stood a startling seven feet tall and
almost two and a half feet wide.  Xanatos obviously saw his fascination and
walked over to enlighten him, which Sinister didn't mind at all.  "I see
you are impressed Doctor but a bit puzzled" Xanatos said as he caressed the
clean flat surface of the mirror.  "Y-yes I am, when I had heard of this I
had expected something a bit more bulky" , he said as he tried to contain
his excitement, "I had no idea that it was so simple to make a time portal
device!"  "It isn't, ingrained in every square millimetre of the glass is
the latest in micro-weave circuitry" , Xanatos Explained as he beckoned him
to look closely at the glass, "Layers upon layers of identical circuitry
are embedded inside, add it all up and you have a very priceless tool."
Essex was about to reply when muffled roars from a few floors above rang
out and filled the room.  Before Essex could ask Xanatos about the noise
the billionaire had already left the room.
	The day of rest had done nothing to soothe the tense nerves of the noble
Goliath.  All the while he slept he dreamt of some dark figure whose
identity was hidden by the blazing rays of sunlight streaming past him
raising a sledge hammer.  He dreamed that as the hammer came down a
maniacal laugh filled the air and was soon striking down on the stone forms
of his clan.  One by one he watched as his friends and family shattered and
fell to the ground, pieces of broken wings and tails everywhere.  It
horrified him so much that he would have woken up immediately and yelled
aloud, sweat streaming down his face.  Even now that he was awake and knew
that they were alright, the horrendous images of Elisa's half shattered
stone form still haunted him.  Seeing Elisa turning to look at him he
quickly stiffened his face and tried to look as she expected him to.  He
found it rather amusing that he was so concerned about what she thought of
his appearance.  He smiled as the thought of such a human habit rubbing off
at him, if Elisa ever caught wind of it HE would never hear the end of it.
Looking over onto her perfect figure he saw that she was annoyed at the
little chips of stone that refused to leave her hair.  Gently he reached
out with his taloned and swatted away a particularly large piece hanging
from a lock of her hair.  To his gesture of concern she turned and smiled
at him, letting her fanged pearly whites show.  "She has such a wonderful
smile, so crisp and live" he thought to himself as he returned the smile.
With a firm grasp of her hand she hopped off the rampart on which she had
spent the day and began to walk toward the stairs.  She stopped in her
tracks when she saw Owen coming up carrying and arm full of techno gear
	It had been a rough days sleep for her but it appeared that it was hardly
uncommon.  As she looked around at the rest of the clan Elisa could see
looks of fear and concern dominating their expressions.  Even Goliath
seemed to be in possession of those same feelings, even though he was
trying his best to camouflage them from her.  When she had turned to walk
down the stairs she stepped back a bit when the blonde flat top belonging
to Owen Burnett emerged from the stairwell.  Owen was apparently carrying
some communication head gear with him though from the size it looked more
like headphones for a walkman.  "Mr.Xanatos has requested that you wear
these during the gathering" , said Owen as he began to pass out the head
gear, "it will allow you to maintain contact with the other security guards
and Mr.Xanatos himself."  "Lucky us" was the only look that seemed to be on
the faces of the others when Owen revealed that they would have to listen
to Xanatos' voice.  She had to admit that she didn't relish the idea
herself but she would have to bear with it at least for half the night.
With the head gear passed out Owen left Goliath to deal out the places
where they would be stationed.  "Lexington, Broadway, Brooklyn, you'll
circle the castle and look for any approaching aircraft.  Hudson, you,
Bronx and Angela will guard the entrances and exits." , he said, looking at
each of them with authority, "Elisa, Luna and I will watch the events from
the skylight windows."  Hudson and his group glided down to the courtyard
entrance and disappeared into their ancestral home.  The trio seem less
thrilled with their assignment, though the idea of flying around the castle
didn't exactly make her jump for joy either.  With them gliding off with
looks of boredom and frustration on their face, that left Luna, Goliath and
herself to leave for their appointed position.  With all the grace of an
eagle she leapt from the the ramparts of her home and descended towards the
lighted skylights below.  As she approached her thoughts drifted back to
the telepath that was on the loose.  "Well that little worry will have to
take the backseat for now",  she thought to herself as they glided closer
to the transparent window below ,"we've got work to do."
	"Professor, did you hear that?" Jubilee as she searched for the source of
the muffled roars she had just heard a few minutes ago.  "Indeed I did and
so I believe that we have found the gargoyles home" , said the Professor
with interest and curiosity covering his face, "it does coincide with the
fact that Xanatos himself rescued them over two weeks ago, but what does he
want them for?"  Her search for the source continued at a much quicker pace
when her ears received this disturbing news.  "There must be at least eight
of these things" Jubilee thought as she completed her visual scan of the
room.  The thought of eight deadly gargoyles in the area didn't do anything
for her nerves, they were all ablaze with energy.  Just as she was about to
freak completely a warm hand fell on her shoulder and when she turned Jeans
reassuring smile filled her line of sight.  "Don't worry Jubilee, I don't
think these gargoyles are that vicious" , she whispered as she put her
cupped hand by her mouth, "in fact according to the gargoyle lore that
Beast dug up they're protectors, protectors of their home and the people
who live there."  That bit of information did tone down her anxiety a bit
but she would definitely be looking up more often from now on.  With the
last invited guest stepping down from the elevator Jubilee knew that the
presentation would begin soon.  Looking at the storm trooper look-a-likes
all around the perimeter of the room she guessed that Xanatos was pretty
serious about protecting this temporal portal of his.  "I wonder what kind
of attack Xanatos is expecting with all these navy seal wannaebes?" she
thought as the lights began to dim and a bright yellow spotlight fell on
the centre of the stage.
	Things were going to get complicated from here on in and Xanatos knew it.
By now Owen had activated all external security systems and Goliath and the
rest of the gargoyles should be in their positions.  Putting on his best
showman's smile he walked into the light and  brought the microphone in his
hands to just in front of his lips.  "I would just like to welcome you all
to this momentous occasion, for now the barrier of time has now been
broken" , he said as his only available hand indicated the temporal mirror
behind him, "with this time travel is possible, quite dangerous but
possible."  This seemed to draw skeptical chatter from the crowd but that
always accompanied such momentous and never before seen discoveries.  "Now
I know what you're thinking, you're thinking 'he's off his rocker' or 'this
is a fraud' " , he said in hopes of silencing a few of his guests, "but I
assure you it is quite possible and to prove it I shall provide you with
this tape recording of the first successful test try."  On cue a large
movie screen was lowered to a place just above the stage, about thirty
seconds later the Xanatos Enterprises logo appeared.  The next image to be
seen was apparently a subterranean testing sight and in the middle of a
large flat surface was the temporal mirror stood.  Soon the camera
recording this event zoomed in and focused on Owen Burnett who was
approaching the mirror like object.  "This test run of the Xanatos Temporal
gateway is classified, only level five and above may view this tape" ,
droned Owen's stone like voice as he removed a block of lead from his
pocket, "In this test run we will attempt to send this block of lead
through the gateway and one hour into the future."  At the mention of the
time interval Xanatos noticed everyone gasp and whisper amongst themselves.
The position of the camera changed and was now was directly parallel with
the side of the gateway.  The view then changed into a split screen, one
side showing a side view the other showing a front view.  "We shall now
activate the gateway and proceed with the experiment" said Owen's voice as
crackles of energy began to develop on the surface of the temporal gateway.
"Now it's time to watch these crowd of disbelievers eat their words"
thought Xanatos as he turned to face the crowd.
	Just from watching the beginning of the video he knew that this test run
was genuine.  Up until the past few weeks he would have been just as
skeptical as the crowd in front of him but thanks to a mole in Xanatos
Enterprises he knew better.  The source had been virtually jiggling with
pride when his report came in, this didn't impress him or convince him but
the source had delivered some very useful bits of information.  Some of
that information would be put to use tonight but for now he would just
watch Xanatos' little slide show and see what he would soon see in person.
On the screen the gateway virtually crackling madly with a purple bolts of
energy, a cage of energy hid the glass surface of the gateway.  For what
seemed ages the energy spewed from the frame of the gateway then suddenly
the entire mass of light and energy thrust itself onto the surface of the
mirror.  At first it seemed that that is the only thing that would happen
and then it happened.  Like a floodlight bursting with light so did a
purple light explode forth from the surface of the gateway.  For a while
all Sinister and the audience did was stand in awe of the spectacle, their
minds struggling to master the concept.  From there a silhouette of a man
in protective, almost quarintine-like clothing, approached the gateway and
slowly but surely pushed the block of lead that was shown before into the
glowing surface.  With a blinding flash of light the block of lead was
gone, it had vanished into thin air.
	Goliath could not believe what he had seen, Xanatos had done it.  Xanatos
had done what sorcerers and wizards had done with magic but had done it
with technology instead.  The shock at this accomplishment was soon
suppressed as a feeling of fear creeped up from the bowels of his being.
It was true that it was a great gift for all peoples of the earth but it
could also be described as a great responsibility.  Before him now was the
technological equivalent of a Phoenix gate and like with the Phoenix gate
he wondered if mortals were ready for it. A few moments ago they had landed
alongside the surface of the skylight and had been watching the proceedings
ever since.  He looked at Elisa's face and was surprised to still see the
same skeptical face she had on before the film had begun.  She apparently
caught his surprised glance and looked at him with a look of sarcastic
disbelief on her face.  "Don't tell me you fell for it already" , she
whispered as she returned her gaze to the film strip below, "George Lucas
could have done that in his studio no problem."  At first she didn't know
who she meant then he remembered the name from a movie that they had
watched one night.  He was apparently a man who created the illusion of
magic through deceit and trickery and with that bit of information now in
his mind his skepticism matched hers.  Still he couldn't help but hold on
to the small shard of possibility that Xanatos had done what he set out to
do.  The crowd and expense prepared for this event was going to be costly
for Xanatos and he was not one to waste money on failures.  Looking at the
screen he saw as the digital clock at the top right of the screen he saw
that already half an hour had passed for the recording and nothing had
appeared.  He looked at Luna who was to the left of Elisa and wondered what
this former child of Oberon thought of all this.  To see before her a
critical point in history such as this  must have her running through the
dozens and dozens of possible futures which now presented itself.  Goliath
was certainly trying to do so, he had to make the same educated guesses
that he had  to make when he had the Phoenix gate.  Looking at Elisa as the
time limit of the experiment drew to a close he wondered if she were
fearing the future as much as he was.
	"There is no way that Xanatos accomplished this" , Elisa thought to
herself as she watched the filmstrip, "Oberon and Titania couldn't do it
otherwise they would have saved the Weird Sisters after the first attempt
to stop, which means this is definitely a bluff on Xanatos' part."  She
watched in eager anticipation at the digital clock as the final minutes
wound down and the time of the reappearance of the lead block quickly
approached.  As the clock ticked the final minutes off it looked as though
the entire room full of people, even the guards, were going to go crazy
with the humungous amount of tension in the room.  When the final minute
disappeared there was a bright flash of light filled the room below her.
For a moment she thought that it was just coming from the projection but
then logic clicked on and she realised it was coming from the centre of the
stage itself.  For a few moments she and everybody else with a direct line
of sight to the stage was blinded, everything was out of focus and there
were flashes of purple light appearing all around the room.  "Something
must have gone wrong" she thought as she rubbed her eyes in an effort to
see better.  The effort did help a bit, the flashes of light were
disappearing and things were slowly drifting back into focus.  When she
returned her gaze to the stage below she could scarcely believe her eyes.
There on the stage in front of the temporal gateway was a smoking, glowing
but fully intact block of lead.  "I don't believe it, I just don't believe
it!" she muttered to herself.  There, in front of her own eyes, Xanatos had
broken the time barrier.  For a moment she didn't know whether to be
overjoyed or be quaking in terror but one thing was for certain, things
would be different from here on in.  Looking down below she could see the
crowd reacting in much the same way she was, some of the women had even
fainted.
	Jubilee was glad that she had kept her glasses with her because the laser
light show that Xanatos had just put on had temporarily blinded everyone
else in the room.  Looking at the stage her jaw dropped almost to the
ground when she saw the block of lead sitting there.  "Professor!" she
exclaimed as she reached over and shook the tuxedoed cripple by the
shoulder.  For a moment the Professor didn't seem to understand what she
was yelling about but as soon as he looked at the stage she knew that he
had seen it.  In fact the entire room now saw what had just happened and
stared at the block of lead as if it were the holy grail itself.  She
couldn't believe it either , even though she had met Bishop and Cable and
done some time travelling herself this was still a tremendous event.   To
think that she, Jubilation Lee, was there when the first successful voyage
across time took place filled her with a sense of honour.  Her attention
was soon hook and reeled in by Mr.Xanatos who had since the conclusion of
the test run had returned to the centre of the stage.  "Ladies and
Gentlemen, before your very eyes I have proven that time travel is indeed
possible" , Xanatos said as he pointed to the lead, "it is true that we
have yet to send a biological specimen into the Temporal gateway but I
assure you that one day it will be possible."  Jubilee had no doubt in her
mind that he was right, in only a few days or years from now people could
be taking vacations to mediaeval England or the far future.  A whole new
way of looking at things was now open to the world, a way that held great
promise.  Then for the first time she noticed another well dressed man on
the stage, one that she had the strangest feeling she had seen before.
Nudging Jean in the ribs she pointed to the strange man and said"Hey, who's
that?"  Jean seemed about as clue less as she was and that made the
feelings of unease and tension surface once more.  Looking at Jean's
expression  of concentration she could tell the caring X-Man was attempting
to telepathically probe the unknown man's mind but seemed to be having more
difficulty then the usual scan.  "Great!  Two unreadable people in as many
nights!" she thought with a hint of frustration.
	"So far so good" thought Xanatos as he observed the delighted faces of the
crowd.  The demonstration had gone exactly as planned and then some.
Looking at the faces of his guests he could see that any doubts they had of
his invention had been obliterated.  As he looked around he noticed that
Professor Xavier's friend Ms. Grey seemed to be a bit concerned over the
unknown person he knew as Dr. Essex.  He wasn't overly worried until he saw
her shake her head in frustration, that either meant that she couldn't read
his mind or she was just having trouble.  Either way it didn't comfort him
at all, he had counted on them to be able to warn him if Essex had any
villainy in his motives.  For now it appeared that all he could do was sit
back and hope that he had prepared enough to handle anything.  Bringing the
microphone to his mouth once again he decided that it was time to find out
just what the dear Doctor had in store this evening.  "Now you may think
that this is the only discovery I have to share with you for tonight but
that is not true" , he said as he made a sweep of his arm toward Essex,
"here tonight to show his latest achievement in the area of robotics is Dr.
Essex."  Right on cue Essex walked up to the centre of the stage and took
the microphone from Xanatos' hand.  Now it was only a matter of time before
Essex sprung his trap and when he did he was going to get a very unpleasant
surprise.  Briefly he gazed up at the skylight and could barely see
Goliath, Maza and Luna watching the entire show.  With the reassurance that
they would act immediately if something went wrong he walked over to the
edge of the stage and sat on a chair that had been placed there for him.
	    "This is going to be a most profitable night indeed" thought Sinister
as his false grin continued to show itself to the crowd.  He had been
impressed greatly by Xanatos' invention and felt that he might even do
something to repay him for it.  Taking the microphone and placing it in
front of his lips he decided it was best to get this charade over with.  He
hungered to experiment with this newfound avenue, with this new toy of his.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I bring to you facets of robotic technology unlike
anything you have ever seen before" , he said as he began his march towards
the control panel, "before now we have been given only robots that could do
what their told and nothing more but I have solved that problem!"  Pressing
the activation key on the control panel triggered almost immediately
movement from the large crates on the stage.  He had been a bit worried
this afternoon when he had first brought them here, the Xanatos security
system was well known and even feared.  Fortunately he had acquired just
the right devices do deal with that potential threat.  If the insides of
the crates were scanned all they would reveal were normal everyday
techno-gear.  Returning to the task at hand he watched as a bulky but
sophisticated robot lumbered out of its box and took its place at the front
of the stage.  A second crate opened and a significantly slimmer and
seemingly feminine robot walked out and took a place at the right end of
the stage.  Then the final crate opened and revealed a fierce looking
armoured robot that looked like some sort of ninja cyborg from the future.
It made a few martial arts gestures to the crowd and took a position to the
left edge of the stage.  "As you can see I have accomplished through hard
work and discipline what the rest of you have only just now conceived" he
said as he focused his entire concentration on the control panel.  With a
few flicks of a switch he brought the robots to a full upright and military
like posture, they even saluted.  This created a wave of ahhhs and clapping
from the audience which suited his plans perfectly.  "If you thought that
was good wait until you see the finale" he muttered to himself as he
continued to type commands into the controls in front of him.
	Luna had thus far been silent regarding her opinion of the events
witnessed tonight.  Not because she didn't think that this was a
significant stage in human history but because she hadn't been really
interested with it.  Oh she could understand why they were impressed and
excited with such a breakthrough but to her time was the one thing that
bored her greatly.  For she was an immortal, a child of Oberon who had
existed since the beginning of time.  She had been alive for many millions
of years and never really regarded time as anything more than a constant
force in this world that passed without interruption or distortion.  Up
until recently she had the ability to see the past in crystal clear detail,
now she counted herself lucky that she could remember anything clearly.
Looking down at the activities below she could see that another scientist
was making his findings known, Xanatos had called him Dr. Essex.  Looking
below she couldn't help feel deja vu throughout her entire being, so many
times she had seen creatures made of inanimate material come to life.  Some
from stone and some from steel and sometimes from something different all
together.  Gargoyles themselves were virtually stone brought to life by
magic, an ancient magic as old as Oberon himself.  Looking over at Goliath
she could see that he was still getting over what he had seen a few moments
ago.  A look of concern and worry dominated his grim expression, for he saw
not only the potential for good that it had but the potential for evil.
	What he had seen was pure magic, artificial magic that had been created by
Xanatos and his employees.  His amazement great but so was his fear of such
a device falling into the wrong hands.  In the hands of Demona, Anthony
Dracon or the last hunter it would mean utter devastation for all parties
concerned.  Though the knowledge that a living creature couldn't travel
through time eased his feelings of fear it didn't get rid of it completely.
Even an inanimate object sent through the gateway could cause irreparable
harm if it were sent through.  Demona could send a bomb through and destroy
millions of humans, Dracon could demolish his competition with ease.  He
didn't even want to contemplate what might happen if the Hunter , the one
that had fled after the arrest of the remaining Hunters that had been
arrested, got his hands on such a device.  If such a thing did occur then
the entire gargoyle race would be in dire and dangerous trouble.  The
thought of seeing his people being destroyed by the Hunter's advanced
weaponry made him cringe in pain.  He banished such thoughts from his mind
and decided to focus on a more pleasing topic.  Elisa had been doing very
well in her lessons of combat and gliding, every night she amazed him with
her quick ability to learn.  True she didn't need to be taught much thanks
to the sphere of Titania but she still needed to work on mid-air combat and
a bit on her quick landings.  She had done quite well landing in open areas
but when it came to things like window sills and apartments on the lower
floors she was a bit sloppy.  He grinned as he remembered the time she had
landed on an apartment building to stop a cat-burgler and nearly woke up
the entire building with her landing.  Fortunately the landing actually did
some good, it had woken up the apartment owners and scared the devil out of
the burglar.  "She has improved though" , he thought as he watched the
robotics demonstration below, "in ways unique and special to her alone."
Looking over at her he saw a visage of disdain on her face which from what
he could tell was focused on the robots Dr. Essex had revealed.  Though he
was more calm about it she looked as though she expected them to go on the
rampage at any moment.
	Elisa didn't like this one little bit, this little part of Xanatos' party
was not on the program.  All three of the robots looked like something from
"Terminator" or some other science fiction movie.  So far they hadn't made
any suspicious movements but that didn't mean that nothing could go wrong.
So far all the unknown scientist had done was explain each of their
attributes but right now she trusted him as far as she could throw him.
Considering the fact that she had strength enough to bend a piece of metal
with her bare hands and throw the average person fifty or more yards was
quite a bit.  As she scrolled along and studied each of the guests her jaw
almost dropped straight to the ground.  There, standing near the back of
the room, were the same lady and kid Luna and she had seen at the theatre
the other night.  Goliath had obviously noticed her change in expression
because he immediately put his four fingered hand on her shoulder.  "What
is it Elisa?" Goliath asked as he tried to deduce what had caused her mouth
to drop so suddenly.  Careful not to attract attention from the party goers
below she pointed at the two people by the elevators.  "Those are the exact
two people who had spotted us stopping the theatre robbery last night" ,
she said as she herself pondered the reason for their being here.  At first
she feared that her seven foot lover wouldn't understand her shock but he
soon copied her look of concern.  "Do you think it is possible that they
are the telepaths who scanned you earlier?" he asked as he tried to detect
any villainy from their movements.  "It's possible but why would Xanatos
invite them here, when all the rest are the rich and brainy?" she asked as
she pondered her own question.  Perhaps he did it to find out what they
know about the gargoyles, or perhaps to keep an eye on them.  Whatever the
reason the fact alone that they were here definitely called for added
caution.  Before she had been lucky enough to shake loose their telepathic
grip, if they attempted it again she might not be so lucky
	Jubilee had so far been impressed with what she had seen tonight, it was
like being inside a top secret facility and being shown things for her eyes
only.  Jean and the Professor were not enjoying themselves as much as she
was, they had spent the bulk of the past half hour to scan Dr.Essex.  They
hadn't fared very well, such was evident by their disappointed expressions,
hopefully this wouldn't be a problem for them later.  This was definitely
one of those moments when she felt completely useless, felt that she was
better off not being there at all.  Though she never saw herself in this
fashion she knew that all the other X-Men always saw her as a kid.  That
much was proven by the many times she had been left behind while the others
went on an adventure.  She had tried a number of times to get them to let
her come along but every time she was always told that she was too young or
that it was too dangerous.  Though she guessed that a few may have been a
bit too tough for her that still didn't mean that they should leave her
behind.  This mission wasn't exactly a step up but it was better than
nothing, it was either this or die of boredom back at the mansion.  The
robots that this Doctor Essex had made were kinda cool, a bit of
redesigning and they would almost look human.  "As you can see, I have made
monuments advances in the field of robotics" , said Essex as he walked to
the front of the stage, "these androids can pretty much think and act for
themselves once a task is given to them."  That was definitely a cool
addition but Jubilee still felt that they could use some improvement in the
looks department.  For the next few minutes he was probably just going to
go on and on about technical stuff, most of which she wouldn't be able to
understand.  Not surprising, her prediction came true with flying colours
as Essex began spouting out technical stuff by the tons.  "This is making
me wish I had just stayed home and forget I ever saw those gargoyle things
the other night" thought Jubilee as she let out a muffled yawn.  This was
definitely going to be one boring party tonight, she hoped that something
would happen soon to brighten things up.  Perhaps one of those robots would
go haywire and begin attacking the people, then she could at least use a
few danger room techniques on it.
	So far it seemed as though things were going to stay peaceful, Essex
hadn't done anything suspicious the entire time he was on stage.  Though
Xanatos knew that that still didn't mean that he wouldn't he hoped that
things wouldn't change.  The androids Essex had brought here were
impressive to say the least, they were definitely a marked improvement over
the steel clan.  They were not exactly the highlight of his robotics
division, that title belonged to Coyote 4.1.  He was still in development
but already he was a marked improvement, he wasn't as nearly as stupid as
the previous model.  Thinking back to the little 'skirmish' in Flagstaff he
still couldn't believe how stupid Coyote 4.0 had been.  He had the Kachiena
Coyote right in his grasp and with him the chance to make the entire
Xanatos family immortal.  Unfortunately due to a supposed glitch in the
tactical relays Coyote 4.0 destroyed whatever chance he would have had to
become immortal.  Add that to the fact that he had once again been defeated
by Goliath and his friends, he would have to say that his trip to Arizona
had been a wasteful one to say the least.  Still at least he had advance
knowledge of Angela, a recent addition to the gargoyle clan.  She was
unique in some ways but in terms of temper and ferocity she definitely took
after Goliath.  Looking once more up at the skylight above him he could see
the three gargoyles watching with little interest at the demonstration
currently running.  He couldn't say that he found it very stimulating
either, all this technical jargon bored him completely.  True he did
understand most of it but it still made him wish that he had never gotten
into this business in the first place.  It had been back in 1975 that he
had received those collector pieces from the Illuminati messenger and from
those pieces thus sprung his vast empire.  It had started out relatively
small but with some sweat and hard work he had made into one of the most
powerful in the world.  Getting back to the demonstration underway it
seemed as though Doctor Essex was coming to the pinnacle end.  If he was
going to pull anything it would have to happen soon.
	All was going as planned, soon Sinister would have the temporal gateway in
his grasp.  It would be a simple matter to make an escape once the gateway
was his, that is once his diversion took effect.  The security forces that
Xanatos had assembled was at the very least an equal to the pentagon's
security.  Still it did not stand a chance of stopping him and his forces,
when it came to homo-sapien versus homo-superior superior won every time.
"As you can see for yourselves honoured guests, these works of robotics
show that a future of artificial people is indeed very close" he said as he
walked toward the control panel and begin typing commands.  The moment he
concluded the rapid pressing of buttons he turned to Ruckus and Vertigo,
who had disguised themselves as manual labour, and gave them a slight nod.
They acknowledged this sign and immediately began to move into positions at
separate sides of the room.  "Perfect, now it is time for the big finale"
he thought to himself as he returned to the front of the stage.  "Now I
know you are wondering 'how can I contribute to such a wonderful future?' "
, he said as he subconsciously counted down the seconds, "well I have good
news, you can contribute by handing over every bit of cash and jewellery
you have on you and tossing it up on the stage!"  Within a second of his
declaration his androids raised their arms and began to fire at the guards
on the perimeter of the room.  Like the fools that they were they just
barely dodged the deadly force of the lasers mounted on the robots wrists
and shoulders.  Laser blasts from his robots were decimating what armed
resistance was present, soon he would have this entire assembly under his
control.  Suddenly a hand fell on his shoulder and whirled him around to
face his unknown attacker.  A look of minute surprise sprang from his face
when it was revealed to be Xanatos himself.
	This had gone on far enough, there was no way he would be made a fool by
some hermit scientist.  Grabbing Essex by the lapels of his jacket he threw
the former guest head first into the control panel.  He landed with a
pleasing crash and moans of pain, pain which Xanatos would continue to
deliver if the Doctor didn't co-operate.  "Alright Essex, stop those
glorified toy soldiers of yours or prepare to find out what being in
traction feels like" he said as he advanced on the bewildered scientist.
"I don't think so rich man, in fact I think it'll be you calling of the
'toy soldiers' "came a distorted voice.  He back pedalled  a few steps as
he saw the clothes and body of Dr. Essex begin to shift and twist like
scales on a lizard.  This was definitely an unexpected development but not
one he couldn't handle once he knew exactly what he was dealing with.  Soon
the shifting of skin ceased and up stood a bizarre figure that was once
Dr.Essex.  Deciding it was best not to take chanceshe pulled out a small
laser pistol he had hidden in the right sleeve of his suit.  He raised it
up and prepared to fire Essex's butt three ways from Sunday when he
suddenly became disoriented.  Looking for the source of the disturbance he
discovered that he couldn't trust his eyes for the room around him was
spinning.  He tried to at least find Essex again but even that pushed his
will to the limit.  Soon the pistol was knocked from his and someone came
from behind and put some metal restraints on his wrists.  "Time to cash in
your chips Xanatos, call your men off and I'll stop my robots" said Essex
distorted voice as his face began to take shape.  He knew that his soldiers
would not last much longer against Essex robots so he decided to call for
some reinforcements.  "Rather then cash in my chips I think I'll raise the
stakes a notch" he said as he pushed down on his ruby cuff links.
Immediately the panels on the wall began to slide open as did the hidden
panel in the fountain and the stage itself.  From those hidden compartments
sprang his own automated response, the steel clan.  "Essex meet the steel
clan!" he exclaimed as he launched himself from the stage and into the
panicking crowd.
	"To think that a few minutes ago I was bored" thought Jubilee as she
dodged yet another blast from Sinister's three robot SWAT team.  She was
just as surprised as everyone else was when the robots began to fire at
anything and everything that moved.  Despite the lack of warning she had
been able to keep from being Swiss cheese up until now, the Professors
chair had not been so lucky.  It had been one of the first things hit and
rendered the Prof. immobile, fortunately Jean's telekinetic powers were
keeping the Prof safe.  Jubilee on the other hand had volunteered to be the
one to deal with the source of the crisis.  So far she was about half-way
to the stage and would probably be there in five minutes.  Looking at the
stage it seemed as though Xanatos didn't have that much time, Sinister
already had him tied up and pretty much out of it.  Just as she was about
to blast Sinister right in the gut she was surprised to see Xanatos flip
away from the stage.  Add that to the gargoyle looking robots were coming
out of the wall, fountain and even the stage.  In all there were about
eight of them and all of them had a laser trained on Sinister.  "Looks like
it's Sinister who needs the help now" she thought to herself as she slowed
her pace a bit.  Those robots had to belong to Xanatos and from the looks
of things Sinister was outnumbered.  Suddenly shots rang out and one by one
the gargoyle robots began to explode, the source of the blasts was of
course Sinister and his crew.  "Correction, we are now outnumbered" thought
Jubilee as she started to quicken the pace once more.  Sinister spotted her
and immediately fired on her with the laser blasts from his hands, they
shredded the ground in front of her like it was cardboard.  Unable to stop
herself she skidded onto the weakened floor and immediately fell through.
"Oh well, there's probably a bedroom below" she thought to herself
hopefully.  Taking a quick glance below she was shocked to find out that
she was wrong.  Below her was some sort of gym and there was no padding on
the floor.  Realising that things were grim she closed her eyes and waited
for the end to come.  Suddenly her descent came to a screeching halt and
she began to slowly rise back up.  Slowly Jubilee opened her eyes to see
how she had defied death and was shocked to see the fanged grin of a
gargoyle in front of her.
	Looks like Elisa had got to her just in time but you couldn't tell it from
the kids face in front of her.  The teen mall-crawler looked as though she
had seen death in the face and saw it smile.  "Hang on kid, your safe now"
she said as she glided through the hole in the gym roof.  All she got in
return was a nervous nod, which would do in a situation like this.  She had
hoped that this wouldn't happen given Xanatos' security precautions but as
she had learned so many times in her long life anything can happen here in
New York.  Once through the hole in the floor Elisa immediately looked for
a place to land, the land near to her was littered with flaming steel clan
parts.  "Xanatos is going to get one heck of a bill for this mess" she
thought to herself as she landed atop a table and let the girl get to her
feet.  "T-t-thanks!" said the extremely shocked teen.  "No problem, now if
you'll excuse me I have to get back to our uninvited guest" she said as she
leaped off the table and once again became airborne.  From what she could
tell Goliath Luna and herself had taken tall dark and deadly completely by
surprise.  Goliath was currently dealing with one of the rampaging robots
while Luna was thrashing the blonde that hand-cuffed Xanatos.  That left
her clear to take on the ringmaster of this circus of mayhem, who currently
was dealing with the few remaining steel clan robots.  It didn't take a
genius to see that this guy was going to be tough, his special slight of
hand laser trick showed that much.  As she came in for a fly-by assault she
saw another peculiar figure advancing towards the stage.  He was fairly
tall and had long blonde hair, since her didn't look like he was Xanatos
security he had to be another of Essex's goons.  Swiftly she changed
direction and dove towards the advancing dumb blonde and prepared to tackle
him to the ground.   "Surfs up blonde!" she yelled as she neared her
target.  "More like wipeout freak!" retorted the blonde as he stopped to
face her.  Without warning the blonde let out a yell louder then anything
she had ever heard before, so loud was it that it sent fierce shock waves
through the air.  Elisa tried to get out of the way but it was to late, the
shockwaves hit her like a mack truck and sent her sinking to the ground.
"I hope Goliath is doing better then I am" she thought as she saw the floor
coming up fast.
	"I hope Elisa is doing better then I am" thought Goliath as he crashed to
the ground from blow he was dealt.  These machines were much better then
the steel clan in terms of skill, they were almost as good as he was.
Fortunately he had the edge when it came to speed and agility when it came
to this particular robot.  It was quite bulky and was slow moving but it
more then made up for the difference in strength.  He shoved such
comparisons aside as he dodged a laser shot from the mechanical warrior.
If he continued to think during battle he would almost assuredly be
defeated and that was one thing he would not allow.  He would not allow
this monstrosity to take away all the happiness he had in his life, all the
love which had filled the hole in his soul.  Scanning the battlefield he
saw that the few remaining steel clanners were being obliterated by Essex.
It would not be long before Elisa, Luna and himself would be outnumbered.
With lightning like quickness he lashed out at the robot's legs and sent
him crashing to the ground.  For a moment it seemed that the single blow
dealt to the beast had finished it off, sadly the movement of the shoulder
mounted lasers proved otherwise.  Leaping high into the air he let out his
patented battle cry and came crashing down on the head piece of the robot,
leaving nothing but sparking wires.  Looking down upon the shattered frame
of the robot's face Goliath felt a small shred of pride well up inside him.
Once again he had proved his skill as a warrior against the best the
modern world had to offer.  Suddenly a shadow flew across his head and as
he looked up he saw Luna's limp body hurtling across the room.  Turning to
meet his new adversary he saw only a the slim form of the woman who had
restrained Xanatos earlier.  She made no witty comment, no snide remark,
she only beckoned him with one hand to attack.  "Happy to oblige" he
thought to himself as he launched himself at his feminine foe.  Just as he
came within five feet of her he was struck with an overwhelming loss of
balance, the room around him spinning wildly.  He had not felt this way
since Coyote 4.0 had used his own distortion emitter on him in Flagstaff,
Arizona.  That alone was devastating but this definitely put that tool to
shame in terms of effect.  As the room spinned he saw for a moment that
Luna was coming too, he hoped that she would be able to aide him because he
was unsure that he would be able to triumph without her.
	Luna was getting extremely frustrated with being used as a punching bag
tonight and she'd be damned if she was going to let it happen anymore.  She
had done admirably when she had sheared through one of the robots heads on
her way down from the skylight.  Unfortunately she had made a basic mistake
when she attempted to take out the blonde human and had paid for her
arrogance.  Apparently the human had the ability to affect ones
equilibrium, to mess with ones sense of balance and co-ordination.Looking
for the wench she spotted that Goliath had gotten to her first but wasn't
faring much better, he was already down to one knee and the other would
soon follow.  Gathering up her remaining ounces of strength she decided to
take their leader out first, with him gone the others would soon follow.
For the past five minutes he had only been destroying the steel clan, now
he would find out what it was like to fight a gargoyle.  Leaping onto the
stage she let out an fury filled roar and ignited the red glow of her eyes,
letting the vermin know she meant business.  He didn't seem overly
concerned by this eruption of primal anger, he merely motioned for her to
get on with it.  Like metal to a magnet she streaked across the stage,
talons ready to tear into his stainless steel hide.  Essex fired a few
bolts from his hands but they all went wide as she dodged every one, never
once slowing down.  As she approached the the chalk faced being she noticed
that the shots he was firing were missing her on purpose now.  "That will
be his first and last mistake" she thought as she leap towards him and
slashed across his chest.  Her claws cut through the metal like skin
without a problem, to this attack the man fell to the ground and let out a
pain filled groan.  For a moment Luna thought that she had dealt with
whatever threat he posed but then she noticed a startling fact about the
claw marks.  They were rapidly closing, each and every gash was slowly
coming together and all sign that there had ever been a mark was
disappearing.  This was no ordinary man and as she was soon to find out he
was not  as stupid as he appeared to be.
	He had counted on these gargoyle-like creatures arriving from the first
moment he had spotted them.  They were no less impressive up front and
personal then they had been far away.  Their form, their speed, their
strength was all he had hoped it to be and far more.  Their claws, as he
had recently and painfully experienced were as tough as any metal,
adamantium or otherwise.  Looking at the silver haired gargoyle before him
he could see that she hadn't expected to face any real challenge from him.
That was a perfectly reasonable assumption considering the lack of exposure
to the world.  The toughest threat she had probably faced was a common
hoodlum or cheap commando, she probably hadn't even heard of mutants.  As
he got to his feet the look of surprise vanished from her face and the all
to familiar look of a ferocious beast consumed her expression.  She was
obviously of the stubborn sort but he had little time for a long term
battle, Xanatos was undoubtibly calling for reinforcements.  Although he
had managed to get this far against the billionaires security forces he
knew his luck would change if he wasn't careful.  "You appear determined to
rend me a cinder beast so I will give you one more chance" , he said as he
gentlemanly stood straight up, "but after which I shall have to leave, I am
far behind schedule."  It took the gargoyle not more then a minute to
respond before she charged him head on.  Though the gargoyle was formidable
in its own territory, midst this mess of technology he was the master.
Grabbing a severed wire he held it subtly behind his back and continued to
dodge the blows thrown by the beast.  Soon the beast backed off to catch
its breath, still but still ready to fight if he made a move.  "Hahaha, is
that all you can muster beast?" , he asked sarcastically as he pointed at
her, "had I known you were so weak I would have never even bothered to
confront you!"   This definitely raised the beast's ire as it once more
lunged at his fit form, a haunting battle cry erupting from her lungs.
When she was little more then two feet from him he revealed his hidden
weapon and sent thousands of volts curtailing through her body.  Screamed
like a banshee she did and with one low growl of defiance dropped to the
ground in a heap.
	"Things could definitely be doing better" thought Elisa as she regained
her footing.  She had been trying for the past two minutes to deck the
blonde creep but every time she came remotely close she would get an earful
of his voice.  This guy had a set of pipes that could put Oberon's daughter
Banshee to shame.  "Giving up so soon little lady, we haven't even danced
yet" mocked the blonde punk.  She knew better then to attack right away,
that was what he wanted her to do.  "Sorry pal but I don't dance!" she
snapped as she began to walk toward him.  She knew that a frontal assault
was next to useless so she decided to take a move from Demona's repitoire.
Eyes glowing a bright fiery red she began to stride toward her foe, then at
the halfway point she threw herself towards the wall.  Then in one powerful
thrust she propelled herself off the wall and landed a solid punch to the
blonde boy's jaw.  That blow didn't do as much damage as she had thought it
would but he was still sent flying over a table.  "Looks like you won't be
dancing the jig any time soon either blondy" she said as she made her way
towards him.  He was still conscious but moaning and rubbing his very sore
jaw.  "Now, are you coming quietly or am I going to have to introduce you
to my fist again?" she asked as she smacked her fist again and again into
the opposite hands palm.  For a moment it almost seemed as though he would
give up but then a crooked smile washed over his face.  "I think it will be
me that will be doing the introductions milady" said the blonde bimbo as he
got to his feet.  Elisa had been on the force too long not to know what
that meant, quickly she turned around and just barely dodged a punch from a
man dressed in black.
	Things had just gone from bad to good and back to bad and it wasn't even
midnight yet.  The gargoyle who had saved her was fighting Sinister and
Ruckus while a definitely larger one was tangling with Vertigo.  The silver
haired one was definitely down for the count which meant that this battle
would soon be decided.  Running over to Jean she knew that they would need
the rest of the X-Men to even things up.  "Jean, contact the guys back at
the mansion, things are going to get really messy" Jubilee exclaimed as she
joined her friend crouch underneath a table.  "Already done Jubilee,
Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit and Storm are on their way" said Jean as she
assessed the situation.  Things were definitely taking a turn for the
worse, the gargoyles were keeping Sinister and his mutant renegades busy
but it wouldn't last forever.  Just as she was about to say something Jean
charged out from underneath the table and ran to aide the black haired
gargoyle fighting Sinister.  "I guess that means I get Vertigo, what a
treat!" she sighed running to the aide of a giant of a gargoyle.  The
lavender gargoyle wasn't doing so well he was still awake but on one knee
and couldn't seem to get to his feet.  Not wanting to push her luck anymore
then she had to she gave a small warning shot just over Vertigo's head.
That one shot attracted the blonde bimbo's attention but not in the way she
had wanted it.  With a slight tilt of her head Vertigo's power was now
focused on the two of them.  Immediately her legs began to fail her as she
collapsed to her knees, she couldn't see straight which pretty much took
out her "fireworks".  Though from what she could make out the divergence of
half of Vertigo's powers focused on her the other gargoyle should be able
to get to his feet and dosomething.  Just as she was about to attempt a
final shot at her blonde batterer a loud roar erupted from the gargoyle and
with both hands clasped together he slammed his fists to the ground.  From
there it felt as though she was experiencing a 6.5 on the rictor scale.
Surprisingly this localised earthquake was artificial rather then natural,
the fact that a living creature was generating it was even more amazing.
"A few more moves like that and we might not need the others" thought
Jubilee as her eyes began to focus on the gargoyle.
	That had been quite close, if it hadn't been for that girl distracting the
magical woman he would have been finished.  Now that the woman's thoughts
were a jumble he had an opportunity to end this farce.  Swiftly he ran
toward his long haired opponent and grabbed her by the throat and lifted
her high into the air.  The woman struggled but when he latched his hand
onto something he had no intention of releasing it regardless of what she
did.  Then with one swift movement he threw her across the room and she
landed on the top of a table.  Suddenly he was filled with pain as a blast
of light ripped through his right wing, searing with pain he dropped to one
knee.  For a moment he had thought that it had been the girl who had
originally came to his rescue but he was proven wrong when a chalk white
face appeared instead.  "Naughty, naughty you lumbering beast.  Don't you
know its not nice to strike a woman" said the black haired man that was
once Dr.Essex.  Struggling with the pain from his injured wing Goliath
regained his footing and looked at the evil figure with a look of white hot
fury.  With a loud bellowing roar of rage he jumped high in the air, very
intently wanting to come down and connect with the man's face.  He was
sadly disappointed when a single blast streaked from the man's gloved hand
and struck him square in the chest.  Chest burning with pain he fell to the
ground, not able to even glide slightly with one wing injured.  He tried to
once again get to his feet but this time he was not permitted to do so, the
man in black walked up casually to his side and with one swift blow
rendered Goliath's world black.  The last thing his senses could even
lightly detect was the sound of a large aircraft settling nearby.  From
that last bit of information he was reduced into a sleep like blackness.
Doomed to experience the dream of his clans destruction by the dark figure
with a hammer.  Unfortunately this time he had a face and a body to go with
it, it was Essex.
	Things were not going as well as she had hoped they would, not for a
second.  though Elisa was holding her own now that Mr. Colgate was gone,
unfortunately by the screams of pain that Goliath was not doing so well.
Turning her head to get a better look of what was happening  she was met
with a horrifying scene.  Goliath was down and so was Luna, she couldn't be
sure whether or not they were dead.  With a quick glance of urgency at the
woman who had helped her, she took off to help Goliath.  "Lexington,
Broadway, Brooklyn!  I need help on the double!" , she yelled into the
mouthpiece of her com. set, "Goliath and Luna are down! I repeat I need
back-up ASAP!"  All she got in reply was a flurry of static and noise, that
created a needle of fear well up inside her.  Suddenly an explosion of
mammoth proportions rocked the side of the room and the far wall shattered
apart.  Unable to stay on her feet with the flying chunks of debris she
dropped to the ground and covered her head.  After the sounds of clinking
glass and concrete she lifted her head up and looked around in hopes of
finding the source of the explosion.  Her jaw dropped for what seemed to be
the millionth time that night as her eyes fell upon the side of a huge
ship.  It had blown a hole in the side of the skyscraper wall and glided
close enough to allow Essex to board.  As she looked for the mastermind of
this entire escapade she was horrified to see him walking toward the door
on the side of the aircraft with Goliath hung over his shoulder.  With the
utmost speed shecharged across the room at near break-neck speed,
shrieking a cry that almost shattered every piece of glass in the room.
Unfortunately this did little to help her situation, in fact her scream
backfired on her by alerting her foes to her approach.  With a nonchalant
gesture a streak of yellow energy flew from his hands faster then she could
see and smacked her right in the face.  That blow seared through her being
as she flew away in the opposite direction, her mind all a flutter with
pain.  She hoped that she wouldn't land on any live wires, a thousand volts
was one thing she could do without right now.  Unfortunately or fortunately
depending on how you look at it she would not get to find out where she
would land as the all to familiar black void surrounded and entrapped her.
	Jubilee didn't like what was happening one bit, all three gargoyles had
been taken out and Sinister was getting away with two of them.  Running
toward the third she noticed that she wasn't the only one who had their
sights set on the tanned brown gargoyle.  Ruckus was closing on her and
after that shot to the head by Sinister she was in no condition to fend him
off.  She fired a few blasts of fireworks at Ruckus but he dodged them all
easily.  There was no way that she would be able to get to the gargoyle
before him and yet she ran on hoping that by some miracle Ruckus wouldn't
get too her.  As she watched as a crimson blast tear through the floor and
send Ruckus staggering back a few steps she believed that her hopes had
been answered .  From a shattered skylight flew yet another of Xanatos'
security robots yet this one was different, instead of the common grey
exterior it was red and grey.  Coming in for a landing next to the
gargoyle-like security robot took a brief look at the fallen gargoyle and
then levelled its laser at Ruckus.  "I think that's quite enough excitement
for one night sir" came a familiar digitised voice.  She couldn't believe
it and yet the proof was there, It was Xanatos!  Not deciding to leave the
fate of the gargoyle femme totally in his hands she fired another couple of
fireworks at Ruckus which immediately sent him running.  When she neared
the two peculiar forms the armoured millionaire turned to her and said"
keep an eye on this one, I'll get the others back."  Before she could get
an answer in the red and grey armoured man took off Sinister and his band
of renegade mutants.  Jean soon came up next to her and began to take the
gargoyles vital signs, both of them hoping that the blast to the face
hadn't been fatal.  Though from what she could tell the gargoyle would have
a heck of a headache but would survive.  "Is she going to be okay" she
asked Jean with a slight look of concern.  The gargoyle may be different
but she still owed it her life and Jubilee always paid her debts.  "She
isn't to badly hurt but just the same she should get some medical help"
Jean said as she looked down at the motionless winged form.  Looking at
Sinister across the room she hoped that Xanatos got the other two gargoyles
back, she didn't want to have to tell the gargoyle the bad news when she
woke up.
	Things had been on a rather fast roller coaster of events tonight and most
of the time it wasn't want Xanatos wanted.  Maza would be all right once
they got her to the infirmary in the building but if Essex got away with
Goliath and Luna he would get an ear full from Maza later.  "Hold it right
there Essex, those gargoyles are Xanatos Enterprises property!" , he said
spouting bitterness, "you aren't;t leaving here with them without a fight!"
Essex seemed to pay no attention to his declarations but he wasn't
surprised, Essex was probably eager to cut Goliath up for testing.  He knew
this because that is what any person would want to do with such a rare
specimen.  Targeting Essex's back he let loose a scarlet blast and sent the
black clothed man slamming against the floor of his ship.  "Get him you
fools!" roared Essex as the metamorphic man got back to his feet.  Essex's
two blonde crew members turned and prepared to fire on him with their unique
abilities but Xanatos had come prepared for that.  With a quick snap and
whirr he brought out his patented distortion unit and fired on his two
devious opponents.  The mechanical doohickey did exactly what he hoped it
would, both perps dropped to their knees and were unable to focus their
'abilities' on him.  Essex however was not so badly affected as a blast
from the scientist's gloved hand hit him square in the chest.  Even with
all the technological gadgets, all the padding and all the metal armour the
blast still knock the wind right out of his lungs and he fell to the
ground.  Try as he would to refill his lungs with air quicker he couldn't
get back to his feet.  Apparently, thanks to the damage reports he was
getting from his armour, Essex's blast was more of a force beam rather then
laser.  That at least meant that Maza's wound's  were not serious.  Still
that didn't do him a bit of good if he couldn't stop them from getting
away.  "Owen, is there any way we can stop that vessel from escaping?" he
asked over the com-link in his helmet.  "Unfortunately no sir, the hull is
composed of a super-dense metal of unearthly origins" , replied Owen's
digitised voice, "none of our defences so far have been able to cause
significant damage."  Then it seemed that the only possible course now was
to track them until they become more vulnerable.  "Owen attach a class five
tracking beacon to their hull" , he said as he got back to his feet, "if we
can't stop them let's at least know where they're going."  "Aye sir" said
Owen as he terminated the communications link.  Well that's all that could
be done for now, the best thing that he could do now is make one final
attempt to get at least either Goliath or Luna back.  Getting to his feet
he once more jetted into the air on his jet pack and soared towards the
escaping villains.  "I don't believe I dismissed you yet Essex!" he said as
he rained down a couple of shots on the pale faced perp.
	Things hadn't gone exactly according to plan tonight but there was still
some good points.  He now had new genetic specimens.to experiment with and
if things went his way the Nasty Boys would have two new members.  "I don't
believe I dismissed you yet Essex!" came a slightly digitised voice behind
him.  He turned and saw the familiar red and grey steel form of the
security robot he had just shot.  Then he made a sudden realisation,
Xanatos was inside the robot.  This was definitely a surprise on his part,
most of the rich folk had either dived for cover underneath the tables or
left the room.  David Xanatos was obviously not your run of the mill
billionaire, though this new bit of information hardly changed things.  "I
don't believe I asked for any Xanatos!" he said as he shot a stronger blast
at the flying knight.  The red and grey gargoyle managed to avoid a direct
hit but the shot still managed to rip through the right steel wing.  That
should take care of him long enough to get away from here and even if it
didn't he wouldn't be able to stop him.  "What do you want us to do with
these beasts?" asked Ruckus as he dragged the female gargoyle into the
entrance hatch.  "Put them in the level three containment cell, I'll deal
with them later" he replied as he gave the unconscious creatures a spiteful
look.  They were definitely not a pretty sight to look at but their
strength alone made them a valuable commodity.  Walking up to the control
deck he wondered if Xavier had time to call the rest of the X-Men.  If he
did they may have trouble, trouble that at this point would be disastrous.
"Hairbag!  Engage the cloaking device and get us out of here!" he yelled
into his wrist communicator.  "Sur t'ing boss" replied Hairbag.  Good, soon
they would be gone and all that would be left to be done would be to decide
which gargoyle to test first.  It was a pity that they had only managed to
get two of them, from what he had heard from Hairbag earlier there were
another three outside to go with the three inside.  It didn't make him feel
any better that one had been ripe for the picking and he hadn't been able
to get her.  Still after the blast he had given her he could at least have
the pride of knowing that even though he didn't have it neither did
Xanatos.
	Jubilee didn't like the way things were going, not one little bit.
Xanatos wasn't doing what she would call a model job on Sinister and both
the gargoyles he had captured were inside his ship.  She wanted to try and
help him but she also didn't want to leave the gargoyle who had saved her
behind.  True, about five seconds before the death defying rescue she had
thought of them as barbaric creatures but after seeing how they acted she
saw they were just like them.  Not as people but as outsiders, as a people
that didn't have the usual freedoms that ordinary humans did.  In fact,
when she really looked at they were even more isolated from the rest of the
world than almost any mutant.  The Morlocks were about the only people she
knew that were half as isolated as these gargoyles must feel.  Suddenly a
bolt of lightning lit up the sky and it didn't take her two seconds to know
what that meant, Storm had arrived.  Almost as if they had been reading her
thoughts she saw Cyclops, Gambit and Wolverine run through the doorway
leading to the elevator.  "Look like you were right petite" said Gambit as
he looked down at the unconscious gargoyle.  She gave him a quick "I told
you so look" and watched as Cyclops checked for a pulse and broken bones.
"Her pulse is strong but we should still get her to some medical
facilities" Cyclops said as he looked around for materials to make a
stretcher.  "There are adequate facilities in the building, we should take
her there" came a digitised voice from behind Cyclops.  They all looked up
to see the red and grey gargoyle robot walking (or limping, she couldn't
tell) towards them.  Cyclops immediately reached for his visor to prepare
to fire but a quick grasp of his hand by Jean stopped him.  "It's all right
Scott, this is the man in charge around here" Jean said as she hinted for
Xanatos to take off his helmet and show that he was indeed who she had said
he was.  A quick twist of a nozzle and a swish of pressurised air later and
the metal covering the smooth bearded face of David Xanatos was revealed.
"Sorry Mr.Xanatos, I didn't realise that a CEO such as yourself involved
yourself physically in things of this nature" Cyclops said as he lowered
his hand.  "No apologies necessary, I am not what you would call your run
of the mill billionaire" , Xanatos said as he put his helmet back on, "We
can save the rest of the introductions for later, first we have to get
'Donna Wyvern' to the infirmary."
	This was definitely turning out to be an eventful evening for Xanatos and
he had a feeling that it wouldn't end here.  So far he had his auditorium
totalled, met up with three people with amazing powers, watched all three
of the most powerful gargoyles get the stuffing knocked out of them and now
he was in the presence of more then a few more extra-ordinary beings.  They
had gotten Maza to the infirmary in five minutes and was surprised to see
three of the other gargoyles there already.  Hudson, Angela and Bronx were
all there tending to their injuries, none of which seemed serious.  "What
happened to you?" he asked as if he didn't know already.  "We were coming
to help Goliath in the main hall when the guests ran out of the room" ,
said Angela as she finished bandaging up a burn mark on her arm, "We herded
them to the stairs, fearing that the elevators may have been compromised,
when Hudson noticed somebody straying from the crowd."  Suddenly Xanatos
did not like where this was going, none of the others seemed to care for it
either.  "Aye, I tried to catch him but he ran off as soon as he noticed me
approaching" , said Hudson who had suffered a laser burn to the shoulder,
"We left the rest of the crowd to pursue him and got more then we bargained
for."  This didn't cheer him up one bit, this entire escapade may have just
been a diversion for some other robbery.  "What the heck are we waiting
around here for, Sinister's getting away!" yelled(or growled) a rather
gruff looking member of the group.  "No he isn't, I attached a tracking
beacon onto the hull of his ship" , he said as he and a few others laid
Elisa on the examination table, "we will be able to find him no matter
where he goes, besides I doubt he'll be content with what he already has."
That quieted up the yellow, black and blue dressed man which suited his
purposes nicely.  Owen then entered and went over to Elisa to begin
examining her.  Behind him strolled in two other peculiarly dressed
individuals, a brunette with a white streak in her hair and an
african-american with jet white hair.  "Things just keep getting weirder
and weirder around here, next we'll probably see aliens beaming in" thought
Xanatos as he looked to Owen for the gargoyles status.  "She has a slight
concussion but she should recover in about an hour or two" replied Owen as
he began to leave.  "Should? What do you mean should?" asked Brooklyn as he
and the trio walked in the door with injuries of their own.  "Given her
unique abilities and being it is hard to determine what effect the blast
will have on her" replied Owen as he gave Maza one final look.  His fears
seemed unfounded for a moment as moans began to drip from Elisa's mouth.
At first it seemed that she was waking up but as he began to notice, her
moans were not those of waking but of the torture of a nightmare.
	Elisa didn't feel a whole lot for a while but then suddenly her mind was
filled with images.  Images of being inside the prescient house with her
fellow officers walking aimlessly behind her, crooks being dragged to the
interrogation rooms.  The officers looked just as they always did when she
came in for the night shift, sleepy eyed and tired.  As she began to move
forward and they noticed her the looks on their faces and the way they
acted changed.  Gone was the cloak of casualness, now looks of disgust
covered their faces, looks of cruelty.  "Look, It's detective freak!  How's
it going freak!" snapped one officer as he gazed on her.  She was shocked
at how she was being treated, not believing that these people who she had
worked with for most of her life would turn on her.  "Hey Elisa!" came
Matt's familiar voice as she spotted him coming down the hall leading to
Captain Chavez's office.  "Matt, ready to go?" she heard herself say as she
had so many times before.  "Go?  With a freak job like you? Get real!" , he
said in a cruel snobbish tone, "I got me a real partner now, a human
partner!"  She stepped back in shock at this blow of words, not wanting to
believe them, not wanting to even hear them.  From a door next to Bluestone
stepped Tony Dracon, all decked out in detective duds and looking at her in
his usual manner.  "Dracon!  He's a crook, how the heck did he get on the
force?" she asked not believing her eyes.  "After you went gargoyle on us
Chavez offered Tony the job" , Bluestone said as he looked skeptically at
her, "she figured she couldn't do any worse than you!"  "This can't be
happening!" she yelled as she spread her wings and closed her eyes to shut
out the horror.  When she opened them she was in her parents home, except
it was completely dark, not a single light was on.  For a few moments she
wandered around the house and searched for her parents, trying to find some
clue as to where they were.  As she reached the front door she looked out
of the small window in the door and saw her parents standing out there with
looks of sadness on their faces.  She left the house and tried to walk over
and talk to them but the second she left the house they spotted her and
immediately gave her two icy stares.  Taken aback by the sudden look of
hatred on their faces she stopped in her tracks, trying to figure it all
out.
	So far things had pretty much calmed down but Jubilee couldn't help but
feel that it was far from over.  Looking at the restless but sleeping form
of Donna Wyvern she wished that there was something that she could do.  It
had been twenty minutes since they had laid Donna down onto the examination
table and there was still no change in her condition.  Mr. Burnett
confessed a certain amount of surprise at the lack of progress but said
that it wasn't serious.  Most of the other X-Men were busy asking Xanatos
questions about the Sinister and what he was doing here, she had decided to
stay and wait for Donna to wake up.  She was interested in this one
gargoyle not only because she had saved her life but because she seemed
different from the other gargoyles.  Not just in the way she dressed but
the way she moved, it seemed more human than gargoyle.  "Yeah, right!  Like
you're some sort of expert!" she thought to herself.  Her pondering was
interrupted by sudden movement from Donna, she was rolling from side to
side, grimacing in pain each time she changed direction.  "Guys, I think
you better get over here!" she exclaimed as she herself rushed over to the
side of the restless gargoyle.  Burnett was the first to reach the side of
the examination table and he immediately began to examine her.  It wasn't
exactly easy with her rocking from side to side and preventing Burnett from
properly examining her.  "Hold her down.  I need her to be reasonably still
to examine her" ordered Burnett looking at Cyclops, Wolverine and Gambit.
Immediately they grabbed a hold of her arms and legs but even that didn't
work for long, the gargoyle was just too strong.  Suddenly the gargoyle
sent Cyclops flying as she wrenched one of her arms free, luckily Jean was
able to catch him with her telekinesis.  Immediately Xanatos took Cyclops'
place and used what strength the armour gave him to hold her down.
	Xanatos was trying his best to keep Maza's arms down but he feared that he
would not be able to do it for long.  He had several times before tried to
match strength for strength with a gargoyle but always seemed to come up a
bit short in that department.  Even when he pitted his strength against
Angela back in Flagstaff she had been able to pretty much stalemate the
confrontation.  Fortunately when it came to Karate, strength was not the
only weapon at his disposal, speed and agility were key tools as well.
Through his vast skill in such a martial art he had been able to throw the
daughter of Goliath off and continue with his plan.  Still he hardly
thought that throwing Maza across the room would improve her condition any.
About five minutes later Burnett concluded his examination and the look on
his face pretty much showed how serious the situation was.  "It is as I
feared, her special abilities mixed with the head trauma from Essex's shot
is causing Donna to manifest injuries" Owen Said as he went to a nearby
cupboard.  "What do you mean Manifest injuries?" asked Angela as she gave
Maza a concerned look.  "Whatever injuries she envisions herself receiving
in her mind will appear on her body for real" Owen replied bringing out a
bottle of morphine.  None of the gargoyles liked that at all, he didn't
like it that much either.  Maza had been a pain for him since the beginning
and hadn't stopped since but in a way he admired her determination.  "Is
there anything we can do to stop it from happening?" asked Brooklyn wincing
slightly at his lacerated shoulder.  "I could give her an injection of
morphine which should promote more relaxed and pleasant thoughts" Owen said
as he removed a needle from it's plastic case.  It would probably work but
would it work quickly enough to give them a shot at getting Goliath and
Luna back.  He was concerned enough at what Essex was probably doing now,
he didn't want to even think of what may happen at sunrise.  Eventually he
decided that more extreme measures needed to be taken, one measure he had
in mind Maza would hate him for but just might work.  "I believe that there
is a quicker method of helping Donna, if Professor Xavier and Jean Grey
would be willing to co-operate with us" he said as he looked directly at
the two telepaths
	Elisa wasn't sure if she was in hell or not but something told her that
this was even worse.  All around her, friends, family and even perfect
strangers were attacking her.  "Freak!" yelled one of them.  "Monster!"
yelledanother.  She knew that she shouldn't let these people bother her
but their comments hit her even harder than the rocks they were throwing.
Well she'd be damned if she was just going to stand there and just take
their unrelenting abuse but she also didn't want to hurt them either.
Gazing around her she looked for some way to get away but there were no
walls near her and nothing else that would give her enough altitude to
enable her to glide. "Looks like I have to rough it out down here with you"
she thought as she looked at the oncoming mass.  Quickly she clenched her
hand into a fist and immediately launched herself into the crowd, ready for
whatever they had to give her.  From there on in everything that moved
became a target, anything coming her way was an enemy.  For a few moments
it seemed that she may actually survive this but she was proven to be hasty
in that decision.  Suddenly the position was reversed and she was the one
becoming a target, everywhere her face turned was a fist.  Blows rocked
every part of her body, from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet.
Her body ached and she tried feverishly to dodge the blows but it was
hopeless, no matter where she turned a foot or a fist found her.
"Goliath!" she yelled out desperately.  If no human would help her then
surely a gargoyle, a gargoyle she loved, would come and help her.  She
cried again and again, screaming for release from this torturous world.  In
a frenzy she began to blindly strike out at anything her arms and feet
could touch.  Then she realised an ability she had yet to use, her magical
abilities.  "Smother me in blows a plenty, help of friends I get not any,
fall now and whisper not a peep, for now you rest now you sleep!" she cried
out into the night.  Horror swept over her as she realised that  nothing
was happening, nothing was happening!  Her powers were gone!  As more blows
rained upon her frail and battered form she could only think  of one thing.
"I...love...you...Goliath" she whispered as she tried hopelessly to shield
herself from the oncoming blows.
	He didn't know how long he had been unconscious but from what he could
gather from his surroundings it had been far to long.  He let out a groan
of pain as the nerve endings in his shredded wings sent their malevolent
messages.  "Ahhh, your recovery rate is impressive gargoyle" sang out a
inhuman tone from in front of him.  As his eyes began to once again return
his world to the proper focus he discovered where he.  No longer was he in
the lower levels of the Xanatos Enterprises tower, now he was trussed up on
a wall in some sort of lab.  Seeing such a horrendous sight he immediately
began to put his strength to the limits, trying with all his might to gain
his freedom.  Again and again he grunted and groaned, battling with the
metallic restraints binding his feet and arms.  Eventually even his much
vaunted strength gave out and he sadly felt the unaffected pieces of metal.
"Hmmm, stubborn, determined and not too bright.  Not exactly Xanatos' best
work it would seem" said an unidentified voice once again.  He lifted his
head and gazed upon the person responsible for his current enigma.  Not
surprising that when he looked up and located the source he saw Essex's
pale face.  "I am not a genetic creation of Xanatos, I am a gargoyle" he
said as his eyes lit up like flares in the dark.  To this Essex simply
raised an eyebrow and went about looking at him, obviously he didn't care
what a 'beast ' had to say.  "Let me go or you'll be in for one bad
evening!" , he roared as he once again pulled and strained against his
restraints, "You may have me chained to this wall but my clan will come for
me!"  "Oh I have no doubt that they will" , Essex said looking him straight
in the eye, "in fact I'm planning on it, I plan to have your entire clan by
morning."  A look of shock and fear flashed over Goliath's exterior, if
only for a moment.  With an added purpose he growled in defiance as he
tried to somehow hurt Essex, even though he knew it was impossible.  He
hated to admit it but coming after him was exactly what his clan would do.
Suddenly a slightly more feminine moan made itself heard, he twisted his
head to see Luna chained up next to him.
	The darkness surrounded her aching mind, she knew how she had gotten this
way but that didn't help her at all.  She had been caught by surprise by
Essex back at the party and had gotten the shock of her life.  Luna was
getting beat up quite a bit since joining Goliath's clan and settled in the
mortal world.  First by Loki then by some costumed reject from a science
fiction film, it seemed that every macho guy with power wanted to use her
for a punching bag.  It hadn't been all bad, she had made new friends
outside of her mystical family on Avalon.  Hudson, the teacher, Goliath,
the leader and Elisa the sister.  She had almost from the beginning
regarded Elisa as a sister, even treated her as such during their teaching
sessions.  True, she was not of mystical origin but that didn't matter.
All that mattered was that she had somebody she could confide in, someone
who knew what it was like to feel alien among the gargoyles.  Elisa could
never replace Seline or Phoebe but she could help to ease the pain of their
passing.  Several times she had thought about trying to reform the group
the mortals  aptly named "The Weird Sisters".  It would actually be quite
easy, already she knew of two others who possessed magical abilities.
Though the mortals Fox and Elisa were amateurs at best they would still
form a formidable magical force if joined with her.  Even the colour of
their hair matched her sisters to a T, thought that was hardly required.
With their help the emptiness in her soul would be healed as would the
chain of the three sisters be healed.  It would truly be a great thing to
once again be joined to other beings, to be bonded to them forever.  She
remembered that not all bonds were so pleasure filled, Demona and Macbeth
had proven that.  "A dream, a fantasy that I hold dear to me even though it
will never happen" thought Luna as she began to feel the pain intensify
within her mind.  Slowly, like cooling iron, the pain ravaged the dark
sanctuary that was her mind.  Clawing, burning, ripping at her dreams and
shattering them till they were nothing but dust.  With one last painful
thrust she awoke to find herself back in the mortal world.  Awake and
judging from her surroundings not exactly in the most desirable position.
"Rise and shine deary, its time to wake up" rang the malevolent but
familiar voice of Essex.  Looking up she saw his pale face and knew that he
didn't bring them here for a grand tour.
	These gargoyles were simply a biological wonder, he had never seen
anything remotely close to their design in Essex's life.  Their size, their
strength even their bizarre appearance seemed to be specifically designed
for a purpose.  Unlike other beings who evolved from lower life forms into
their current state these gargoyles seemed to be a race all their own.
Absolutely no ties to any other species on the face of the earth
whatsoever, that alone made this find extra-ordinary.  He had been able to
scan the larger one with relative ease but the female was proving to be
slightly more difficult to study.  Their was some sort of exotic energy
present in her body, energy that was preventing him from getting an
accurate reading.  He had tried to learn the nature of this energy but had
been unable to gather anything significant.  The energy changed constantly
inside of her, never remaining in the same form twice.  It was beginning to
get on his nerves, never before had he confronted such a problem.  "Let us
go Essex, or I'll rearrange your windpipe!" roared the larger one as he
moronically tried to free himself.  The male and the female gargoyle had
been threatening him for the past fifteen minutes, threatening to do
various things involving vital organs and the like.  He didn't pay much
attention to them, all he was concerned about was their bodies and what
they had to teach him.  "You won't get away with this,my clan will search
the world for me" , roared the large lavender gargoyle, "and when they find
you, oh how I would pity being you!"  "For your information my large fanged
friend your comrades are nothing more than ashes in the wind now" , he
replied to the gargoyles face, "Why I myself killed one of your females as
she came to rescue you, there will be no one coming for you."  A look of
unsurpassed shock sprung onto the beasts face as he processed the news, as
if he couldn't comprehend what 'killed' meant.  That didn't last long for a
few seconds later his look of shock changed to one of outright fury.  He
smiled as he deduced that one of the gargoyles, probably the one he had
shot, had been closely related to this one.  Perhaps a mate or a daughter,
which one didn't really matter two him.  He had what he needed the fate of
the other gargoyles were of no concern to him, still he regretted not being
able to get the tanned gargoyle.  She seemed to be quite unique.  Well that
was just one of many disappointments he had received tonight, he had also
lost the temporal gateway and few X-men that had been there.  "Oh well, no
matter.  I'm sure that I can content myself with these two" he thought to
himself as he continued to take notes.
	"What do you mean 'co-operate' ?" asked Xavier from the his
techno-wheelchair.  Xanatos smiled as Xavier looked at him and couldn't
help wish  he was telepathic so he could find out what he was thinking.
"Oh quit acting Professor, I know that you and Jean Grey are telepathic" ,
he said with a shot of arrogance, "that was the only reason I allowed you
to attend my get together."  Xavier masked his surprise well but Jean Grey
all but confessed to it right in front of him.  The look of shock and
surprise was priceless but right now he didn't looks he needed their help.
"I require you to enter Donna's mind and try to resolve whatever conflict
is occurring there" , he said as he indicated Maza's still spasming form,
"she is quite a valued college and I would hate to lose her."  The proposal
hung in the air for quite some time, neither he nor Xavier said a thing.
Xavier just sat there silently, as if in meditation, considering this
request as though it was the most important thing there was.  Suddenly the
one Xavier had dubbed 'Jubilee' jumped off the table she was on and looked
irritably at the bald professor.  "Why are you just sitting there, she
needs your help?" Jubilee asked as she stood in front of him.  "He knows
Jubilee but you must understand that this is not your ordinary mind probe"
, Jean said as she came sympathetically, "We're dealing with a person with
supernatural abilities, who knows what Xavier might face."  Xanatos watched
this drama with his usual observant look, considering each and every word
he heard.  He was not overly impressed, he had more or less heard the exact
same thing from Goliath several times before.  Speaking of that Brown
haired lavender gargoyle, if they don't hurry up with their little pow-wow
Goliath and Luna will be long gone.  He usually didn't worry about time but
he knew that they had to get Goliath and Luna away from Essex before
sunrise.  If he learned of the gargoyle's weakness it could mean big
trouble, for both them and himself.  "Look it may be dangerous but we don't
have any other options" , he said looking at Xavier, "that gargoyle is our
best shot at getting the others back before Essex learns anything
significant!"  "What you care Xanatos, what a rich man like you care about
people like dem?" said the cajun named Gambit.  "I owe this clan of
gargoyles a great debt and David Xanatos always owes up to his debts" , he
replied looking the red eyed man straight in the eye, "besides the gargoyle
race is almost extinct and they would most certainly begin to decline if a
certain weakness was revealed."  That shut the cajun up fairly well but for
how long he didn't know, hopefully long enough to help Maza.  "Xanatos is
right, there is no time to waste" said Xavier as he came out of his
meditative state.  "Glad to hear it!  You better start quickly" , he said
as he gazed at the near motionless gargoyle on the nearby table, "Donna
doesn't look like she can last much longer."
	Things were hopeless, Elisa might as well face it.  No matter what attempt
she made to evade or counter her enemies attack they just continued to make
contact with her.  It was hopeless, her newfound magical powers had
abandoned her and her gargoyle abilities were of no use to her at all.  All
around her she was surrounded in red enemies(red? were they actually red or
was that just the red glow of her eyes)were pummelling the life out of her.
She lashed out constantly, trying repeatedly to end her period of torment
but it was no use.  For every person she was able to knock away two more
took it's place.  "It's hopeless, I might as well just give up" she thought
to herself as the barrage of blows continued.  "No, you mustn't give up
Donna Wyvern" , came a voice over the banter of the mob, "fight back, with
every fibre of your being fight back!"  Like thunder the voice seemed to
die off, it was as if it were a message from god.   "W-w-who a-are y-you?"
she blurted out between the blows of her oppressors.  Suddenly a new arm
reached out for her, it beckoned to her, asked her to grab a hold of it.
Given that the only other option she had was to allow herself to be slowly
pummelled to death, she opted for the hand.  Reaching out with her taloned
hand she grabbed a hold of the hand that offered salvation from this hell,
hoping that she wasn't just trading one living hell for another.  Slowly
but surely she waded through the sea of tormentors, being struck from all
sides as she went.  Suddenly her progression stopped, and the horde of
oppressors grabbed her and began to pull her back to the depths of the
torment..  With all her strength she pulled against the evil forces around
her, saying onto them "you shall not take me back!".  For five times sixty
seconds she pulled against them but all she and her unknown benefactor
could manage was a stalemate.  Try  and try again they did, both she and
the other, to set her free of this malevolent bondage but all they could
manage was a was to delay the crowd of anti-gargoyle monsters.  All Elisa
could think about at that moment is that she would never see Goliath again,
that she would never hear his deep philosophical voice ever again.
	"AAAAAHHHH!" roared Goliath as yet another needle punctured his thick
gargoyle skin.  For the past few minutes he had been poked and prodded by
Essex several times over, only now was the malevolent Doctor peering
beneath the surface of his skin.  So far he had been able to withstand his
procedures but Luna was not faring as well, already she was unconscious.
He looked at her sweat covered face, sweat from the outpour of pain and
agony she had gone through.  He wasn't doing so well himself, not since the
time Wolf had nailed him with the electron discharge disc at the bank had
he faced so much pain.  Hmmm, interesting.  Tell me gargoyle, what is your
species social society like?" , asked Essex as he began looking Luna over,
"are females considered equal or are they your slaves?"  He didn't answer,
he would not answer any of his questions.  The least he knew about the
gargoyle race, the better he would feel.  If he told him even something
like the way women were treated, who knows how he would use that to his
advantage.  "Not in a talkative mood hmmm?  Maybe your lovely young friend
would prove more 'accommodating" said Essex as he sauntered over toward
Luna and began to look at her sympathetically.  Luna was still unconscious
from the experiments Essex had put her through thus far and from what
little he could discern from his position she would be out for quite a bit
longer.   Unfortunately it didn't look as though Essex was willing to wait
until she came around on her own.  With a resounding slap Essex struck her
across the face, taking the more brutal way in waking a person up.  The
blow did little but bruise Luna's face, turning the lovely face from
lavender to black and blue(though you could hardly tell the difference).
Slowly Luna began to show signs of waking though it was clear from the
random flops of her head that her body still required a few moments longer.
"Ahh, back with us.  Good, now we will find out who holds the most grit
when it comes to interrogation" said Essex as he held up Luna's head to
face his.
	"Hell is looking pretty good right about now!" thought Luna as she
strained to regain her senses.  She hurt all over, there was not a single
part of her body that did not twinge and wince with pain.  She had tried to
stay conscious throughout the exploratory research Essex conducted but her
new mortal body was not up to the task.  In the black filled void that was
the sanctuary of every mortal's mind she curled up, hiding herself from the
pain filled world to with she had come from.    For a moment she had become
content with her surroundings, accepted this as her new home.  Sadly the
will to live that is soaked into every person's soul, whether they be
immortal or otherwise, urged her otherwise.  It showed her images of her
friends on the mortal realm and it showed her all she might miss if she
succumbed to the darkness.  At first she disregarded the images, thinking
them unimportant, but the longer she gazed upon the splendour of life the
more she felt compelled to return.  With newfound purpose her consciousness
surged forward, forging a way back to the reality she had escaped from.
Slowly but surely she trekked across the blackness of her mind, finally she
reached her goal and once more her senses were returned to her.  "Ahh, back
with us.  Good, now we will find out which is the stronger of the two sexes
but I believe I know the answer already" said Essex's distorted voice as he
placed a hand under her chin.  Looking about the room Luna moaned as she
realised that nothing had changed, not that she had expected anything to
really change.  "So as I had asked your companion just a moment ago, what
is the gargoyle social society like?" asked Essex as he began to trace the
lines of her face with his finger.  Angered by this she wrenched her head
around and tried to bite his hand but he quickly removed it from reach.
"Hmmm, just as I thought.  Well that's all for now, I'll be back when you
are more co-operative" Essex said and without a word more he left the room.
"Are you all right?" asked Goliath as he gazed at her concerned.  "None
the worse for wear but I doubt we'll stay that way for long if Essex has
his way" , she said as she closed her eyes, "somehow we have to give him
something more important to concern himself with"
	These specimens were proving to be difficult in the more voluntary areas
of Sinister's  experiments, but he would see to eleviating that later.
First he would have to see about adding the remainder of the gargoyles to
his collection.  True he had told the large gargoyle that they were dead
but he had lied.  He wanted to see just how the beast would react, from
what he saw he had done the right thing to use the titanium shackles on the
lavender large lavender gargoyle.  He would hate to guess at how his
physical being would be if he had used anything less.  Even momentarily
thinking about it caused him to involuntarily shudder in disgust.  Not that
he feared what might have happened, he was virtually indestructible.  Many
times in the past enemies thought him dead but he proved them wrong every
time, as long as his body parts were nearby he could reassemble himself
easily.  As he came up to the bridge of his fine aircraft he noticed Ruckus
walking swiftly up to meet him.  "We are approaching your county
installation Mr. Sinister" Ruckus said as he pointed to the radar screen.
Sinister gazed upon the screen and saw curves and edges of the rocky county
terrain that covered the surface of his underground compound.  He had
originally planned to examine Xanatos' temporal gateway there but thanks to
the interference of the gargoyles he had to leave without it.  Chances are
he would never get another shot at getting it anytime soon but he was too
disappointed.  These gargoyles were almost as good in terms of potential
use, especially if he could somehow bend them to his will.  The large
lavender gargoyle had already shown he possessed strength easily equal to
Xavier's Rogue.  The female, though he had yet to determine any special
attributes she may have, had excellent speed and incredible agility.  One
thing more had snagged his curiosity when he had scanned her body, every so
often he would see a gap in the information feed.  It didn't always appear
but the fact that it did intrigued him, did this creature possess some sort
of exotic energy?  "Is Xanatos' tracking device still operational?" he
asked Ruckus.  "Yes sir Mr. Sinister.  Fully operational but the signal is
having minute difficulty getting through" replied Ruckus with a serpentine
grin.  Good , it wouldn't be long before Xanatos and the remaining
gargoyles arrived and then the fun would really begin.
	Xanatos was fascinated by what he was witnessing, not because someone was
doing it but because his hidden sensor array was recording it.  If the
scans of Xavier did their job he might just be able to replicate the
process and add it to his arsenal.  Curious of the progress he turned to
Jean Grey, she was apparently using her telepathic abilities as well but
for what reason he didn't know.  "Ms. Grey, how goes the Professor's
efforts?" he asked as he put a had on her shoulder.  It took a few moments
to sever her connection but when she did the puzzled look on her face
worried him a notch.  "The Professor has made contact with her mind but her
mind is in such turmoil" , Grey said as she placed her hand against her
forehead, "such a barrage of images, such abuse.  It seems to be a major
problem in her life, would you happen to know what it is?"   He did want to
answer questions like that but he knew that if he didn't that she might try
probing him next.  "Not really, thought she did seem to be concerned about
the human friends she had made" , he said trying to keep a blank poker face
on, "with the recent uprising hatred against gargoyles in the city she was
afraid their opinion of her would change, that they would hate her too."
That seemed to satisfy her curiosity for the moment, only time and Elisa
would determine whether it was enough.  Suddenly a voice came over the
speaker inside his helmet.  "Mr.Xanatos, the kidnappers aircraft has
reached its destination." hummed Owen's non-modulating voice.  "Okay team,
let's move out!" , said the visored Cyclops as he moved towards the door,
"Jubilee, Jean, you stay here with the Professor.  The second Ms. Wyvern
regains consciousness rendezvous with the rest of the team."  It was
obvious by the frown on the black haired kid's face that this was just one
of the many time she had been left behind.  He wasn't worried, if things
went the way he expected them to they would all see action before the night
was through.
	Jubilee hated when she was left behind like this.  Every time a slightly
dangerous mission formed she was always left behind to "ready the
infirmary" and that was when they actually considered giving her an excuse.
"Oh well, maybe Donna would wake up soon and then I can get some action"
she thought as she saw Xanatos walk out the door behind Gambit.  Jean gave
her a slight smile to reassure her and cheer her up but it didn't work.
She was still pretty steamed at Cyclops leaving her behind, it seemed that
the only time that she ever got to go on a mission was when no one was
there to stop her.  The time when Colossus had come seeking the X-Men's
help against Omega Red was a perfect example of that, even though that one
time she was outmatched.  During the time Jean had been possessed by the
Phoenix was another perfect example of her being left behind.  She could
have helped them a lot if only Jean had taken her along with all the other
X-Men.  From what they had revealed upon their return it hadn't been half
as bad as she thought it would be.  When she thought of this annoying habit
of Cyclop's she always thought that it was mainly because she was so weak
compared to the other X-Men.  The few times she had joined them in battle
she was never able to significantly contribute something to the battle.
Against hate freaks like the self-proclaimed Friends Of Humanity she was
pretty good, once she had taken on four at once an beat them all.  While
Sinister and the Nasty boys weren't pushovers she knew she could handle at
least one of them.  Suddenly she heard a grunt spring from the mouth of her
mentor Xavier as the look of concentration increase.  That was most
definitely not a good sign for Donna but as she watched Jean enter the
struggle her fears decreased.  "With both of them working on her Donna
should be up and around in no time" she thought  as she tried to remain
calm.  Suddenly her eyes widened a millimetre when out of no where a light
green glow seemed to appear in the air and then shoot into Donna's head.
She was about to tell Jean and Xavier but figured that they had their hands
full trying to awaken Donna without her badgering them about something that
she may or may not have seen.
	Things were slowly beginning to improve against the crowd but even with
the appearance of another hand to help the first it was still going slower
then maple syrup.  They had gotten her to about halfway out of the crowd
but that still left another half for her to get through.  "C,mon Maza,
don't give up now!" , she thought to herself as a drop of sweat dripped off
the end of her nose, " you have to keep going, keep moving forward."
Suddenly with no warning the crowd vanished, a bright green light blinded
her and when she opened her eyes she was in the courtyard of the castle.
She didn't even try to figure out where all the teleportations were coming
from but she was glad that at least this time they had done her some good.
Her relief was short lived as before her she saw a ghost like image of
Luna, not in her gargoyle form but in her Weird Sister outfit.  "Elisa!
Elisa help us!" pleaded the silken clad wraith.  "Where are you?!  Tell me
where to go!" Elisa exclaimed in fear.  The last thing she had seen before
she had blacked out was Essex grabbing Goliath, those creeps must have
snagged Luna as well.  Luna was obviously struggling with this message,
that much could be sensed by the tone of her voice.  A sign of pain seemed
to be also evident and that didn't agree with her one bit.  Ever since they
had visited Ireland and encountered the Banshee pain had always been a
major turn-off for her.  "Inside..a..a lab!  Essex go-o-oing  to..going
to.." Luna said, face tight with the torment of concentration and pain.
"Going to what?!" she exclaimed as she walked closer to the phantom figure.
With a groan of exhaustion Luna's image faded from sight, with not a word
more springing from the former fairy's lips.  "Luna wait, don't go!" yelled
Elisa as she sliced through the empty air before her.  Luna had never
gotten to finish her message, never got to tell what Essex had planned for
them.  That didn't sit well with her in the least, panic flew through her
body like electrons through a copper wire.  What Essex had planned didn't
matter because it would be a cold day in hell before she would allow any of
her clan to come to harm.
	Goliath couldn't help but feel frustrated, knowing that his clan was
walking into a trap and being able to do nothing.  He had tried
relentlessly for the past half hour to wrench himself free of these metal
bonds but with little or no success.  Titanium as Essex had called it was
definitely one of the strongest metals on earth, any other more common
place metals he would have torn apart long ago.  What made his defeat even
more frustrating was the fact that Luna's attempt at contacting Elisa
apparently had failed.  Without some sort of warning Brooklyn and the rest
would almost certainly fall victim to whatever devious plot Essex had in
mind.  As he thought more about it he endeavoured to find some glimmer of
hope that something would happen that Essex had not accounted for in his
plans, some wild card that had been hidden in the deck.  Looking at Luna he
could tell that she was just as worried, if not more so, then he was.
Though her face betrayed no signs of fear he knew that she must be scared.
Being restrained and being unable to escape must be sheer torture for her.
To have untold power, power that made it so she could never be restrained
and living with that comfort for most of her life(all two millennia or so).
Then sacrificing it for another only to be captured two weeks later and to
be tortured with that sacrifice again and again.  He knew that he had to do
something to keep her spirits up, if he did not the next time that Essex
experimented Luna might not have the will to survive.  Wading through the
subjects he had filed in his mind he searched for something that might
cheer her up.  "So, um, have you ever seen the holy grail?" he asked as he
tried to maintain a cheerful voice.  The pain that he was feeling now made
it almost impossible for him to maintain anything other than either an
angry voice or a frustrated voice.  "What!?" asked Luna with a look of
sheer disbelief.  He was just as surprised as she was that  he would pick
the Holy Grail as a conversation piece.  He had just been swimming through
his thoughts when he had remembered his adventure on Easter island.  It had
been there that Elisa had asked him a similar question.   "Have you ever
seen the holy grail?" he repeated staring at her.  For a moment she just
hung there, staring at him as though he had just asked her the stupidest
question ever.  Finally her gaze broke and she tried to lose the "I can't
believe you asked that!" look before answering.
	Luna was definitely not going to be able to reestablish the telepathic
link with Elisa any time soon.  It had been hard enough just to get it off
at all considering the less corporeal restraints that Titania and Oberon
had put on her.  Fortunately she had secreted away a minuscule amount of
her former magical virility for just such an occasion.  "Yeah, lot of good
it's done me" she thought to herself as she rolled her eyes.  Not since the
Magus had chained Seline, Phoebe and herself back on Avalon had she felt so
helpless.  When she was at the height of her magical prowess nobody could
have held her unless she wanted to be held.  Now because she had sacrificed
her powers as punishment for meddling in mortal affairs she couldn't do a
single thing.  "So, um, have you ever seen the holy grail?" rumbled
Goliath's thunder-like voice.  They had just been pummelled into
unconsciousness and poked and prodded by a phsyco with an obsession for
biology, she had expected him to say something after a while but this
wasn't it.  "What!?" she exclaimed with a look of disbelief and shock.
This mortal to which she was now family with was certainly full of
surprises, he was usually so serious and determined, to see him actually
talking about something as irrelevant as that was amazing.   "Have you ever
seen the holy grail?" Goliath repeated staring at her.  She hanged there
silently, hoping that he would clarify his question or move on to another
question but he didn't.  "Once I did but it was only for a short period" ,
she replied as she tried to recall as much as she could,  "It had been
right as the Romans had cut Jesus' side open and drained him of blood."
This seemed to interest him but given that he spent most of his free time
in Xanatos' library, learning what he and his kind clan had missed over the
past millennia.  She was about to tell him more of her travels around that
time but she was quickly interrupted by the sounds of warning klaxons going
off.  It seemed that Essex was about to receive some unexpected guests and
she knew that it could only be good company for them.
	"What the blazes is going on Ruckus?!" Sinister exclaimed in annoyance as
he entered the command centre of the installation.  He had just been on the
verge of a major discovery concerning the blood samples he had acquired.
This annoying siren and lights spoiled the sample in mid-scan, that meant
that he would have to start over with a new sample later.  "Radar has
picked up eleven airborne objects heading our way Mr. Sinister" , Ruckus
answered as he brought the radar scope on the main screen, "I have been
able to identify the X-Men's aircraft, four androids matching Xanatos'
security drones and six biological beings that are presumably the remaining
gargoyles."  This bit of news dispelled whatever angry remark he had
planned to dump on Ruckus and instead he was filled with a certain build up
of anticipation.  He had expected a rescue attempt by Xanatos and the
remaining gargoyles but the X-Men were definitely not a part of his
original plan.  On the other hand since little of his original plan had
gone the way he had planned it to he decided that he would just have to
adjust it a bit to accomadate the X-Men as part of his prize.  "Arm all
secondary security measures but do not engage the target locking mechanism"
he ordered as he watched the blips on the screen draw closer.  "No target
locks sir?  You can't be serious, without them it will be virtually child's
play for them to get inside the installation" said a shocked Ruckus as he
look at Sinister with confusion.  "I know that, just do it!" Sinister said
firmly as he gave the blonde bellower a stone hard look.  With little
hesitation Ruckus began to comply with his orders just as he knew he would.
All of his Nasty Boys would do exactly what he wanted because they all
feared what he could do and what he knew.  "Weapons armed and ready sir"
said Ruckus as he looked expectantly at his master.  "Fire at will"
Sinister said with a nod.  Now he would get to see just what kind of
specimens he would receive out of the oncoming group.  He already knew what
a formidable find the X-Men were from past encounters but these gargoyles
were different.  Xanatos' robots on the other hand were expendable, they
were very primitive compared to what he had seen in his life and had also
proven themselves to be virtually useless in battle.  "Get ready Xanatos,
your about to learn what happens when you send anything but the best
against me" he thought as the booming of the forward batteries began to
echo through the installation.
	Though normally David Xanatos was used to be the centre of attention and
even more used to of late to be shot at he was not happy at all.  They had
been approx. one mile away from the source of the tracking beacon when he
had first noticed it, several patches of trees beginning to move away to
reveal large anti-aircraft guns.  Less than a split second later the air
was filled with artillery shells and exploding steel clan robots,
fortunately he had more maneuverability then the robots.  "We've been
targeted people, take evasive maneuvers" yell Cyclops' voice through his
headset.  He had up until now allowed the leader of the self-proclaimed
X-Men lead the operation, since he seemed to know more about their foe then
he did but he wasn't going to do it forever.  He would make it clear when
he had the chance that this was his mission and his gargoyles thus he would
be the one to make any important decisions.  "Well first things first, time
to clear the air up here and take out those oversized pellet guns" he
thought to himself as he swooped down at the lead cannon.  They were set up
in a basic zig zag pattern along the side of the mountain and their seemed
to be only five so it shouldn't be hard to deal with them and continue on
to their proper quarry.  Targeting the end opposite the business end he
fired at the cannons base and received a pleasing explosion for his
efforts.  As his on-board guidance systems began to search the area for
another target he noticed that the two X-Men aptly named Storm and Rogue
had pretty much dealt with the remaining cannons leaving him open to
continue on to the front door of the compound.  It was relatively easy to
find given the view he had and to a sight as positive as this he frowned.
In the past few hours he had learned the hard way that things were never
what they appeared to be.  He was not going to take that chance a second
time, he was going to make sure that whatever surprise Essex had in store
for them at the front doors backfired.  Taking careful aim at the thick
metal safe-like doors he opened fire with his wrist mountedlaser and blew
the doors into scrap metal.  As he noisily came to a landing at the edge of
the charred pieces of what used to be a door he couldn't help but wonder
how the dear former NYPD detective Elisa Maza was doing.
	Jubilee wasn't sure what was happening at the moment but one thing she was
sure of was that the fate of Donna Wyvern would soon be decided. It had
been mere minutes ago that the Professor and Jean Grey had their telepathic
link severed and all attempts to reestablish it had failed.  The Prof could
only speculate that some outside force had for some reason intruded upon
Donna's mind and had triggered some sort of instinctive defence shield.
That hypothesis was further supported when a green glow began to emanate
from Donna's skin and then left the body but stayed closely wrapped around
her.  She herself had tried twice to touch the glowing field of light but
had only received two slight burns on her fingers.  She hadn't even touched
the light when it happened, the energy simply reached out and zapped her
whenever she got within five centimetres.   They had all decided at that
point to simply sit back and see what happened.  The stiff Burnett had
remained as emotionless as ever the entire time, only raising an eyebrow
once or twice before resuming his normal stone visage.  Suddenly a blinding
flash of emerald light filled the room, even with her sun glasses on she
couldn't keep her eyes more than a millimetre open.  A few moments later
the light died down and she could once more gaze about the room with
relative ease.  Her vision was still a bit fuzzy but at least her sight
wasn't as bad as the others.  A pain groan broke the normal silence of the
room and she watched as the previously unconscious gargoyle made the
attempt to sit up.  Donna slowly began to sit up but immediately fell back
as her body was racked with pain from her ordeal.  Jubilee immediately went
to the side of the gargoyle who had saved her life earlier tonight and
slowly eased her head back down to the pillow.  "Easy, just take it easy
Donna" she said as the gargoyle's opened.  "Where am I?  Where's Goliath?"
moaned Donna as she strained to move her arm.  It was obvious that Donna
would not be doing anything active for quite a while whether she was
willing to accept it or not.
	The struggle to regain consciousness had been a tiresome one and when
Elisa finally achieved it she almost wished that she hadn't.  Immediately
her body was racked with pain, every inch of her skin felt as though it had
been hit with a crowbar.  She tried to sit up but a sharp pain in her chest
persuaded her otherwise, she had definitely cracked or severely bruised.
"Easy, just take it easy Donna" came the soft voice of a teenager.  Unable
to muster much resistance she allowed the shades wearing teen to lower her
back down to the table surface.  She was having a difficult time
understanding why she felt so crappy, she hadn't been that badly injured
fighting Essex and his goons.  Suddenly she remembered Luna's message in
the dream and she immediately dreaded what may have happened since it had
disappeared.  "Where am I?  Where's Goliath?" she was able to say with
great difficulty.  "Goliath and Luna were kidnapped by Essex.  We know
roughly where he has taken them" , came the familiar came voice of Owen,
"Mr. Xanatos, the other gargoyles and Professor Xavier's associates left
half an hour  ago to retrieve them."   She could scarcely believe what she
was hearing but after receiving Luna's message she knew it was true.  Once
more she pushed herself up to a sitting position, blocking out the pain
that threatened to cause her to faint.  "Just where do you think you're
going?" asked the mall-crawling kid as she came up once more in front of
her.  "I've got to go, Goliath needs me!" she said urgently as she
struggled to regain enough strength to walk.  "You are in no condition to
do anything but rest" , said a bald man in a fancy wheelchair, "do not
worry, the X-Men will do everything they can to rescue your friends."  She
didn't know him and after the attack on hermind a night ago she wasn't
about to trust him just yet.  "I'm sure they will but I can't afford to
take the chance that they may fail" she said and painfully got to her feet.
Her legs felt as though someone was running a current of electricity
through them, she was barely able to stand on her feet much less take a
step.  With great effort she swallowed her pain and took a step, only to
meet with immediate weakness as she collapsed to the ground.  "If I may Ms.
Wyvern I believe I have a way in which you can still contribute to the
rescue effort as well as prevent further injury" said Owen as he came up
along side her and helped her to her feet.  She didn't have much choice,
she knew that he was right but she hoped that Goliath and Luna wouldn't
suffer for her inadequacy.
	From what Goliath could hear deep down in the mountain, on the surface of
the installation a enormous battle was taking place.  The sounds of cannons
firing and explosions filled his ears, the room shaked with each volley.
"Looks like your plan worked" he said as he turned to see Luna.  She turned
to him in surprise and said " I agree that this works to our advantage but
this can't be Elisa and the others, I only contacted her a few minutes
ago."   He was not sure he liked the sound of that, if someone else was
attacking the complex what were they after?  The only ones who knew that
Luna and he had been taken there was Xanatos, a few of the rich elite and
Essex himself.  The only feasible answer was that an enemy of Essex had
either discovered this place or had followed the the mad scientist's
aircraft.  Whether or not that did them any good remained to be seen but at
the moment he hoped that any enemy of Essex would consider them friends.
The room continued to shake as the bombardment continued and he wondered if
the attacking party would even try to enter the building.  If they were
contract killers they would probably be content with just blowing their
enemy away from a safe distance, if they were out for revenge Goliath had
no doubt that he/she would want to see the face of their foe before the
final blow.  Although he hoped it was the former he began to prepare a
strategy to get out of here if he and the attackers ever met.  Suddenly the
thundering booms and explosions stopped and all was silent, he wasn't sure
whether or not that was a good sign but he knew he would soon find out.
Suddenly the door reopened and Essex strode in with a wide brimmed smile
ran clear across his face.  "Well you'll be pleased to know that your
gargoyle comrades are here as is Xanatos and a few others" , Essex said as
he began to turn the nob connected to a gas tank, "and I'm sure you'll be
happy to know they'll all be joining you soon as well as few of my
friends."  Goliath knew that whatever Essex had in store for them it would
definitely not be cause for celebration.  He looked over at Luna who was
gazing at her captor with a rare and fiery rage in her eyes.
	Luna was not a happy camper in the least, not that she had any reason to
be happy given her current status.  Being held against her will and being
tortured for someone else's amusement was not what she would call fun.  For
a normal gargoyle this would be infuriating but for a former child of
Oberon like herself it was ten times worse.  She hated Essex now with a
passion akin to a grieving child or an obsessive sociopath, both dangerous
and both fatal most of the time.  "And how is the lovely member of the
opposite gargoyle sex?" asked Essex as he flashed a smug grin in her face.
With glowing red eyes and a spine tingling growl she made sure that her
feelings towards the mad scientist were known.  "Ah yes, I predicted as
much" , Essex said as he returned with stone cold glance of his own, "I
predict that hatred and pain will be the dominating feelings for you and
the other guests for quite some time."  Slowly, casually he sauntered over
to a cabinet on the far side of the wall and began to search inside for
something.  It was probably another sort of scalpel or perhaps some sort of
needle or some other equally painful device.  A few moments later he closed
the door of the cabinet and was discovered to have some sort of pistol with
him.  It wasn't like any pistol she had ever seen, there was barely any
barrel to the small object and the hole on the business end was far too
small for any real bullet.  Then it hit her, it wasn't for firing bullets
at all, it was a tranquilliser pistol!  "Now I'm afraid you two are going
sleepy bye for a little while" , said Essex as he quickly checked the
chamber, "I don't need you messing up my little surprise for your friends."
With one swift rigid movement he fired a tranq. dart into Goliath and then
herself.  Luna struggled against the overwhelming urge to sleep, knowing
full well that it was futile.  As she fell deeper and deeper into the
darkness of sleep she gazed at Essex one last time and with the last of her
fading strength blurted out one final defiant growl.
	"That takes care of that" muttered Sinister as the heads of the two
gargoyles flopped down unconsciously.  He was not at all surprised at how
quickly they had gone under, the dosage of tranquilliser in the darts was
enough to take out a rhino.  Now that they were unconscious he would have
to move quickly for his plan to work.  "Ruckus, Hairbag!" , he cried out
and watched as his blonde blaster and brown beast walked in, "transfer
these two to section alpha and truss them up nice and tight I don't want
them getting free."  A simple nod was all he got from his two mutant
labourers, he expected no less since they knew they had no choice.  Within
five minutes the gargoyles were gone, being taken to the one place where
they could serve him best.  Normally that would be the laboratory but he
had something different in mind for these two.  Facing the X-Men was hard
enough but having to face them along with a clan of gargoyles was another
thing all together.  He would need to utilise something that would
neutralise them both in one fell swoop and the lives of two innocents was
that something.  Even if that didn't work section alpha had many more
tricks and knickknacks that would take care of them.  As he left the room
he was reminded of the time he had spent in the savage lands, when he had
the opportunity for the ultimate experiment in power transferal.  He would
have accomplished it too if it hadn't been for that barbaric fool
Wolverine.  "Ah well, no sense crying over spilt milk" , he thought as he
himself approached section alpha after an additional five minutes, "I'll
more than make up for that little 'set back' with this momentous
endeavour."  When he entered the room he smiled as he saw the sleeping
forms of the two gargoyles hanging behind a thick piece of glass.  Perfect,
now all that was needed was to lure the gargoyles and the X-Men into his
carefully laid trap.  "That shouldn't be hard to do, they are after all
naive and who better then I know how to prey on such a weakness" he thought
to himself with the makings of a grin forming at the edges of his mouth.
Slowly a chorus of laughter seemed to spring forth from his being until it
was loud enough to be heard for several chambers.
	"I don't like it!" muttered the barbaric Wolverine who was in front of
Xanatos trying to pick up Goliath's scent.  Xanatos agreed with him
completely, it was far too quiet and calm.  There should be gunfire and
soldiers racing towards them wanting to blow them to hell and back but
instead there was only the dead silence.  He knew all to often from the
adventures that he had been on in the past that noise was far better then
the silence present now.  They had entered the complex only a few brief
moments ago and had begun to slowly search the levels bit by bit.  Cyclops
had ordered Wolverine to go in the lead and use his sense of smell to track
down the kidnapped gargoyles.  Reluctantly he had allowed it, his armor's
sensors were not having any luck with the DNA scans.  He had used it to
scan the entire area for small particles that may have fallen off of
Goliath's injured wing but he had found nothing.  They were now coming up
to what appeared to be the door to a hanger or storage bay but there was no
way to tell from the outside.  Lexington quickly walked up to the keypad on
the upper right side of the door and gave Xanatos a questioning look.  Lex
was obviously asking as to whether or not he should open it since he was
pondering the exact same question.  Reluctantly he nodded and watched as
the small gargoyle began to randomly tap numbers into the keypad.  On the
very first try the door opened and Xanatos' dislike of the situation
increased, this was way to easy which naturally meant that it was a trap of
some sort.  Still they couldn't afford to pass this by on the slim chance
that it was not a trap.  If he returned without Goliath and Luna Elisa Maza
would not be in a good mood at all, he was almost sure that he would end up
envying what Loki had gone through with Maza two weeks ago.  Taking a deep
breath he entered and trotted into the dimly lit room and prayed that he
wouldn't end up regretting it.
	Jubilee was was in awe of the sight before her, never in all her life had
she seen anything so far out.  They had placed Donna into a wheelchair at
Mr.Burnett's request and had wheeled her down to the main security room.
She had expected to see just the usual computers and security cameras and
other stuff that you would expect to see in a company building like
Xanatos'.  Instead she felt as though she had just stepped off the realm of
reality and landed in some sort of sci-fi movie set.  All around her were
screens, tons and tons of screens which were all filled with detailed
schematics.  A few holographic images were floating about the room, the
majority of them showing the status of the steel exo-frame that Xanatos was
wearing.  "As you seem determined to prove useful on this venture you may
relay important information about Essex's installation so that it may
expedite matters" said Burnett as he wheeled the frowning gargoyle vixen up
to the main console.  The console was littered with buttons and switches
and knobs, how anyone could make sense out of this during a crisis was
beyond her.  Once Owen had made sure that Donna's chair was secure he bent
down and retrieved a miniature headset from a concealed compartment.  He
casually passed the headset over to Donna who with tensed arms and hands
took it and placed it appropriately on her head.  She froze in concern as
Jubilee saw how rigid her movements were, the pain she must be going
through must be far worse then any time she had ever been knocked around.
Burnett quickly typed a few commands into the computer and brought up what
looked like the blueprints for some sort of military installation.  "These
are the city hall and U.S military blueprints for the installation where we
think Essex has taken them" , said Owen Burnett as he typed commands once
again into the computer to make a red dot appear, " and the blinking red
dot is the homing beacon in Mr.Xanatos' exo-frame, using this data you
should be able to direct the rescue efforts with ease."  The only response
that Owen got to this gracious gift was a prying stare from Donna, she was
probably wondering just how Xanatos had gotten a hold of such classified
and secret documents.
	Elisa wasn't about to reject Owen's generous offer but she made a mental
note to question him later.  From what she could discern from the
schematics in front of her they were just outside the main cargo hold of
the installation and were just entering it.  Quickly she used the computer
to scan the blueprints of the room for anything suspicious, knowing full
well that Essex could have changed the construction of the place
significantly after the initial job was done.  At first it seemed to be a
normal everyday(if there is such a thing) cargo bay but as she inspected
the walls more closely she notice several small rectangular depressions at
various spots around the top of the room.  They could be for housing lights
or something harmless but she sincerely doubted that there was anything not
dangerous in there.  Quickly she warmed up the radio and immediately tried
to make contact with Xanatos.  "Xanatos this is Donna Wyvern at HQ, I'd
advise you to keep an eye on the upper parts of the wall" , she said as she
tried to give him the exact locations of each depression, "there are
roughly twelve rectangular depressions placed around the room and the
blueprints don't show what is supposed to be there."  For a moment she
received no response, all that was on the line was static and other
incoherent noise.  For a moment she thought that it was too late, that
Essex had already destroyed them all but a sudden change in the sounds
convinced her otherwise.  "Nice to hear you back in the land of the living
Ms. Wyvern" , came Xanatos' cheerful yet noticeably tense voice, "and
thanks for the sound advice, I'll be sure to take it under advisement."
She could almost sense him breathing a sigh of relief once he had heard her
voice, almost enough to make her think that he was concerned for her well
being.  Almost but not quite.  More likely he was glad because it meant
that if they were able to get Goliath and Luna out he would be spared her
lovers vengeful rage.
	The void, there was no other way that Goliath could describe the place he
was currently in.  The last thing he could recall was Essex shooting him
with the tranquilliser gun and then the darkness consuming his vision.
There had been only a few times before that he had been driven into this
realm of thoughts and they had all been on rather 'unpleasant'
circumstances.  The first time had been when Demona had tricked Brooklyn
into stealing the Grimorum Mahknorum in order to place him under her
thrall.  Though this was significantly different, the feeling of utter
helplessness was there.  The realisation that he was no longer in control
of his actions, that he was vulnerable to any sort of attack and unable to
resist.  Though he rarely allowed himself to show it he always felt a
certain amount of pride in his powerful form, not only because of it's
rugged appearance but because he knew it's limits like he knew his
thoughts.  He knew exactly how it would react, how much it could do if put
to the test.  To be put in a position that stripped him of that feeling was
worse than almost any hell he had previously been put through.  The only
thing that he believed hurt him more was not knowing Elisa's condition, he
hadn't seen her since the battle at the party and had not received any news
from Essex to confirm anything.  He remembered how he had felt on the night
that he had gone after the Hunters and he had watched Elisa fall down into
the thundering rapids below.  Naturally he dove off after her, tucking in
his wings as tightly as he could in hopes of gaining more speed.  Fear
struck him as her form disappeared beneath the foam of crashing water,
depriving him of a target with which to co-ordinate his efforts.  The fear
he had felt at that moment knew no other equal, not even after he had
uncovered the Vikings trap and was forced to wait until the following night
could match the fear of Elisa's death.  That he attributed to the fact that
at least he had some hope that his rookery kin would survive, Elisa's
apparent death offered no such hope.  There was almost no way a human could
survive that fall, no safe haven to hide from death as the rookery had been
for the trio and Bronx all those centuries ago.  He knew of only one other
who may be suffering anywhere close to him, that one other being the former
fey, former member of the Weird Sisters and new member of the clan, the
gargoyle named Luna.
	"Damn" thought Luna as she fought against the drowning mists of her own
subconscious.  Ever since she had fallen under the thrall of the human's
sleeping potion she had tried relentlessly to free herself from it.  She
struggled against it for what seemed like hours but she made no progress,
her now mortal body refused to release from this forced slumber.  Not since
the Magus had bound her sisters and she in chains of iron had she felt so
helpless.  This fate was even worse for it lasted for a much lengthier
duration than the bondment on Avalon.  "Now, now Luna.  Frettinglike this
will not aide you or Goliath any" she thought to herself as she gradually
calmed herself, " try and do something constructive with your time
instead."  Not a very easy thing given her state of mind but it was better
than crying over spilt milk.  She knew that Essex was planning to use them
as bait, to lure the others into a trap.  The only question now was what
kind of trap would it be and how could she somehow warn them of it should
she get the chance.  He would need something wide of range so as to
accomadate the large attack force yet simple enough as to prevent
suspicion.  Lasers would be useless and too easily detectable, sonics may
work on most of them but not on them all.  Then it came to her, the perfect
trap and at that moment she felt her hatred for Essex jump ten degrees
higher and she renewed her struggle.
	Things were proceeding exactly as he had planned it, perhaps even moreso
now that he could monitor communications between Xanatos and his HQ.
Normally he would have been disturbed at the discovery that the plans for
the installation were in the hands of the enemy but not this time.  Ever
since his venture in the Savage land he had been careful to make his plans
more flexible, hence he had a contingency plan ready to be set into motion.
He need only wait for the proper moment to execute it and then victory
would be assured.  "Ruckus, secure doors three beta and four beta but leave
two beta unlocked" he ordered as he watched the infrared images he was
seeing, "then activate laser turrets one through eight and limit their
targeting range to half the room."  His blonde haired compatriot seemed
hesitant at the sound of these orders but nevertheless complied.  Now that
his plan was in motion he needed to only await the results.  Already he had
thought of several uses for these gargoyles, their brawn and gliding
abilities made them uniquely suited to covert missions.  They were also
intimidating when seen up close, even he had been a bit wary when
confronting them.  Though the illegal possibilities were intriguing the
knowledge he might learn from a previously unknown species made his mind
boggle.  Up until a year or more ago gargoyles were thought to be simply
foreboding waterspouts or statues mounted on the roofs of buildings.  Now
to find out that a race of flesh and blood specimens actually existed was
nothing less then fascinating.  He wondered how such a 'bizarre race had
gone unnoticed for so long?  Were these creatures masters of evasion or did
they possess some other worldly ability to hide themselves from sight?  The
latter would certainly explain the exotic energy he had detected in the
female.  Rapid movement on the screen drew his attention as the red and
yellow forms began to scatter.  Little bars of light darted across the
screen, missing the larger forms by only inches if that.  Among the bright
red forms he could easily pick out Xanatos from the bunch, his heavy thick
armour blotting out most if not all of his heat.  Essex noticed a few beams
hitting Xanatos but he knew that the millionaire would survive, it was all
a part of his plan.
	"Well, when I'm right I'm right!" thought Xanatos as he flew across the
room on his heel jets.  He had known that it was a trap from the moment he
saw the layout of the room.  It was virtually empty, only a few small
crates littered the room and he knew that none them would provide adequate
cover.  Flying was virtually impossible for all persons concerned, the red
hail that were laser blasts made sure of that.  Still the fact that they
could dodge most of the blasts gave them a chance of getting out alive.
Rolling a few feet across the room he got to one knee and took the
offensive.  Immediately he attempted to target one of the turrets but was
met by the green and yellow form of Rogue hurtling towards him.  Hopelessly
he tried to get out of the way but it was too late, within a second she
made contact with his upper body sending him and her flying against the
wall.  "Normally i don't throw myself at men but in your case I just might
make an exception" commented Rogue as she got to her feet.  "Flattery will
get you no where" he retorted as he ran a systems check.  His systems were
not in very good condition, the armour around his chest was fractured and a
few power couplings were shot.  Still given the strength of the impact it
could have been much worse and it could get worse if they stuck around here
much longer.  Looking around the room for options he saw that there were
three other doors that they could use he saw only one viable option.
"X-Men, Gargoyles!  This way, quickly!" he yelled as he dashed to the door
just a few feet behind him.  Again the door opened on the first try but
given the choice between giving the lasers further target practice and
being someplace else he would have to go for the latter. Besides he
couldn't afford to lose his com-link to HQ, just in case they needed to
call in reinforcements.
	From what Jubilee could tell from the audio communications they were
receiving things were just getting dicy.  Laser fire could be heard from
time to time during Xanatos' communications, along with the grunts of
exertion of the millionaire and the others.  "Proceeding out to the
corridor on the right side of the cargo bay Donna" , said Xanatos who at
the time seemed to be quite tense, "where to from here and is there
anything that I should be informed of?"  Donna took a quick look at the
schematics she was receiving from the computer and almost immediately her
eyes relaxed, allowing the tension to decrease slightly.  "From what I can
see Xanatos there are mostly just sensors and video cameras" , Donna said
as she flipped through the files, "corridor security seems minimal, its
just the rooms you have to worry about."  A brief sigh of relief came over
the com-link and Jubilee could almost see a small grin come over Xanatos'
face.  "Thank you Donna, you have been most helpful" said Xanatos
melodiously.  "Don't thank me yet you still have a ways to go" , Donna said
as she brought up the floor plan for the level Xanatos was in, " from what
I can discern there is a large reinforced chamber about 250 yards away if
you turn left, Goliath and Luna might be held there."  Looking at the same
floor plan she definitely thought that Donna had just made the
understatement of her life, the walls of this chamber were three or four
times as thick as the others.  It looked more like a safe rather than a
jail cell, though considering how powerful these gargoyles were she guessed
it was necessary.  "Thank you detective, we're on our way" said Xanatos as
the connection went silent.  Then she saw Donna panic for a moment but that
depiction quickly vanished and returned to the determined form she had seen
most of the night.  That brought a curious question to her face, why would
Donna be afraid of being called detective?  Was it some secret she was
hiding or was it something that she didn't want her and the rest of the
X-Men to know about?  Then an uncomfortable thought creeped into her mind,
what if Donna was somehow connected to the missing detective? Could she
have been directly responsible for it?
	Elisa was going to kill Xanatos for that, kill him the second he set down
on the courtyard floor.  A slip of the tounge like that could jeopardise
her secret completely and right now she wanted to keep that particular
secret to herself.  From what she could deduce the two 'X-Men' hadn't
noticed Xanatos' comment and were just paying attention to the info they
were receiving from the Xanatos Entrp. computer core.  That at least was
enough to make her relax partially but she knew that until they left she
would still be nervous of what they may have heard.  It was going to be
hard enough for her to let Matt in on the secret when it was all over, he
would be the easiest one to tell since he already believed in ghosts and
magic.  The real problem would be telling her parents and the rest of the
people she knew, the images of their reactions while she had been under
still scared her like a five star horror flick.  Seeing all her friends
attacking her, suffering under that maelstrom of bigotry was enough to make
her give up her newfound gargoylehood.  Though she had told no one else,
she did have the ability to change herself back to a human if she was given
enough magic to work with.  She hadn't even told Goliath because she knew
that he would not be able to live with the fact that he was holding her
against her will.  She would tell him the truth, that she loved him and
that she wanted to be a gargoyle, but in the end she knew that he would
still feel guilt over it.  What these people might do if they discovered
that Elisa Maza the human and Donna Wyvern the gargoyle were one and the
same worried her.  Not merely for the blackmail opportunity but also as a
possible target for the Hunter.  He would certainly see her as a race
traitor and if he couldn't get her her friends and family be die by proxy.
"Stop being such a nervous hen Maza!" , she thought to herself as she
looked at the screen in front of her, "What would Goliath think if he could
see you now?"
	Goliath was pretty sure he was awake now but his vision was still covered
in darkness.  He had fought off the effects of the tranquilliser for the
moment and was now at least partially.  He wouldn't be able to go toe to
toe with Essex but he would be able to at least devise a strategy for
escape.  The restraints had proven to be unbreakable but that did not mean
that he was trapped.  Sooner or later Essex would have to unlock them, to
take him back to the laboratory once he had finished being bait for the
others.  If he could trick Essex into thinking that he was still under the
influence of the drug, he might just be able to catch him by surprise and
escape.  He didn't like the fact that the act would leave the others at
Essex's mercy but he knew that trying to free them would be foolhardy.  He
was by no means a slouch when it came to hand to hand combat but against
powers like the ones Essex had it didn't matter squat if he didn't have
back-up.  One gargoyle against several powerful beings was a definite
strategic disadvantage, no matter how good a warrior he may be.  Now if had
Elisa's magical abilities he might be able to surprise a few of them but
even that would not be enough.  The mere mention of Elisa's name triggered
a backwash of thoughts concerning her well being.  Essex had said earlier
that she had been killed but he had also said that the others had been
killed but it was an obvious lie, the screaming klaxons and lights
indicated that much.  Was she injured, was that the reason that she was not
among the group?  "No, just because you have not heard from her doesn't
mean that she is hurt" , he thought to himself, "Luna was able to make
contact with her telepathically and that meant that she was alive."  Still
she did not mention what condition Elisa had been in but surely she would
not keep such information from him if she knew.  Still, given the occasions
in the past when he had shielded information from those whom he loved, Luna
might be keeping something from him.
	"Almost there, just a little farther!" Luna thought as she continued her
struggle with the forced slumber.  It had taken for what seemed an eternity
for her to make it this far and thankfully she was almost at her
destination.  It amused her slightly how her perception of time had changed
since she became a gargoyle and had her control over her magic taken away
by Oberon.  A few weeks ago she wouldn't have thought twice about the
passage of time, it would have been just another constant force in her
life.  One force among many, but after the defeat of Loki and judgment
being passed down from Oberon the weight of those forces seemed to double.
She could no longer fend off those conflicting forces with a simple rhyme,
she had to face them physically with her own two hands.  "My, my aren't we
being pathetic" , came an annoyingly familiar voice echoing through her
head, "don't tell me a little set back like physical combat is going to
wear you down."  Splitting her concentration in two she continued the
struggle to the surface of her mind and also turned to face the personage
who had invaded her mind.  She wasn't at all surprised to see the astral
image of her white haired, long eared, grinning fool of a brother Puck
floating in the dark void.  "What are you doing here Puck?" she asked with
a slight drop of venom present in her words.  "Oh I was just getting so
bored from watching over Maza's shoulder I decided to see what my now
mortal sister was up to" responded Puck as he began doing the backstroke
around her.  "None of your business brother, now would you please leave so
I can try to effect an escape!" she snapped at Puck who was obviously
shocked by her lack of hospitality as he immediately stopped.  "Fine, be
cranky!" , said Puck with a defined frown shaped mouth, "I'll be back to
check up on you later, after you learn to be a better hostess!"  With no
more then a reemerging grin he vanished in the trendy flash of green light.
She felt a certain bit of pride well up in her after Puck had left, it
made her feel better knowing that she could still drive that annoying imp
away even without the use of magic.  Her happiness increased as she broke
the chains of sleep and once more gazed upon the real world.  Though as she
gazed about the room and saw that she was being delivered an execution
special by Essex, she almost wished that she had stayed asleep.
	Things were proceeding exactly as Sinister had planned it, not a single
thing was out of sync.  The remaining gargoyles, the X-Men and even Xanatos
were dancing to the tune he was playing and none had a clue as to what was
going on.  "Intruders are proceeding through section omega and heading
directly to section Alpha sir" , said Ruckus as he armed more of the
internal defences, " they'll be at the 'sizzle' room in about five
minutes."  "Good, set the defences on automatic and follow me" , he said as
he began to leave the room, "it's time we played our hand and ended this
little charade."  He had everything set up in the sizzle room, put together
the one weapon that he was positive could neutralise any enemy.  He had
been craving to use it in the past but knew that it would only work once,
he had to wait for a special occasion.  This moment, this event which was
about to climax was definitely the occasion he had been waiting for.  The
opportunity to have at his disposal the most powerful and exotic specimens
alive was within his grasp, all he had to do was take it.  Booms and
crashes echoed through the halls in which he walked, even from far away the
sounds of battle could be heard.  "Sounds like there will be a hell of a
lot of cleaning up to do" he thought as he approached control room Alpha.
As he entered the compact control room he saw out the corner of his eye
that the beasts had awakened and were already trying to power their way
free.  Their DNA would be quite a significant addition to his forces once
the proper mental and physical alterations were made.  Suddenly a scarlet
shot streaked out from the cold steel grey door and when the smoke cleared
a modern day knight in shining armour stood in the doorway.  "I'll say one
thing for Xanatos, he sure knows how to make an entrance" muttered Sinister
as he began to warm up the equipment.
	They had done it!  They had virtually accomplished their mission and
Xanatos was none to pleased by it.  Finishing any hard task this quickly
was a hint that either the enemy was stupider then he looked or they were
just plain good.  He was hoping that it would turn out to be one of the two
but somehow he doubted it.  Playing on someone else's turf was definitely a
disadvantage, any kid who's ever been in a fight knows that.  Though
looking across the dark room he couldn't help but wish that everything was
exactly as it seemed.  Goliath and Luna were alone and could be rescued.
Sadly reality kicked in with a vengeance when a light flickered on and he
saw the silhouetted form of Essex sitting in a control room.  The shocked
look that was spread across his face ignited a slight flicker of hope in
his soul, he hoped that they had caught him off guard but he wasn't willing
to take a chance.  With a high pitched whine his jet pack sent him soaring
towards Essex doing close to 150mph with a fist cocked back to deliver a
blow.  Rounds of laser fire skirted past the scarlet-grey form as he
rocketed towards the panicking Essex who looked as if he was beginning to
crumble to the ground.  With one amazing right cross he sent Essex flying
across the room and slamming against the wall.  The blow definitely did its
job as Essex's head bobbed around in a disoriented daze, that pretty much
put that pale faced mutant down for the count.  Suddenly he spotted a
button lighting up on the glass covered console and immediately gazed back
down at Essex.  The light of a laser blast blinded his vision as he was
sent on a flight of his own back into the chamber and to the ground below.
"Forgot sensei Oshyma's first rule, never take your eyes off your opponent"
thought Xanatos as he engaged his jet pack and stabilised himself, "I hope
getting sent to the punching bag is all I get this time as well."  Once he
righted himself he looked back at Essex to find the man leaning against the
control panel with a sinister grin on his face and when Xanatos looked at
his hand he saw one gloved finger poised over the glowing button.
"Xanatos!  What's happening I'm registering a massive energy build-up on
your on board sensor grid" cried Maza's voice over the com-set.  He didn't
have time to answer for less than a second later a blinding array of energy
filled the room, his body was instantly racked with pain.  It looked like
the entire room  was just one big conductor and they were just dust
particles in between.  "Xana*** wh**'s goi** on!" crackled Maza's voice as
the power surge began to fry circuits everywhere.  Then the inevitable
happened, everything went black and silent.
	"Xanatos!" screamed Donna as she tightened her grip on the edge of the
computer console.  Jubilee didn't like the way the transmission ended
either but even she was not going as bonkers as Donna was.  The gargoyle
looked as though she was going to lose it any second now and destroy
everything and maybe everyone.  Suddenly Donna stopped and sat back in her
wheel chair and merely looked at the last readouts received by the
computer.  Slowly Xavier's wheelchair hovered towards Donna's but the
formerly enraged gargoyle didn't even acknowledge him.  "Donna, I share
your concern but we must not lose hope" , Xavier said as he placed a
compassionate hand on Donna's shoulder, "the readouts show that the power
overload was nowhere near lethal levels, there is a possibility that they
are still alive."  To this Donna did no more then blink, she looked almost
catatonic in state of mind.  This wasn't good, they would need every
fighter they had available if they were to make a second rescue attempt.
Not to mention the fact that if they were going toe to toe with Sinister
and the Nasty boys they would need all the super powered help on hand.
"Donna, there is a chance that they are still alive but we're going to need
your help if they're going to stay that way" said Jean who now joined the
consoling.  To this Donna simply turned and looked at them, a look of
humour began to form around the fringes.  "Help!  How can I help!?",  Donna
screamed at them, "I can't even walk much less fight and its already been
proven that it's fighters that we need not desk jockeys!"  "I believe that
I may be of some assistance in that area Ms. Wyvern" came a distant voice.

	Elisa's mind was a flurry of anger, fear, guilt and near depression.  They
had just lost contact with Xanatos which probably meant that the rest of
them were gone as well.  Lexington, Broadway, Bronx, Brooklyn, Hudson even
Angela were MIA.  Now she knew how her mother must have felt when Dad was
shipped off to 'nam.  Not knowing whether they were dead or alive and if
they were alive what horrible fate they were doomed to.  She had just about
blurted everything out to these 'X-Men', that she had given up her humanity
for them.  That she had given up her humanity for Goliath so that they
could be together and for the first time express their emotions to the
utmost.  That the thought of losing them and being alone like this was
something she was not willing to accept.  She had been prepared to just
stomach the pain that was surging through her body but she was more than
grateful that she wouldn't have to when Owen spoke up.  "What do you have
in mind?" she asked looked at the blue suited major domo.  "I would prefer
t reveal it to you in private, I do not to compound my offences anymore
then necessary" Owen said as he gave a firm glance to the three remaining
mutants.  It looked for a moment that they were going to protest being left
out but one look from there esteemed leader Xavier silenced them.  "We will
wait outside" he said they left the room with Xavier taking the lead.
After they had gone she returned her attention to the blonde executive
assistant and waited for him to explain his strategy.  She expected it had
something to do with some top secret project of Xanatos' or a violation of
his paroled stay here on earth by Oberon.  "I believe I shall regret this
later but it is the only way" he muttered to himself and with a slight
gesture of his hand the room around them disappeared in a flash of emerald
light.  When they reappeared they were apparently several floors below
ground level and positioned outside one of the biggest vaults she had ever
seen.  It was roughly fifteen feet wide and twenty feet high, it made banks
safes look like piggy banks.  With not even a word Owen walked over to a
hand sized black panel on the right side of the vault doors.  "I must ask
you to step aside detective and promise that whatever you see within these
walls will be kept secret" Owen said as his hand hovered just over the
panel.  "If it will help me save Goliath and the others I promise to take
this secret to the grave" she said as she rolled up next to Owen.  With
that Owen pressed his hand up next to the panel and the unlocking process
began.
	Goliath could not believe what he had seen, his family and many other
innocents had been shot full of thousands of volts of electricity.  Their
bodies had danced around on the floor as their muscles let off wild spasms
from the torrent of energy.  Screams of pain echoed from wall to wall as
futilely tried to stay on their feet, but it was no use.  The pain that
their bodies was too much and every one of them had fallen within a
minute's time.  Soon the room was silent and all that could be heard was
the laboured breathing of his fallen allies.  "Good, at least they are
alive" he thought to himself.  Then he remembered what fate Essex had in
store for them and almost wished that they had been killed in the barrage
of energy.  At least then their suffering would be over, for now that they
were still alive they would have to suffer the torment and humiliation of
the onslaught of experiments and tests.  To be used as guinea pigs for
Essex's amusement, to be only set  free of the pain and torment if Essex
allowed it.  Speaking of the resident sicko he had since the conclusion of
the high tech light show come down from the control booth and was currently
sizing up his catch.  Goliath wanted to wrench free of his restraints and
ring Essex's little scrawny neck but he had to play his gambit through to
the end.  If he spoiled the charade now by giving into his anger it would
be a miracle if anything was accomplished.  Still feigning unconsciousness
he listened carefully, hoping to catch some useful piece of information.
He personally didn't expect Essex to say anything of that sort, most of
what these villainous types talked about after apparent victories was 'how
marvellous the specimens were' and 'the things I could do with them'.  He
had no interest at all about what Essex planned for his clan, his only
interests now were the immediate plans of where to store the new catch of
the day.  A sharp growl from his left informed him that Luna was now awake
and not in a very good mood in the least.
	Luna was not happy with how things had transpired in the least, the entire
clan of gargoyles had been taken out in their rescue attempt.Now they
would have to suffer the same thing that Goliath and she had to suffer for
the over an hour.  Though these gargoyles were not her biological family
she still cared for them.  Even though she and her sisters had put them
through so much hell they still found it in their hearts to forgive her and
welcome her into their clan.  In all her years of existence she had rarely
seen such unconditional generosity, most mortals were unforgiving when it
came to an attack on their kin.  Macbeth and Demona were clear examples of
that, their hatred over the loss of their families and lives had consumed
and directed their lives for over a millennia.  The Manhattan clan of
gargoyles had shown her such generosity and trust though she never believed
that she had deserved it.  Now they were the ones who needed the help, help
to escape from becoming laboratory test subjects.  With newfound purpose
and strength she began  struggle of her own against the metal bonds that
held her.  Wrenching her body in every imaginable way she tried to twist a
hand loose, that would be all she would need to free the rest of her.  With
a frustrated growl she wrenched her wrists against the smooth sleek surface
of the metal.  "Ahhh, awake and kicking I see!" rang Essex's cool voice as
she saw him approach midst the unconscious forms of her comrades.  "When I
free myself Essex I am going to make you rue the day you ever contemplated
attacking my newfound family" she said venomously as her eyes turned a
blood red glow.  "Though I admire your spirit my dear, I'm afraid your
blowing smoke" Essex said with a smug smile and a light slap on her cheek.
"Heh, you have no idea whom your dealing with do you!?" , she said
maniacally as she began to giggle under her breath, "I am Luna, daughter of
Oberon the one true lord of Avalon and possessor of power omnipotent!"  It
was a bluff and she knew it but it was all she could think of, as long as
her arms were pinned she didn't have a chance.  Essex seemed oblivious to
this newfound declaration, he simply stared her as if she hadn't said a
single word.
	Crazy.  That was the only thing that Sinister could think of that would
cause such an irrational and impossible answer.  Yet no matter how he tried
to dismiss this wild claim he couldn't help but think that there may be a
grain of truth to her story.  If indeed she was a magical being of legend
it would most definitely explain the strange power readings that the sensor
probes had discovered beforehand.  He let out a slight laugh as he realised
how silly and unscientific he was acting at the moment.  Although people
may not see him as a scientist that was what he was, a scientist through
and through.  As a scientist he must believe in nothing more that
scientific fact.  Still, if there was the possibility that she was telling
the truth he should at least explore the possibility.  "If you're such an
all powerful being then why did you allow yourself to be so easily
captured?" , he asked at a rapid pace, "why haven't you freed yourself and
put an end to my plans, hmmm?"  There, those questions should better
clarify things for him.  "I was punished by Lord Oberon for violating his
non-interference law" , she answered with a look of hatred still present,
"my control over my powers has been limited to teaching and supervising
Elisa Maza, only when such a situation arises can I use them."  The
gargoyles story seemed have some truth in it, why else would she use a name
as plain as Elisa Maza in it?  He would definitely need to find out more
before making a decisive judgment on this.  "Very interesting.  Who is this
Elisa Maza person?" he asked as he tried to read her expressions.  The
matron gargoyle was about to answer but then closed her mouth tightly and
began to grin at him.  Apparently she had decided to reveal no more
information on this subject but even by doing that she was telling him
something.  Apparently she believed this 'Maza' person could somehow aide
her in defeating him or at least freeing her.  If she was telling the
truth, which he sincerely doubted, it may call for an acceleration in his
plans.  "Ruckus, Hairbag, Vertigo!  Gather up these fools and place them in
the proton chamber" he ordered as he noticed three shadows descend into the
room.  The two Nasty boys and Vertigo began to pick up the unconscious
forms lying on the form, Xanatos himself sprawled lifelessly on the ground.
	Xanatos was really having a bad day, first he had his party ruined and
hundreds of thousands of property destroyed.  He had some particularly
valuable people kidnapped and now he had fallen into a trap.  Things just
couldn't get much worse then they already were.  "Don't say that, that
practically insures more bad luck" he thought to himself.  His body ached
all over and he was pretty sure that his exo-frame was pretty much shot to
hell.  He couldn't afford to dwell on the bad points now, he had to try and
plan an escape.  Although considering the fact that Goliath had yet to
effect an escape and he was currently the most powerful among them it
didn't look to good.  He remembered another time he had been held captive
by  a 'temporary associate', although this one was a little more expected.
It had been less than a year ago and he had just successfully cloned a
duplicate Goliath named Thailog(original huh?).  Aside from the slight
differential in skin, hair and eye colour he was a perfect match.  Of
course he had Thailog programmed with his own unique 'business' slant on
life which in the end proved to be a major mistake.  After only a few weeks
Thailog had put his plan of treachery into effect.  Did a pretty good job
of getting all the key players in one spot and capturing them.  He had
planned from the start to use them all to steal 20 million dollars from
Xanatos Enterprises and get rid of them so that he would be left
unchallenged.  Unfortunately he hadn't counted on Maza's nimble wrists
slipping out of the shackles and getting the rest of them free.
Unconsciously he smiled, it was all up to her now, her and the few
remaining X-Men back at the tower to save the rest of them.  From what he
had observed of the few remaining X-Men they weren't exactly formidable, it
was only one telepathic/telekinetic woman and one teenager.  It would take
a lot more than that to free the rest of them.
	Jubilee was a bit teed-off that they had to leave the room while 'stone
dead' Burnett and Donna talked about something important behind their
backs. From what she could spot on Jean's calm visage the redheaded
telepath wasn't to  pleased either.  It was a bit weird because she had
always seen Jean as the calm cool and collective one in a moment of crisis.
Seeing such annoyance so close to the surface and not even in a moment of
stress was slightly interesting.  "Argh, I can't take it!  I'm going to
find out what they're doing!" she thought with a sigh of frustration.
Being careful to make as little noise as possible she leaned against the
cold steel door and strained to hear what may or may not be happening in
there.  For a moment she thought that the door was simply too thick to hear
anything but she thought better than that.  "Jubilee, might i remind you
that ease dropping is very impolite" said the Professor as he grabbed her
by the trench coat and pulled her away from the door.  "It's only impolite
if there's anyone on the other side Professor" , she said as she took a
brief glance at the grey door of the security room, "I couldn't hear a
thing, something tells me they aren't in there any more"  A look of concern
appeared on the edges of Xavier's face as he considered her words.  She
knew he believed her when a look of concentration befell the bland Prof's
face.  That was a sure sign that he was using his telepathy to scan
something or someone, the same thing was apparently true for Jean.  She
grinned as she thought how stupid it was  that during important missions
their enemies never knew when telepathy was being used on them.  It would
have been pretty obvious to her if someone was squinting their eyes and
holding their heads that they were using telepathy.  Though a look of
concentration might just as easily be mistaken for a headache or migraine.
Still she would have to tell Jean and Xavier later that they better find a
better way to telepathically scan someone.  Otherwise they would be in a
lot of trouble very soon.  A few moments later he stopped his telepathic
probe of the room and began to rub his chin in puzzlement.  "What is it
Professor?" asked Jean in an equal amount of confusion.  "I cannot scan the
room, it is as if there is some barrier blocking my path" Xavier said.
That produced another question in Jubilee's mind.  Where were Donna and
Burnett?
	"Wow!" was the only thing that Elisa could manage saying at the moment.
Her entire being was in awe at the spectacles before her.  From left to
right and up and up were ancient artifacts that made the Star of Arabia
look like a piece of glass.  All around her were artifacts from ages long
since passed, so many were there that she could only identify a fraction of
the countries they were from.  "Indeed.  What you see here is the
accumulation of a millennia of painstaking work and determination" ,
Burnett said as he proceeded down an unspecific path, "Over the years I
have 'procured' several magical artifacts in an effort to keep the planet
in one piece."  She was barely paying attention to the stalwart man in the
fine armani suit, her attention was being dominated by the wonders of the
past surrounding her.  All around her were artifacts that were probably
ancient long before the pyramids had been built, fragments of the past that
could tell stories to leave anyone spellbound.  Owen was currently leading
her down a winding path to the rear of the safe(if there was indeed a rear)
supposedly where this 'assistance' of his was kept.  As they reached the
end of the path she noticed a rather large teak box set on a table in the
end, which she presumed was their destination.  True to form her deductive
skills rang true as she watched Owen come to a stop in front of the box and
take something from his right pocket.  She couldn't quite see what it was
but it was probably some sort of a key that would open the box.  A slight
click broke the silence  and she saw the box slowly open as if it were on a
motor of some sort.  As the crack began to widen a sunbeam like glow began
to escape the confinement of the box, light bounce of every shiny surface
in the immediate area.  She didn't know exactly what it was but whatever it
was she was sure that it would be a big help in the battle to come.  She
just hoped Goliath could hold out until she got there, otherwise she wasn't
sure what she'd do.
	Things had gone from bad to worse since the rest of the clan had been
captured and Goliath feared that before the night was through it would get
worse still.  Luna and he had once again been put under the influence of
the tranquilliser drug but unlike the last time he was not allowed to wake
up on his own.  Instead he received a shocking wake-up call in the form of
several minuscule explosions all over his lower body.  When he awoke he was
startled to find himself inside some sort of large metal box, with only his
head allowed to peek out of the top.  Not that he really cared at the
moment, all he was thinking about was how much he would love to tear Essex
to shreds right at that moment.  His entire body from the neck down was
afire with pain, his skin felt as though it was being burned away by the
sun layer by layer.  He tried to discern what his exact status was but his
sense of touch among other senses was obscured by the excruciating pain
that filled ninety percent of his body.  "I..s-see..that t-the...old
Goliath resiliency...has remained true to form" came a pain filled voice to
his right.  Straining against the tide of pain that filled his muscular
form he endeavoured to turn his head and locate the source of the weak but
firm voice.  He was quite surprised when he saw David Xanatos alongside him
and giving his one of his trademark grins.  A slight look of surprise came
over Goliath's face as he realised that Xanatos was still conscious during
this torrent of agony.  Human stamina was not as strong as a gargoyles and
that made the brown haired billionaire's state even more surprising.
"C-c'mon!  D-don't look so surprised, humans have just as much stamina and
vigour as gargoyles do!" Xanatos strained as the exertion of remaining
conscious was taking it's toll.  "How long have you been awake?" he asked
as he felt a flood of pain sweep over him.  "I don't know, maybe for about
twenty minutes, I keep slipping in and out of consciousness every couple of
minutes so I can't really tell" Xanatos said as his laboured breathing
became more apparent.  "What are these things that he has us in?" he asked
as he tried to move a hand or foot but to no avail.  "I believe they are
some form of Protonic infusion devices" came yet another laboured voice yet
distinctly feminine.  Goliath knew in an instant that it was Luna.
	"This is getting old!" thought Luna as she struggled with the overwhelming
pain that coursed through her already aching frame.  Feeling pain seemed to
be the common theme for tonight's festivities.  So far she had been shot
full of electricity, had all sorts of tubes stuck underneath her skin and
now she was being tortured with miniature explosions.  "What do you mean"
came Goliath's voice from a few feet next to her.  She had just woken up a
few minutes ago and had overheard his question to Xanatos and decided to
enter the conversation.  "I believe he is bombarding our bodies with
protonic energy, which causes the electrons coming from our brains to
explode when them come in contact with the protons" she said as she gazed
about the room to assess the state of the others.  Most of the Human's were
unconscious but a few of them seemed to have some level of consciousness,
as for the gargoyles they were all pretty much out of it.  "How is it that
you know what this is?" Goliath asked as he once again began to struggle
with the chamber.  "When Queen Titania descended into the mortal plain and
met Helsing Renard she enlisted the aide of my sisters and I to help" , she
said as her thoughts drifted back to years past,  "One of the theories
Renard was proposing to the board of directors was the general
neutralisation of protons and electrons when they collided."  She didn't
say any more on the subject, mostly because even though Xanatos had been
relatively 'honourable' as of late he might still try and take advantage of
any information she revealed.  "Any idea..as to...how to get us...out of
these..things?" asked Xanatos as his head began to go limp.  "Unfortunately
no, the bombardment prevents any electrons sent by the brain from reaching
the limbs" , she said as she strained to stifle a scream of pain welling up
within her, "We are basically paralysed from the neck down, only by halting
the proton flow would a chance present itself to free ourselves."  "A
chance I do not intend to give to you" came a vibratory like voice.  It was
all to clear who the voice belonged to.  Essex had arrived.
	"What a marvellous collection I have!" Sinister thought to himself as he
gazed upon the unconscious, semiconscious and conscious personages before
him.  So far he now had five X-Men and eight gargoyles and that would be
more than enough to keep him busy for the next few months.  He had been a
bit surprised when he was listening in on the conversation, he hadn't
expected there to be a scientific mind among the gargoyle group.  The large
purple one, who he had found out was named Goliath, was obviously the
leader of the group and the female was apparently their scientist or
Goliath's second in command.  The fact that she had been able to decipher
the basic principles behind the proton chamber was quite intriguing.  Of
course he didn't believe her story about how she had acquired the knowledge
one bit but nevertheless it was correct.  When they noticed that he was in
the room their eyes immediately began to glow brightly, an obvious sign of
their extreme dislike for him.  "Now, now!  Is that any way to treat your
host?!" he said in a mocking frame of voice.  He so did love it when it
came time to gloat in from of theprisoners, getting them angry often
caused information to come out.  "As the divine beauty has explained you
are effectively paralysed from the necks down" he said as he walked across
to a display screen showing the groups vital signs.  "Let us out of here
now or I guarantee that you will live to regret your arrogance" roared
Goliath as he bared his teeth in a rage.  "Your lovely companion made the
exact same threat just a few minutes ago and I'll tell you the same thing I
told her" , he said as he briefly glanced in  the lavender gargoyles
direction, "your blowing nothing but smoke, escape from the proton cells is
impossible."  To this retort a response came but not from the person he
expected, instead of Goliath dealing out a response it was the bearded
billionaire who spoke up.
	"Come now Goliath, threatening the host is no way to gain freedom" Xanatos
firmly said as he tried to keep the darkness of unconsciousness away.  The
gargoyle stared at him with a slight look of confusion.  "I'm a civilised
business man Dr. Essex, so lets make a deal" , he said putting on his best
look of confidence, "you release me and the gargoyles and we will not only
let you keep these X-Men but I will personally fund your research."  This
immediately brought words of protest from the mouths of Goliath and Luna
but one cold stare from him and they were immediately silenced.  Returning
his gaze to Essex he watched to see if any of the usual agreement signs
presented themselves.  Being a businessman for as long as he has, getting
to understand body language was almost essential to gaining an edge over
the competition.  As well he learned another useful rule in the world of
financial high rolling "fear or greed, there is not a man on this planet
who will not bend to either one".  By experience he could safely say that
this had proven true for just about every person he had met thus far in his
life.  At the moment the signals he was getting from Essex were looking
pretty good, it seemed as if he would be on his way back to HQ in no time.
"A generous offer Xanatos but a futile one, these creatures are too
valuable to be set free" , Essex said with a small grin, "and as for the
money, I already have several of the rich elite under my control so I don't
need your money."  This was not good.  However he always had a back-up plan
ready to put into motion.  "Well then I can only say that I hope your ready
to die because as soon as word gets back to HQ about my capture and
inevitable torture" , he said with a sly grin sliding across his face, "you
will not only have to face the wrath of one powerful being but as many as
many as fifty others and all intent on rending you ascinder." This did
little to intimidate Essex but he wasn't through yet and from the look on
the faces of Goliath and Luna neither were they.  He just hoped that his
threats would become a reality before Essex had his way with them, but he
had faith in Owen and the others.  He was sure that at this very moment
they were devising a plan so complex and clever so as to completely
overwhelm Essex's defences.  Then he thought about what he just thought and
muttered" yeah right!  Who am I kidding ?"
	"They sure are taking their time in there!" muttered Jubilee as she
continued to pace up and down the hallway.  It had been roughly a quarter
of an hour since they had been politely shoved out into the hallway and she
was beginning to get impatient.  "Calm down Jubilee, they will be done in
due time" Xavier said as he began typing a code into the arm rest of his
wheel chair.  Slowly, a compartment in the back of the chair opened and
Xavier's very own "Cerebro" helmet came out on a mechanical arm slowly
whirring into position over his head.  "What are you going to do
Professor?" Jean asked from a nearby hallway bench.  "Although I am unable
to help with the rescue effort I can at least discern their condition using
cerebro" Xavier said as he pulled the helmet down over his shiny bald head.
Within a few minutes cerebro was up and running and the Professor was
reaching out to try and locate her fellow teammates.  She had to admit that
while they were definitely unbeatable in her eyes they were definitely
entitled to a few mistakes.  Unfortunately Sinister was exactly the kind of
person who could exploit those mistakes into a defeat.  She had been living
in Professor Xavier's school for gifted youngsters for well over two years
now and had become quite accustomed to the weirdness that usually
accompanied any mission.  She had seen everything from mutant hating mobs
to an eternal enemy named Apocalypse(although he wasn't exactly alive much
less eternal thanks to a mercenary from the future named Cable).  Now she
had seen gargoyles in the flesh, beings whom she had always thought were
creepy statues.  Still Donna seemed almost human when the gargoyle vixen
swooped down and caught her.
	They were more beautiful then anything Elisa had seen in her life, light
danced across the surface like a prism.  It had been only a few moments
since Owen had removed the contents of the box and revealed what they were.
They looked like silver bracelets, spreading from the wrist three quarters
of the way to the elbow.  Bands of solid gold bordered the edges of the
metal, like leathery pythons wrapping around its victim.  Between the two
bands of gold there was blackness like the bottom of an ink well, only
shoelace thin streaks of obsidian divided the plain of darkness.  "These
solid silver bracelets were once worn by my illegitimate brother Odin
before he achieved full godhood" , Owen said as he began to walk toward
her, "it gave him minuscule control over the weather, just as the eye did
to Goliath."  She remembered all to well what had happened when Goliath
donned the eye of Odin, though she would just as soon forget about it.  It
had been during one of the many pit stops they had made in their world tour
in Norway.  No sooner did they come ashore then they were approached by an
old man they assumed lived in the area.  He had come to barter with them, a
parka that would have made it easier for her in return for the eye.  Later
it was discovered that he was not the old man they had taken him for but
the lord of the Norse gods Odin.  It was during that little fiasco that
Goliath had been forced to decide between saving her and keeping the eye
from unworthy hands.  You would have thought he would have chosen on of the
two, instead he made a choice all his own.  He placed the eye around his
neck and transformed into something of a Norse gargoyle.  Most people would
have also thought that it would actually help rid them of problems, not
this time it didn't!  Like all who had worn the eye before him it had
brought to the surface their basic nature and personified it, unfortunately
it also brought the corruption.  He became so obsessed with protecting them
that he actually began to create threats to protect them from.  It had been
a difficult struggle but they had eventually gotten the eye off him and
then went on their way.  "I hope this turns out better then it did with
Goliath" she muttered under her breath.  With the accompaniment of pain she
raised her arms and prepared to receive the power.  As if in slow motion,
she watched as he unlocked the the bracelets and then placed one half each
under her forearm.  As he began to close them around her forearm and she
felt the energy already begin to course through her arms and at that moment
she was positive that Goliath and Luna and the others would be back safe
and sound now.
	"I pray that aide comes soon, for I doubt if Essex continues that we will
be able to last until morning" thought Goliath as he once again began to
look around the room.  His lower body had long since grown numb with pain,
he could barely feel anything below his neck at all.  The rest of the clan
were in pretty much in the same shape, Luna seemed to be the only one that
was still suffering under the barrage of protons.  "Hang in there Luna,
stay with us" he whispered to her.    Over the past two weeks he had been a
bit concerned with Luna and her state of being regarding her new state.
She had grown very isolated and reclusive, only speaking when necessary.
About the only time there seemed to be any joy in her being was when she
was teaching Elisa the mystic arts.  Every once and a while then Elisa
would succeed at a particular spell he could see a bit of pride well up on
Luna's usually emotionless visage.  During patrol she was quite focused on
the task and rarely engaged in idle chatter on her own.  The others seemed
to respect her privacy and pretty much left her alone, Elisa seemed to be
the only one that dared to try and speak with her.  Last night he thought
that she was making definite progress when Luna agreed to go to the movie
but the moment had been soured by the presence of the telepath.  From these
things seemed to deteriorate.  Suddenly Luna's muscles seemed to seize up
and she wrenched her head back as far as it would go.  "Luna, what is
happening?!" he said to her as he tried to make sense of her vital signs on
the screen.  As soon as the thought came to his head he watched as Luna's
eyelids revealed emerald light emanating from the sockets.  From that point
on he knew that she would be all right and unless he missed his guess so
would they all in about an hour.
	"Elisa is coming!" Luna screamed in her mind as the wave of avalonic
energy swept over her.  She could feel the pulse of energy as it swept
through her and relieved some of her pain.  It had been a while since she
had felt this particular energy pattern but now that she had it was
unmistakably.  Odin's adolescent bracelets of power had been activated,
that could only mean that Oberon must have been observing the proceedings.
He must have ordered Puck to give Elisa the bracelets to aide in the
rescue.  Although she knew that this was a clear violation of the
"non-interference with mortal affairs" law she had no doubt that the blue
skinned god had found some way to bend the law to accomadate the situation.
It wouldn't be long now, soon they would all be free and Essex would then
know the price one pays when messing with the gargoyles.  "What happened?"
asked Goliath from his proton chamber.  "Your chosen mate has been armed
for the coming battle and will soon be here" she said as the pain resumed
its campaign on her nerves.  She didn't what to give out Elisa's name just
in case some of the X-Men had momentarily regained consciousness.  The
revelation of her secret was not for a person such as herself to divulge,
only Elisa could make that decision.  A small smile game to the clan
leaders face once he processed the news, he knew as well as she did that
Essex would be no match for Elisa when empowered with magic.  The only
thing she would need aide in would be the iron deposits in the metal walls,
for that was the one thing which avalonic energy had no affect over.
Fortunately that would not be a problem once the paralysis wore off, then
she would have fourteen people to watch her back and keep her from harm.
There was one thing which worried her greatly, would she be able to keep
perspective in the control of such power.  Goliath was once faced with such
a problem and his performance was less than spectacular.  Just then the
door to the room whirred open and in stepped the pale faced form of Essex.
Immediately she knew that he had been listening in on their short
conversation and wanted some answers.  Defiantly she lit up her eyes at him
and let out a growl weak in volume but strong in meaning.  Essex seemed
disappointed by this but continued into the room.
	Sinister had been monitoring the life signs of his 'guests closely along
with readouts from several other instruments.  Nothing abnormal had
occurred in the last half hour that bared any significance and it was
almost four am.  Then suddenly he noticed a drastic rise in energy readings
coming from the white haired gargoyle.  It was only there for a moment but
a moment was all he needed to become interested.  With no more provocation
he rose from the leather chair he had been sitting in and proceeded down to
the proton room.  For the past couple of minutes he had tried to determine
what speciesthe gargoyles may have evolved from but came to a dead end at
every attempt.  It was as if they had just appeared out of thin air and
began to live, as if they had not evolved as other life forms had to.  Then
he theorised about the possibility that they have existed since the dawn of
time but that came into conflict with the fact that they would have had to
evolve and change from their original form.  So in a nutshell he was
stumped, this was proving to be one of the most challenging projects he had
begun thus far in his career.  When he entered the room he was greeted by
the usual glowing eyes and growling greeting of the gargoyles.  He let a
frown appear on his face, despite the fact that it was a tactical no-no.
Slowly he sauntered over to the female gargoyle and began to examine her by
eye sight alone to determine the cause for the energy rise.  Nothing.
"Look Essex, your time is just about up!" , came a distinctly arrogant
voice from his right, "I just received word that the heavy artillery is on
it's way!"  Not surprising at all that when he turned that he saw the
grinning fool that he had come to regard as being Xanatos.
	If he heard right then this entire fiasco would be over soon and he would
have front row seats to see Essex get the butt-kicking of his life.  Elisa
was now armed with magic which had probably been provided by Puck via
Oberon's orders.  The last time Maza had been armed with magic she had
single handedly defeated the Norse god of evil Loki.  In comparison to Loki
Essex was no more than a mere mortal to Maza's mystical might.  He had just
begun his second verbal assault on Essex a few short seconds ago and he
predicted a response was forthcoming.  "I am fully ready for any attack
your financial empire can throw at me" , Essex said as he changed the focus
of his attention, "the defences you face approaching my compound were but
mere toys compared to what I have at my disposal."  He had thought a lot
about how he and the others had been captured and decided that he wasn't
bluffing when he said that he had something significantly more powerful
than the anti-aircraft guns ready.  That would probably be no problem for
Maza to dodge and destroy but if she was going to have any chance of making
it to them at full power he had to act like never before.  Fortunately he
had one of the best actors in the world as his wife and he had learned
quite a few moves from her to add to his own arsenal.  He began with the
standard silent treatment followed by the frown of defeat and topped it off
with the turn away and hanging of his head in the trademark defeat posture.
Although he could not see Essex face he was pretty sure that his play of
defeat had worked.  Now all that remained was for the others who were still
conscious to follow his example and add to Essex's arrogance.  He could
barely hear it but the grunts and groans of Goliath and Luna confirmed that
they had seen his play and followed true to form.  A slight laugh began to
erupt from Essex as he was probably admiring his work and was beginning to
get a swelled head over it.  That would definitely give the invading team
of Jean Grey, Jubilee and Elisa Maza an extra edge.  He just hoped that he
wasn't giving them too much credit, they would have to be as good as he
thought they were to stand up against the defences that Essex probably had
prepared for them.  With a short glance to the ceiling he did something he
almost never did in these situations, he prayed.
	"Well I don't know about the rest of you but I am jumping in the mini-jet
outside and heading after them" said Jubilee as she gave the security room
door an icy glare.  They had been waiting for half an hour and so far they
had not heard a peep from Donna and Burnett.  Of course this was probably
the sixth time she said she was leaving and probably just like the other
times it was pretty much a hollow boast.  Looking at her mentor and fellow
teammate she could see that Jean was beginning to feel the same as her.
She must be a nervous wreck inside, knowing that Cyclops was in trouble and
having to wait for an extra member.  Professor Xavier on the other hand was
the very image of patience and calm, his face was just as detached from all
this as it had been at the beginning of the long wait.  "I may regret it
later Professor but I agree with Jubilee" , Jean said as she took the
Prof's hand in hers, "we can't wait any longer, Sinister is a dangerous and
evil being, who knows what he has done already!"  For a moment Xavier
considered their pleas and with a defeated sigh he nodded.  Without warning
an eerie glow streaked forth from the crevices and edges of the door and
they all froze on the spot.  Jubilee didn't know what was happening but she
was pretty sure who was causing it.  A minute passed and she thought that
the flash had simply been caused by the computer displays in the room but
then something happened to dispel that idea.  Slowly and without a sound
the doors of the security began to part and slowly but gracefully and
orangish tanned foot stepped out then a leg and then the rest of the body.
The moment that the entire body came into view all three of the X-Men's
jaws dropped to the ground.  Even Charles Xavier, who previous to this had
rarely been surprised or shocked, was beside himself with awe and wonder.
One may think that it was the fact that she was walking, without any sign
that she had been previously injured but it was quite another fact that
held them in awe.  Where the almost human eyes once sat now were two orbs
of emerald light.  For a moment all they did was stare at one another,
neither they or the gargoyle moved an inch in any direction.  "So, are we
just going to stand here gawking at each other or are we going to go kick
Essex's butt" came an almost echo of a voice from Donna's lips
	It had been quite a rush indeed for Elisa when the small metal locks of
the bracelets of Odin finally clasped shut.  It had been more of an
adrenaline rush then the time she had fallen off the side of the castle a
year or two back.  She felt so alive, so full of energy at the moment that
she thought she would explode at any moment.  When she had left the
security room and saw the X-Men members standing there looking at her with
a look of awe written on their faces a feeling of fear began to make itself
known.  It reminded her all too well of her dream and how all those she had
known and a few she didn't know looked at her.  Shaking herself free of
such nonsense she focused her thoughts on saving Goliath and the others.
"So, are we just going to stand here gawking at each other or are we going
to go kick Essex's butt" she said in a voice slightly different from her
natural one.  Without another word she took out the com-set that had been
stored in the security room and proceeded to make her way outside.  Behind
her she could hear the slow moving footsteps and the humm of the wheelchair
behind her.  It hadn't taken them long to free themselves of their stupor
and that was reassuring to say the least.  It meant that they wouldn't
freeze during a battle if anything happened.  After a while she heard the
pace of one set of feet quicken and she turned her head to see the girl
called Jubilee rush up behind her.  "Donna, what happened in there?" asked
the child with a slight look of interest.  "I have the ability to absorb
and rechannel mystic energies" , she said being careful not to divulge
Owen's secret, "Owen simply provided me with some to aide us in our
struggle."  The child seemed to be intrigued by the mention of magic and
Elisa found that amusing.  Soon they were outside in the courtyard and with
a single leap she jumped to the edge of the outer walls and leaped into the
night.  "I'm coming Goliath, I'm coming" Elisa muttered as she gazed upon
the columns of glass and steel below her.
	Things were not going good for Goliath as the bombardment of Protons
continued to assail his rugged form.  Essex had long since left the room,
"to consider our fates" he said with the usual arrogance present.  The only
thing he was considering at the moment was how long he could remain
conscious.  He had roughly withstood the abuse since it began roughly an
hour or so ago.  Although he had the reputation as being the toughest and
strongest of the clan even he had his limits.  Straining valiantly against
the pain he knew that those limits had almost been met right then and
there.  Long ago he would have gladly given in to his pain and let the
coldness of unconsciousness claim him. Now, in this time and place, he
would fight with every ounce of his strength to remain strong and defiant
against his formless foe.  He would not allow the god Anubis take him away
from the life he so cherished.  He had just begun to get closer to Elisa
and he believed that if he waited a little bit longer that he would once
more know the feeling of undying love.  Once before, a long long time ago
he had felt it with Demona at castle Wyvern.  It had been sheer paradise
and that only made it ache more when he had it torn from him.  Torn not by
the Vikings who shattered his clan all so long ago but by Demona herself.
After such a tragedy and the countless shots of pain she had given him over
the months of conflict he thought that love would be the one emotion he
would never again have.  By some weird twist of fate  miracle happened,
Elisa had been changed into a gargoyle and the chance for love appeared for
one last try.  Others in his position might have shied away from such an
opportunity, fearing rejection or worse but not him.  He embraced this new
feeling wholeheartedly and he would be damned if he was going to let
anything take it from him again.  Looking over to the dark lavender form of
Luna, he had a feeling that she felt the same way.  Not in the love
department that he was in but more along the lines of the kind of love felt
between family members.  That kind of love was something that placed a
close second to true love between people.  Though since he hadn't heard of
the Weird Sisters dating humans or others of their race he was pretty sure
that something along those lines must have taken place at least once in the
past millennia.  Luna probably had begun to form a strong bond with Elisa
over the weeks and he certainly hoped she would benefit from it for years
to come.
	Luna wasn't sure just how much longer she could last against the barrage
she was on the receiving end of.  The brief energy wave she had felt from
Elisa had given her a much needed respite but it would not last forever.
Sooner or later it would give out and then she would once again succumb to
the darkness.  Already her vision was beginning to blur, the numbers and
letters that were displayed on the screens had long ago become unreadable.
The strength of the muscles keeping her head up were beginning to fail and
soon it would be hung over her chest.  After the darkness claimed her it
would be only a matter of time before death would as well.  Although she
was by no means weak in this new gargoyle form she didn't have the stamina
and toughness that Goliath had.  Over the past two weeks she had been
taught by both Goliath and Elisa on how to glide as well as other gargoyle
skills.  Her first few tries had been far from adequate and usually rather
embarrassing.  Still she had made considerable improvement and could now
land with little or no hint of 'greenness'.  Not that her flight prowess
was going to get her out of this any quicker.  "I'm coming Goliath, I'm
coming" came a voice drifting through her head like a dense fog.  "Elisa is
that you?" thought Luna as she tried to concentrate and focus on the fading
voice.  "Luna...I'm coming, just hold on!" came Elisa's familiar voice as
an image began to form in Luna's mind.  It showed the city, streaking along
from high up in the air and small wisps of black hair came into view
occasionally.  "Hurry I am not sure how long we can hold out" she said in
her mind as a wave of exhaustion swept over her.  It took great
concentration on her part to clarify the images that she saw and it was
even harder when she was battling the protons at the same time.  Suddenly
the door whooshed open and Essex stood in the doorway.  Luna immediately
broke the psychic connection, for fear that Essex could detect it.
	This was getting tiresome, this was the second time that Sinister had
detected unusual energy readings from the female gargoyle called Luna.
Each time he tried to decipher the readings he was getting they would
disappear.  He was certain that this is what Xanatos meant by heavy
artillery and if that was so he would need to know as much about it as
possible.  "I see you have had further contact with your headquarters Luna"
, he said as he brought her chin up to the same level as his, "care to let
me in on just how that is possible without any communications equipment?"
As usual all he got in response to his request, a growl and scarlet red
eyes.  "Delightful to the last I see.  Well perhaps some motivation is
required" he said as he moved over to the set of controls mounted on the
wall.  "Since you seem so well versed in the use of the proton chambers I
am certain that you know what would happen if I increased the concentration
from 25ppm to 50ppm" he said as he slowly raised the concentration in
Luna's chamber.  The reaction to the change was almost immediate, already
she was on the verge of unconsciousness.  "Stop it Essex, you're going to
kill her!" yelled Goliath as he began once more to try and break free.
Although the large gargoyle was formidable in mind as well as body it was
obvious that he was stubborn as a bull.  "I would like nothing better but
first I require some information" , he said as he slowly lowered the
concentration to 20ppm, "Information about the 'heavy artillery' Xanatos
spoke of earlier, in detail and right now."  It was obvious that Goliath
was unsure of what to do but Sinister knew exactly how to solve that
problem once again he reached to adjust the concentration.  Suddenly the
entire room shook like a baby nuke had just been set off nearby, so
powerful was the blast that it knocked him off his feet.  After muttering a
few unbecoming words he regained his footing and was able to walk over to
the intercom and contact the control room.  "Ruckus!  What in the blazes is
going on?!" he yelled as shockwaves threatened to make him lose his footing
once again.  "We are under heavy bombardment Mr.Sinister, the source of
which is as yet unknown" came Ruckus' voice polite as ever, "Nothing we
seem to fire at it seems to stop it, continues to advance without missing a
beat destroying our defences as it goes."  A small chuckle filled the room
and Sinister knew it could only be Xanatos.
	Apparently Xanatos' faith in Maza had been well founded, she was taking
this place apart piece by piece.  A low chuckle left his lips as he mused
how 'Mr. Sinister would look when he found out that the 'heavy artillery
was a magical gargoyle.  He imagined several possibilities but the one that
seemed most appropriate was the look where the jaw hit the ground and the
eyes opened wide.  Sadly, Mr.Sinister didn't seem to appreciate this bit of
humour and immediately left the room.  Good, that left them with an
opportunity to let Maza know where they were.  There was just one little
snag in his plan and that was the proton chambers.  As long as they were in
them paralysed they were helpless, leaving them wide open to be used as
hostages if worse came to worse.  Suddenly something midst the displays
caught his eye, the readings on one of the chambers was less then ten ppm!
With the concentration that low they might just have a way to get free, all
he needed to do was check to see which chamber it was.  A broad and
'sinister' smile spread across his face as he discovered that it was
Goliath's chamber.  "Hey Goliath, feeling up to a little prison break" he
said as he turned to the gargoyle leader.  Goliath must have realised that
the flow of Protons had lessened because he was already beginning to tear
the metal apart.  Already he could see the three fingered fist of Goliath
bending and twisting the front of the chamber out of shape.  Then with the
authority of a loud rage infested roar the front of the chamber flew across
the room and demolished the bulk of the controls.  Their luck must be
changing because as soon as the last spark flew from the remains of the
control panel the Proton flow seemed to cease completely.  "Very impressive
Goliath, now if you don't mind could you please free the rest of us" he
said as the Lavender giant looked at him with mild amusement.  With no more
than a slight grin he tore the front off of Xanatos' chamber off and tossed
it behind him.  Just then another earthquake like shock started to cause
debris to rain down from the ceiling.  "Maza and the others must be having
a blast up there" , he thought to himself as the feeling returned to his
lower extremities, "I hope then don't destroy Sinister just yet, I still
owe him for that blast to the face."
	Jubilee looked out over the horizon of wilderness vegetation in eager
anticipation.  They had seen Donna take off the side of the castle only a
few minutes before getting into the mini-jet that Cyclops had left behind.
Now they were pushing the engines to the max to keep her within range of
the radar.  She had never seen anything move as fast as Donna had once she
became airborne, it was like watching a  movie in fast forward.  "She's
stopped roughly half a mile from the beacon" , Jean said as she toned down
the speed of the jet a little, "looks like she ran into some resistance and
its managing to keep her busy for the moment.."  Jubilee couldn't imagine
what that could be, seeing Donna walking out of that room and seeing those
glowing emerald eyes, it was almost exactly like Jean had when the Phoenix
possessed her.  A shiver still ran down her spine when she remembered how
Jean looked when the Phoenix turned evil and became the Dark Phoenix.  From
the way the other X-Man made it seem Jean had become more evil than
Sinister and Sabretooth combined.  Off in the distance a small speck of
orange light stood out midst the trees, like a lone star in the sky it
stood out.  As they came closer to the source she could see a small speck
of black swooping throughout the sky, zigging and zagging away from the
shots of light being sent into the sky.  "I think we found Donna" she said
as the speck became a dot then a circle then a solid gargoyle form.  Both
Jean and herself did a double take when they saw that the shots of light
they had seen on approach were not coming from the ground but from Donna
herself.  With simple gestures Donna was sending bolts of emerald energy
down at the ground below, presumably where Sinister's installation was.
Jean quickly flipped on the radio and tried to talk to Donna through the
com-set.  "Donna, cease your attack!" , Jean said urgently, "you could
bring the entire place down, on both your friends as well as our enemy!"
For a moment Donna seemed to simply float there and look at them, as if she
were trying to decide if she should listen.  Then with not even a response
the winged form swooped down towards the battered landing pad of the
underground installation and Jean followed her in her descent.
	Elisa was disturbed, before Jean and Jubilee had arrived she was firing at
will.  With no concern for whatsoever for the safety of her clan below the
tons of bedrock.  This triggered her memory of the adventure in Norway and
firmed up her nerve, to maintain control over her being and not let her
newfound power corrupt her.  In the background the whine of the mini-jet's
engines filled her ears and she turned to meet them.  As they approached
her and walked away from the mini-jet she could sense their caution, their
concern but most of all she sensed their fear.  "T-that was pretty
impressive work you did Donna" Jubilee said with a small grin.  "No time
for compliments, Goliath and the others are going to be in deep trouble
when Essex finds out that all his defences are trashed" she said and
without another word turned around and took off running down the hallway

From what she could deduce the installation ran under the entire mountain,
that meant that there were miles and miles of corridor to check.  She had
to narrow down the search some and she had a pretty good idea of how to do
that.  "Jean, can you locate your comrades telepathically?" she asked
looking back to make sure the two X-Men were still with her.  "I can try"
was Jean's only reply.  Knowing full well that she couldn't depend solely
on the redhead's abilities she began to stretch out with powers of her own.
"Luna!  Goliath!  Where are you?  How can I find you?" she yelled in her
mind.  She concentrated with every once of power she had to insure that the
message got through to them.  For a few moments she waited, hoping for a
response, some sign that they were not too late.  Nothing.  She received no
reply from her clanmates.  That either meant that the iron present in the
metal alloy surrounding them was preventing the signal from getting through
or they were...  "No!  Don't even think that Maza, not even for a minute!"
she thought to herself as they proceeded deeper into the installations
interior.  "I've found them, they are two levels down and two hundred yards
to the west" exclaimed Jean with a look of sheer joy on her face.  Elisa
shared in that joy, for soon she would be reunited with her one true love
and her clan and anyone who got in her way wish they hadn't.  No one was
going to keep her from finding him, no one would keep her from Goliath.
	Goliath's body still ached with pain but at least they were free now and
soon they would be home.  Most of the clan were still unconscious but there
was enough of the X-Men and the clan awake to carry the rest out.  He
himself was currently freeing the X-Men Rogue who seemed a bit exhausted
but able to walk.  "Thanks big guy, it was beginning to get a little
cramped in there" Rogue said with a distinctly southern Louisiana accent.
"My pleasure, now help me free our remaining comrades" he said as he
proceeded to free the most strange looking person among the X-Men group.
He was covered with blue fur and had an uncanny resemblance to a gargoyle,
all he would need would be a pair of wings and a tail.  "Your aide is much
appreciated but I believe I can manage alone" said the X-Men Beast as he
began to rather wobbly walk away.  The quake had stopped which was probably
a good sign that Elisa had ceased the bombardment and had made it inside
the installation.  The best move was to head toward the exit and try and
meet up with them.  Immediately he made his way over to Xanatos who was
regaining his bearings by the door of the room.  "How do you feel Xanatos?"
he asked the mussy haired C.E.O of X.E.  "Like I just went ten rounds with
a blender set on puree" he said with a weak smile.  Obviously he wasn't in
very good shape and was too headstrong and full of pride to admit it.
Xanatos was a proud man, he had found that out the first time that he met
him.  He was proud of his company, his power but most of all he was proud
of himself.  He wasn't about to admit to anyone that he needed help in any
way.  Looking around the room he saw that all the unconscious warriors had
been taken care of but one, Luna.
	There was only one word that could describe the way that Luna felt and it
was "road kill".  Every fibre of her being ached with pain, yearning for it
to vanish by any means possible.  Never before in her immortal life had she
felt pain to equal this, even against Loki the pain was different.  Against
him it was quick and only lasted for a few moments, this pain seemed to
last forever and showed no signs of ebbing any time soon.  "So, this is how
it feels to be a lowly mortal gargoyle" she thought to herself through the
waves of pain her slowly recovering consciousness gave her.  "Yeah, pitiful
isn't it?" came a comical voice from the farthest corner of her mind.  Her
mood immediately made like Atlantis and sank to an all time low, she knew
the voice well and was not at all pleased at its return.  "Hello Puck, what
do you want now?" she thought as she sensed his ever annoying presence
coming closer.  "Sister you wound me to the quick!  I would never pray on a
suffering sister for anything!" , Puck said as his smirking face made
itself visible, "I simply wanted you to know that Maza is in the compound
and is on her way to your location as we think."  "Tell me something I
don't know Puck, I could already tell Elisa was coming by the shaking
floors and crumbling ceilings" she thought sarcastically as she grinned
mentally.  "Okay, Goliath and the rest are free and are making their way to
the exit" , Puck said with a slight frown on one side of his face, "they
should met up with Maza momentarily, unless of course Essex has something
else planned for you."  Without even giving her time to reply he
disappeared from her mind, leaving only a low gleeful giggle behind.  She
wasn't sure if it was just her but she had the sneaking suspicion that the
little imp was hiding something from her.  She dismissed the thought as a
incoherent thought caused by the trauma of the pain and went on to other
thoughts.  Puck had been right about Essex causing trouble for them on
their way out but she was confident that with Elisa's help the sick
scientist would not be a problem.  He was powerful in his own right and
against an Elisa of yesterday or so he could possibly defeat her but
against a fully charged Elisa with an attitude he wouldn't stand a chance.
With a feeling of happiness  welling up within her she knew it would only
be a matter of time before Essex got his juste rewards.
	Sinister could only think of one word to describe what he was faced with
at present, a "miracle".  He had just stumbled upon the opportunity of a
lifetime with this form of pure power, this goddess of beauty.  Had he
known when he set eyes on her the first time at Xanatos' party he would
have spared no expense to capture her.  He knew that the soundest strategic
move right now would be to retreat and make plans to acquire her later.
"Ruckus, status report on internal defences?!" he ordered, not deviating
his gaze from the screen showing his prize.  "All defences around the front
entrance have been destroyed and it would appear the gargoyle is destroying
the remaining defences as she goes" replied Ruckus as he quickly armed the
remaining defences.  The defences Sinister had installed here were second
only to Pentagon and White House security, for this gargoyle to be able to
mow them down with ease was nothing short of magnificent.  "Ruckus dispatch
squad "Ravager" and program it to use maximum force at its own discretion"
he ordered looking at the powerful form that was gargoyle as she destroyed
everything in her path.  "But sir, the "Ravager" squad has never been
tested, it could destroy the very thing you wish to capture" said Ruckus in
a concerned but light hearted fashion.  "Just do it!" he yelled as he
turned Ruckus to face him directly.  Trembling slightly Ruckus called up
the "Ravager" program and activated it.  The image of the ravager robots
was awe inspiring, they were the finest war machines ever created.  It
would be interesting to see just how the invading gargoyle would attack
such a formidable and intimidating opponent.  "Mr.Sinister!" , exclaimed
Vertigo from a nearby terminal, "the gargoyles and the X-Men are gone, they
broke out of their proton chambers."  Looking at the security screen in
disbelief he saw the broken and sheared metal of what used to be proton
chambers littering the floor of the proton room.  Just as he was about to
order Vertigo to find them she immediately did it and soon found the entire
group making their way slowly to rendezvous with their comrades.  "Should
we stop the "Ravager" program?" asked Vertigo looking up from the screen in
question.  "No, those fools are far enough away from the ravager's path to
survive and even if they do encounter it it will not matter" , he said with
noted indifference, "my only concern is her, Xanatos and his band are
expendable compared to her."
	Well, all in all Xanatos couldn't complain.  He felt about as good as he
does after losing a major investor, he was carrying and dragging two
gargoyles who weighed a ton each but on the bright side of things Sinister
was going to get his in a few minutes.  He would definitely want to have
front row seats for that, call him a savage but he justloved to see an
arrogant pig like that get pounded into the ground.  True Maza would need
help to avoid the iron deposits in the metal walls but he had no doubt that
they would be able to help with that.  "Warning!  Ravagers program
activated! Stay out of sectors alpha through beta" said a computerised
voice from an overhead speaker.  "I don't pretend to be a genius in
tecno-lingo but that's a bad thing right" said Brooklyn weakly as he leaned
on Goliath's shoulder.  "That my scarlet beaked friend is an
understatement" , said Beast as he himself leaned against the wall, "the
Ravagers program was a suicide program created by the army to neutralise
any invading party from seizing an American military base."  "When you say
neutralise you mean kill don't you?" said Lexington who had been fading in
and out of consciousness for the past ten minutes.  "Exactly." replied
Beast.  "Just what do these Ravagers look like?" asked Goliath with a
slight look of concern and fear.  "Imagine if you will the most
sophisticated weapons system with legs and you have a ravager" Beast said
with a distinct undertone of defeat in his voice.  To this they all
couldn't help but feel the same way, they were all exhausted and not in the
mood to fight a living weapon of destruction.  Then Goliath laid Angela and
Brooklyn down on the ground and turned to Xanatos.  "Get yourself and the
others home Xanatos, I will be right behind you" Goliath said as he turned
around and began charging down the hall towards section alpha.  "He's not
going to do what I think he's going to do, is he?" Xanatos asked the clan
of gargoyles before him.  All the conscious ones did was look at him and
that was all the answer he needed.  Picking Brooklyn and Angela off the
ground he began to slowly make his way down the hall.  "What exactly did he
mean?" asked Rogue who came up along side him.  "Goliath knows as I know
that Sinister no doubt released the ravagers to deal with Donna and the
others" , he said with a sigh of depression, "he's gone to join them in the
fight against the ravagers."  "What!?  He's gonna get himself killed, we
gotta go help him!" exclaimed Rogue in disbelief.  "Goliath wanted me to
get you all out of here and that's just what I intend to do" he said and
before the Louisiana gal could reply he increased his pace down the hall.
As he walked down the hall he couldn't help but visualise what would happen
when he got there to aide Maza and the others.
	Jubilee had been shocked and surprised a number of times this evening and
it seemed that more surprises were on the way.  So far she had counted
roughly twenty laser turrets, eight cameras and five hidden explosives that
Donna had found and destroyed along the way.  Donna had destroyed them
before they had even been activated, it was as if she knew exactly where
they were.  As if she had some sixth sense that told her where everything
was hidden.  "Donna how did you know where all those traps were?" she asked
the gargoyle.  "When my body is fully saturated with magic I have a whole
new level of perceptions at my disposal" , Donna said as she scanned the
room for any signs of further security, "I need only focus my mind and I
can sense the electricity in the walls and where they flow to."  Donna
hinted for Jubilee to step back and then began to slowly gaze about the
hallway.  About thirty seconds later it appeared Donna had acquired a
target.  "Forminos Benitay" Donna said as she raised her hand and aimed it
at a panel on the right wall.  Without warning a bolt of emerald lightning
shot from the gargoyles hand and completely demolished the area at which it
was aimed.  To this all Jubilee could do was stare in amazement, she had
seen her gargoyle comrade do this many times since they arrived at this
place but it never ceased to amaze her.  Suddenly Donna's attention seemed
to be jerked in another direction, like someone had just grabbed her head
and forced her to look in a direction.  At first Jubilee thought she had
just spotted another laser turret but the way she began to walk made her
think otherwise.  Itseemed more cautious, more wary of danger then it had
before.  Donna looked almost like a jungle cat that was stalking its prey
and given that she sometimes sounded like a jungle cat it kinda made sense.
"What's wrong Don?" began Jubilee but she was immediately cut off by a
sharp shhhh by Donna.  Putting a hand to her ear Donna hinted that they
should listen carefully.  Doing as she was told Jubilee listened as
carefully as she could, straining to hear the cause of Donna's concern.  At
first she heard nothing but then a low rumbling sound entered her ears and
she  watched as Donna went down on all fours and charged forward to face
the unknown threat head-on
	"Something nasty is coming, best nail it before it has a chance to get a
lock on anyone" thought Elisa as she stormed down the metal hallway towards
her unknown foe.  Thanks to the extra senses she possesses when juiced up
to this level of magical prowess she was able to sense the threat from a
fair distance away.  What she sensed was like nothing she had ever
encountered before but whatever it was it was armed to the teeth.  Suddenly
her senses went off like a five alarm fire and she dove in the opposite
direction of where she had been headed.  It was fortunate for her that she
had because a moment later the spot was disintegrated by twin sets of
lasers.  Gazing ahead for the source she was welcomed by the most user
unfriendly piece of army surplus she had ever seen.  It stood roughly eight
feet tall and had a distinctly humanoid look to it but you would never even
notice it with all the weapons it had.  Everywhere she looked there was
some type of weapon whether it was sophisticated like a laser or primitive
like a pair of blades.  Obviously it had been designed to match any attack
style and was rigged for close quarters combat as well as distance.  "Well
I bet it was never designed to take on a gargoyle before" Elisa thought to
herself and with a ear-splitting gargoyle battle cry lunged forward to
attack the monstrosity.  She rammed her full weight into the mid-section of
the tin-plated monster and knocked it to the ground.  Unfortunately she
should have known her luck wouldn't last for no sooner did they both hit
the ground then she was thrown ten feet away in a split second.  She landed
hard and could feel a definite crack forming on one of her ribs.
Fortunately she had just the thing to make her feel all better and make her
enemy feel a lot worse.  In one fluid motion she flipped back to her feet
and turned to face her mechanical foe.  The reject from a terminator movie
fired its lasers once again but Elisa was ready for it.  "Deadly beams made
of light, you have me now in your sight, but turn you now as I say, and
return to your home I do now pray!" she chanted as she enveloped the beams
of light in emerald light.  Almost in the same instant they were enveloped
they halted in mid-air and streaked back to the source.  With a satisfying
but small explosion the beast's blaster exploded and took half of the arm
with it.  "Hahaha, at this rate I'll finish this metal creep in no time
flat" , thought Elisa as she watched the tin soldier, "Goliath is as good
as free and Essex is as good as dead."
	Goliath knew that this was not the smartest thing to do and that it was
unnecessary.  His injured wing ached with each stride and the rest of his
body pretty much felt the same way but that did not matter.  The Ravagers
sounded to be even more dangerous than the Steel Clan on their best night.
He could not allow them to intercept the others, in their weakened state it
would be wholesale slaughter.  Not that he was in any better shape but he
could not bear to send anyone else.  Suddenly the sound of tank treads
began to fill the air and Goliath flattened himself up against the wall and
waited for the Ravager to pass.  As the source of the sound drew nearer he
tried to estimate it's size based on the rumble produced by the treads.
What the estimate turned out to be was not encouraging to say the least.
It had to be somewhere between seven and eight feet tall and weigh close to
five tons.    He hoped that the time in the proton chamber had messed with
his judgment to show that he was wrong but his judgment was proven accurate
when the bulky form passed him.  Not waiting for any opening he charged
towards the machine at break neck speed.  Just as he was about to make
contact with the metal chest of the creature he rammed into an invisible
wall of electricity and was sent flying back.  With a loud clang he hit the
wall and then slumped to the ground.  He hadn't expected the Ravager to be
ready for such an attack but now that he knew what to expect he decided on
a different game plan.  With all his remaining strength he tore a plate of
metal off a wall and dashed towards his shiny foe.  As he leapt forward to
tackle the enormous form  he thought"this is going hurt!"  Man, when he's
right he's right!   The exact second before he made contact with the
electric field his pain receptors lit up like a Christmas tree.  Using
every last drop of the stamina he had in reserve he endured the pain.
Struggling against the urge to let go he used all his strength to wrap the
metal plate around the perimeter of the electric field until his fingers
touched each other.  Immediately he let go and was once again was thrown up
against the wall.  He was on the verge of unconsciousness but his strength
of will and determination kept him from slipping into the blackness of his
mind.    From there he simply sat back and watched as smoke began to rise
from the still moving machine.  Then in one final surge forward it stopped
dead in it's tracks and the head slumped down onto its chest.  "That takes
care of one of them,now to proceed onto the others" , he thought as he
forced his aching body to respond, "I just hope that I can by Xanatos, Luna
and  the others enough time to get out.  Luna needs medical attention as
soon as possible."
	Although Luna's body was still as unresponsive as ever her mind was still
sharper then any blade around.  Reaching out with the powers of her mind
she could sense Elisa in the midst of a great struggle, fighting a foe that
in some small way intimidated her.  Reaching out she locked on to Xanatos'
mind to try and figure out what could be strong enough to cause Elisa to be
afraid, given her awesome strength in the mystical arts.  It wasn't easy to
find the answer she sought in the mind of David Xanatos, the place was
alive with activity like there was no tomorrow.  "Now I see how he manages
to devise those manipulative plots so easily" she thought to herself as she
continued to browse for the most recent memories.  A few micro-seconds
later she found exactly what she was looking for.  It would take even more
concentration to decipher the memory so she could read it but it wouldn't
be to hard.  about a minute later it was done and she did not like what she
saw in the slightest.  Sinister had activated the ravager program and
Goliath had gone to stall them for time.  What he was doing was utter
madness, in his weakened state he wouldn't stand a chance against such
technology.  Just then the mind of Xanatos' mind began to focus not on his
own thoughts but apparently on her intruding mind.  "Uh oh, time to leave
this place of schemes" Luna thought to herself as she began to back track
her way out of Xanatos' mind.  Once out she renewed her struggle back to
consciousness, across the black void of pain and suffering that barred her
way.  She had to wake up and convince the others to go back and help
Goliath and Elisa, otherwise they would never survive.  She remember yet
another security protocol that Cyber-Biotics had devised and sold to the
military.  It was a highly adaptive CPU that could analyse any combat
situation and make appropriate changes to neutralise the effect of the
enemies attack.  If this CPU had been rigged to operate on a ravager it
would virtually make it unstoppable.  Essex might not have realised just
what he did, he had inadvertently caused his own destruction.  The ravager
program had a fail-safe self-destruct program set to go off if the unit was
rendered inoperative twenty minutes after being disabled.  She had to
awaken otherwise they would lose in a most horrendous fashion.
	"Magnificent!" exclaimed Sinister as he watched the acts of destruction.
For the past ten minutes he had watched the gargoyle matron destroy yet
another ravager.  Her abilities seemed to know no bounds, everything
whether it be energy or matter seemed to be at her command.  The others in
the control room seemed to share his sentiments, they  were in complete awe
of her power. As they should be, her power seemed to surpass even
Sinister's own which made him wonder if he had made a mistake in
confronting her in this fashion.  Should her rage run wild it could mean
dire trouble for him and his plans for the future.  "Ruckus, halt the
self-destruct mechanism and reroute control of it to my portable detonator"
he ordered as he removed the said detonator from the cabinet beneath the
monitor.  "As you wish Mr.Sinister" replied Ruckus as he went about the
appropriate procedures.  Leaving his minions to their given tasks he began
to make his way down to greet the oncoming threat.  Perfect, that was what
he thought of her, the perfect weapon inside and out.  She had the strength
speed and agility of a gargoyle and complete control over anything else.
If he were able to somehow gain control over her not even Magneto would be
able to stand against him.  Not even the almighty Apocalypse would be able
to defy him, no longer would he had to obey that pompous maniac.  Who knows
how far he would be able to go with her, the entire world could be his
oyster so to speak.  First however he would have to devise somehow to trick
her or blackmail her into doing his bidding.  If the gargoyles were still
in his custody it would be a simple matter of using them in  blackmail.
Unfortunately that was no longer the case, they were free and no doubt
making their way to the exit.  Still there was no sign that she knew that
her friends were free and as long as he kept her thinking that she would be
putty in his hands.  He was coming up on beta sector and already he could
hear the clanging of another ravager being smashed into dust.  Emerald
danced all around, blinding him steadily as he sauntered closer to the
scene.  "I'll have to send Xanatos a thank you letter afterwards" ,
Sinister thought to himself, "If not for him I would never have made such a
monumentous discovery."
	They were almost to the exit and it was a good thing to because the few
conscious gargoyles and X-Men had argued with him at least once.  The only
ones left were the X-Men Wolverine and Angela who had just a few minutes
ago regained consciousness.  He agreed that their arguments had some merit
to them but he was not about to risk his life, his very future on a suicide
mission.  As he proceeded up another flight of stairs he heard the all to
familiar sound of someone trying to catch up with him.  "Yes Angela, do you
have a complaint also?" he asked as he was almost sure it was her.
"Xanatos, we have to go back and help my father" , Angela said, her voice
weak and tired, "he doesn't stand a chance against those ravagers alone."
He knew that just telling her no wouldn't do any good right now yet he
wasn't about to let  a verbal challenge like this just go by.  "Angela your
father is one of the most skilled warrior I have ever met, he has faced
everything from the common crook to a virtual god" , he said as he halted
in mid step and looked at her compassionately, "He has managed to thwart
some of my best laid plans, I think he's perfectly capable to handle those
wind up toy soldiers on his own."  That seemed to settle her down a bit but
he had to make sure of it, any further argument could bring the rest of the
group down on him at any time.  "Look, I'm sure he'll be fine besides he's
not alone in there" , he said as he placed his hand on her shoulder, "Donna
is in there with him along with two X-Men, with their help I'm sure that
they'll cream Sinister and be with us very soon."  With a slow nod Angela
became silent and they all continued their journey to freedom.  He hadn't
gotten more than two steps from where he was before a rather rugged hand
clamped down on his shoulder and spun him around.  Not surprising it was
Wolverine, he obviously was not happy about what transpired either and
wanted to talk.  "Problem Wolverine?" he asked innocently but with
confidence.  "Yeah like the fact that if you laid so many plans to ace
Goliath what's to say that your not just keepin' us from helping him so
Sinister's robots can ace him for you!?" growled Wolverine as he pushed
Xanatos up against the wall.  "Because I owe a rather large debt to Goliath
and his clan and I always pay my debts in full" said Xanatos as used a
pressure point on Wolverine's wrist to pry his hand off the very sore
shoulder.  "Well looks to me like you're welching on that debt only this
time Jean and the others back there are going to be the ones to pay for it"
retorted Wolverine as he gave an icy stare to Xanatos' face.  Xanatos
couldn't help but think about that, was he actually subconsciously trying
to welch out of a debt?
	With a rather low "whoa" Jubilee came to a skidding halt when she came
upon what looked like a parts sale at Radio Shack blocking the hallway.
Littered in one big smoking pile were weapons from every category that she
could think of.  Everything from a .357 magnum all the way to a high
powered laser cannon, it made a sentinels weapons look like a pair of sling
shots.  "What the heck is this?" exclaimed Jubilee as she bent down and
examined random weapons she had picked up from the mess of wires and metal.
"I'd say this is what Donna was so worried about and caused her to run off
before" Jean said as she gazed frightfully at the mass of technology laid
out in front of her.  Now that Jubilee saw what it was Donna had sensed she
could kinda see the logic in her rushing ahead to face that thing.
Carefully they both climbed over the mound of wires, circuit boards and
glass but were confronted with yet another surprise once they reached the
other side.  Another mound of wires and metal was blocking the way and that
made her worry all the more.  Just how many of these things were there?
Just then a scream filled her ears and snapped her attention to the hallway
ahead of them.  In the distance she could hear the sounds of heavy weapons
fire and conflict.  Neither of them even needed to say a word, with intense
determination they raced down the hall towards the source of the battle and
were greeted with a sad sight.  They came upon Donna on one knee facing off
against an eight foot robot Jubilee could only assume was a working version
of the mess' they had seen before them.  Donna was in pretty bad shape, it
looked as though she had broken her left leg and she could see a trickle of
blood seeping down the side of her left arm.  "Now's not the time to be
critiquing her medical condition Jubilation Lee" , she thought to herself
as she unleashed the full force of her fireworks blasts on the robot, "have
to get rid of this reject from a sci-fi film first before he adds more
injuries to the list!"  Her blast knocked the mechanical maniac flat on
it's back but it wasn't out completely.  Slowly but surely it managed to
lumber to its feet and began to train one of its laser sights on her chest.
Blasting again she aimed for one of its explosives but just as the blast
seemed that it would make contact it ricocheted off a force field and hit
the wall.  "Careful, it adapts to every move you make" warned Donna as she
struggled to stand.
	They were all in deep trouble and Elisa knew it, she had suspected it
right after one of her Arch-Mage lightning bolts bounced off an electric
force field.  It hadn't been 'till roughly the third or forth robot that
she had discovered that they were beginning to adapt to her attacks.  That
and the fact she had received a rather crushing blow to her left leg that
probably shattered it.  She had been very lucky that Jubilee and Jean Grey
arrived when they  did otherwise she would just been a splattered mess on
the concrete floor.  At the moment Jean was slamming the large behemoth agai
nst the wall which she figured would allow her to gather her bearings.
Blood trickling down her arm told her that she had better defeat this
monster before it adapted or else they would get to answer the questions
about god first hand.  "Cold creation hard and vile,  I condemn you now in
my style, freezing winds heed my say, turn fuel into ice I do now pray!"
she canted as she raised her arms in pain.  In a whirl of white mist a
blizzard like wind swept down on the metal form before her and seemed to be
pushing it back.  For a moment it looked as though it was defying the odds
and stood against the wind.  As the wind died down and vanished the grey
form simply stood there.  Cautiously the teenage mutant Jubilee approached
the metal statue and placed a finger on the right leg of the beast.
Nothing.  It didn't react it the least to her close presence but Elisa
wasn't about to take a chance with something this devastating.  Whipping
her hand out in front of her she yelled "Forminous Benitay" which sent a
torrent of energy at the robot knocking its head clean off.  With a
deafening crash the figure of destruction slammed to the ground and scared
Jubilee within an inch of a heart attack.  Both Jean and Jubilee looked at
her with a look of fear and surprise.  "C'mon, I can still sense a few more
of these things up ahead" she said as she hobbled past the bulk of electric
equipment.  The others followed hesitantly but maintained a fairly close
proximity to her.  Elisa knew that she was perhaps acting in extremes but
she had to get to Goliath and get him to safety, that was her primary goal
anything else was secondary.
	  Golaith's entire body ached, so far he had taken down three of the
ravagers and all barely before they tore him in half.  These things were
more deadly then anything Xanatos had made thus far and that was saying a
lot for the person who created the ravagers.  Coyote, the steel clan, even
the upgraded back which he had a hand in couldn't match this in
destructiveness.  "I wholeheartedly prey that there are not to many left" ,
he thought to himself as he lumbered painfully forward, "Or I am going to
be feeling sore for nights to come."  As he proceeded on his attention was
drawn to a dark figure walking far down the hall in front of him.  It
wasn't walking towards him but rather in the same direction that he was
going in.  It was nowhere near as large as the ravagers it was more human
sized.  Then as it walked underneath a dimly lit ceiling lamp the identity
of the person was revealed.  Sinister!  Goliath didn't know what the fiend
was up to put the only way he knew of finding out was to follow him.  About
five minutes later they had roughly walked down five corridors separated by
five inch thick doors.  Fortunately Sinister didn't lock them after going
through, he obviously didn't have a clue that he was being followed.  As
they walked down a longer corridor the sounds of a fierce battle being
waged could be heard even through the thickness of the metal walls.  Just
as he was about to end the merry chase Sinister's shiny blue form came to a
stop just outside a large hatch in the right side.  Flattening himself
against the wall he delved into the shadows, hoping they would be enough to
conceal him.  A moment later he heard the hatch doors slide open and a wave
of sound filled the hall, sounds of lasers and a gargoyle scream were all
that could be heard.  He knew that the scream belonged to Elisa but he
couldn't yet risk revealing his presence just yet.  He would have to wait
and see what Sinister had planned before doing anything.  "Ahhh, glad to
see you met my ravagers and dealt with them in a fashion most unique" ,
Sinister said as he entered the hatchway in front of him and moved out of
Goliath's sight, "but unless you surrender yourself to me and agree to do
my bidding your friends will never live to see the sunrise."  Goliath could
scarcely believe what he had heard, Sinister had captured the others
despite his attempt to aide their escape. The thought of Luna and the
others once more in this madman's clutches struck a chord of fear into his
should as he waited for the silence to be broken yet again.
	It was preceded by the continuous cough and deep breathing but finally
Luna regained the consciousness that she had been deprived of.  All around
her looks of concern and moderate happiness looked down on her along with
the star lit sky.  "Luna, how do you feel?" asked Xanatos who she could
feel placing her in a sitting position.  "Like I just played patty cake
against a brick wall for five hours straight" , she replied weakly as she
tried to get to her feet, "but my condition is the least of our worries, we
have to go back and get Goliath and the others out of there immediately!"
"Why, what do you know that we don't?" asked Xanatos yet again as slung one
of her arms over his shoulder.  "The ravagers have a built in self-destruct
device that is set to go off twenty minutes after they have been rendered
inoperative" she said as a sharp pain raced through her side.  "How
powerful is this self-destruct mechanism?" asked a large furry man whom she
realised was Beast.  "Each self-destruct unit has roughly the power of a
small nuclear device" , she replied grimacing in pain, "add that to the
amount of fuel and artillery Sinister may have in there and you have one of
the biggest blast ever."  To this bit of news everyone's jaw dropped to the
ground, even Xanatos seemed a little discontented by this change in events.
Given the fact hat Xanatos used to be the main cause of situations like
this it wasn't surprising that he would be impressed at this.  "Yah see
Xanatos! We gotta go back and help 'em!" exclaimed Rogue with fist firmly
positioned on her hips. To this barrage of words Xanatos simply returned
with the stone cold poker face used in tough negotiations.  "Look Xanatos I
don't much like being turned into a crispy critter either but I am not
about to abandon Goliath and Donna to a radioactive death" said Brooklyn
with an icy stare directed at Xanatos.  "I second the notion, gargoyles
don't abandon their own" stated Angela as she walked to Brooklyn's side.
"Although I may regret this later I agree with those two, we havta go back"
said Wolverine as he proceeded to walk over an stand next to Brooklyn.
Luna knew that things were taking a turn for the worse as far as Xanatos
was concerned, he had to make a decision of either going back and helping
their comrades or following the leader's last wish and returning home.
Either way Luna couldn't help but feel that before this night was over,
something was going to happen that would change everything for the gargoyle
clan as well as the X-Men.
	"This is bad, this is very bad!" thought Jubilee as she watched Sinister
emerge from the shadowy doorway.  This particular villain and arch-enemy of
the X-Men rarely confronted the opposing team unless he had some ace up his
sleeve.  It didn't take long for Donna to notice his casual entrance.
"ESSEX!" she yelled as her eyes lit up into a ruby red color.  "Actually
the name is Sinister, Mr. Sinister to you!" declared Sinister as he removed
a transmitter of some sort from a pocket.  A second later a recently
healed(she performed a healing spell soon after the last ravager was
destroyed)Donna charged towards Sinister but with a simple raising of the
transmitter and his finger over a button stopped the gargoyle dead in her
tracks.  Taking little notice of the change in pace Sinister gazed about
the room, inspecting what little was left of the ravagers.  "Ahhh, glad to
see you met my ravagers and dealt with them in a fashion most unique" ,
Sinister said as he began to walk closer but never giving up the arrogance
that seemed to personify him, "but unless you surrender yourself to me and
agree to do my bidding your friends will never live to see the sunrise."  A
low growl was the only response Sinister received from the night haired
gargoyle and Jubilee couldn't agree more with her.  The pale faced sicko
had them and there was nothing that they could do to stop him.  There was
no way that Donna could cast a spell in time to stop Sinister from pressing
the button and both Jean and she were too far away.  Suddenly a
spine-shivering roar erupted as the doorway Sinister had just come through
flew off its hinges, slamming into the back of Sinister and made the
detonator airborne.  Taking the opportunity given Jubilee charged forth at
break neck speed and with a long dive caught the detonator in hands but
being careful not to put any pressure on the button.  "Whew, and my little
league coach said I had butterfingers!" thought Jubilee as she got to her
feet.  As she did so she couldn't help wonder just who had been the one to
knock the door off the hinges.  Looking at the doorway her eyes were met by
a rather large lavender gargoyle who looked like gods gift to women.
"Goliath!" exclaimed  Donna as she raced over and jumped into the big
tarzan's arms.
	Things had just gone from really, really bad to really, really terrific.
Elisa had thought she had completely lost it all when 'Mr. Sinister'
revealed his blackmail plan.  She knew that he had probably been monitoring
her as she proceeded and watched her destroy all the ravagers so he also
knew how she cast spells.  She wouldn't be able to get so much as a
sentence out before he used the detonator.  There was always the chance
that the detonator was a complete dud but she wasn't willing to take that
chance.  Sinister seemed to be the type of person that didn't bluff in any
sort of negotiation so it was most likely the device was genuine.
Fortunately thanks to Goliath and Jubilee she no longer had to worry about
being blackmailed.  Also she could rest easy knowing that since Goliath was
free the others were probably free as well.  "Goliath!" she exclaimed as
she ran across and jumped into her lovers arms.  For a few moments he
seemed to be none the worse for wear but as he began to groan in pain she
knew he was unwell.  It was only then that she noticed the scars and signs
of strain on his face.  Even in previous battles he had never come out
looking so beaten, that included the battle against Oberon a few weeks
back.  "Oh my god!  Goliath are you okay, what did he do to you?!" she
exclaimed as she examined his scars for herself.  "Nothing a day of stone
sleep won't cure.  Come let's go home." Goliath said in a calm but weak
tone.  "None of you are going anywhere!" rang Sinister's voice though the
air.  "Oh, and just what are you going to do about it!?" , said Jubilee
sarcastically as she held the detonator by the antenna, "we have the
detonator and all of your ravagers have been completely totalled."  Slowly
Sinister dragged himself out from underneath the battered doors and stood
defiantly before them.  "Wrong on both accounts you insolent whelp!  That
piece of junk you have in your hand is but a prop" , Sinister said with
venom virtually dripping from his mouth, " and as for the ravagers they are
not as destroyed as you may think!"  With that Sinister  pressed a button
on the wristband he was wearing and almost immediately the clanking sounds
of reforming metal filled the air.  Slowly turning around Elisa stood in
fear as she watched the ravager she had previously destroyed slowly begin
to pull itself together.  As this went on Sinister simply stood from afar
laughing psychotically with glee.
	Things had looked bad for Sinister for a while there but now things
couldn't look better.  Even though he only had one or two ravagers in
working order as long as he had the detonator for the self destructs he
held the ultimate trump card.  Then something peculiar happened, instead of
the exclamations of disbelief and fear a heartfelt belly laugh erupted from
the gargoyle sorceress' mouth.  The laughing continued as she paid no
attention whatsoever to the approaching ravager.  "Sinister, do you really
think that just because you were able to bring back one ravager that you'll
win" , she asked rhetorically as her eyes began to give off a ruby red
glow, "I have the power of the universe at my finger tips and nothing can
withstand it!"  Dismissing his arrogant look the gargoyle turned to face
the ravager and muttered something in Latin though he couldn't quite
understand it.  Suddenly jade lightning shot from her hands and hurtled
towards the bulky form of the ravager.  Just as he had predicted the blast
ricochet off the electrical force field and make a large smoking hole in
the wall.  "Nut and bolt, plate and twine, strike with my wrath most
divine" chanted the gargoyle once more sending a wide beam of green along
the walls.  Nothing happened.  Not a single bolt moved, not a single sheet
of metal moved.  That startled him just as much as it startled them, he
could think of no reason why the spell was ineffective.  Then it came to
him, he remembered what Luna had said earlier about being one of Oberon's
children and in the play "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" Oberon's kin were
vulnerable to iron.  "Not a smart move my dear, exposing a potential
weakness to an enemy can be most fatal" he gloated as he typed a command
into his wristband.  Mere seconds later a bright white glow enveloped the
ravager, for a few minutes it did not move.  Then all at once in a blinding
cascade of light the ravagers plated skin was revealed.  No longer the
moderate shine of steel, now a dark armor of cold, deadly iron.  The only
words to be said by his foes was "Uh oh!".  With these people dealt with it
wouldn't be long before he had the ultimate prize in his possession.
	"This is bad, very bad!" thought Elisa as she planned her next move.  With
iron shielding it, her magic was now pretty much useless.  Add that that to
the fact that any physical contact with it turns you into a crispy critter
and you got one dandy problem.  Not wanting to give the glorified toaster a
chance to strike first blood she grabbed the remains of the metal door and
with a mighty flick of the wrist sent it twirling through the air.  With a
loud crunch the metal door impaled the ravager and sent it hard to the
ground.  Unfortunately the loud sound of hydraulics informed her that the
fight was far from over.  Her suspicions were confirmed as another ravager
she remembered from before came lumbering forward.  This time it was
Goliath who led the attack as he grabbed the remaining door off the ground
and repeated her maneuver.  This time it met with little success, with a
draw better then John Wayne the ravager fired both of its remaining laser
turrets and shattered the door.  The tiny plinking sound of metal fragments
hitting the ground triggered a feeling of fear in her so rich that would
make horror flicks actually look relaxing.  "What do we do Donna?" asked
Jubilee as she dashed over to her.  "I haven't the slightest clue, its
adapting fast and we're running out of options" Elisa replied as she kept
herself between Jubilee and the ravager.  She wasn't quite sure why she was
doing it, it was probably just her old cop instincts at work.  "Of course
we never came up with a scenario involving an eight foot monster before at
the academy" thought Elisa as she tried in vain to fight of fear with
humour.  Her train of thought was shattered by the sound of Goliath's
battle cry as he charged at Sinister.  He almost made it but just before he
was able to lock his fingers around the pale man's face he was blasted in
the gut by Sinister.  Leaving Jubilee Elisa ran to her lover's side,
fearing that the shot added to his recent injuries would prove fatal.
Reaching his side she was pleased to see that he was merely dazed and would
live, at least for the moment.  Suddenly s large shadow fell upon them both
and Elisa turned to see the ravager towering over her at point blank range.
Cradling Goliath in her arms she whispered into his ear"I will love you
forever Goliath."  "As I will always treasure you my angel of the night" he
replied as he gazed at her tear ridden face.  With those final words said
they waited and prepared for the coldness of death to embrace them.
Suddenly, as if knocked by an invisible assailant the ravaged flew ten feet
back down the hall.  "Ah hate tah spoil such a romantic sight but it's time
tah leave!" said the a lady with a distinctly southern accent.  "Rogue,
what are you doinghere?" asked Goliath as he wobbled to his feet with
Elisa's help.
	Goliath had all but lost hope minutes before but with the sight of Rogue
in her yellow green spandex.  "Rogue, what are you doing here?" , asked
Goliath as he wobbled to his feet with Elisa's help, "I thought I told
Xanatos to get you and the others to safety!"  Goliath wasn't at all
pleased at this, he was used to seeing his orders followed to the letter.
"Well he was a bit outnumbered big guy and well, majority rules!" , replied
Rogue as she floated down to the ground and caught eye of Elisa, "so this
is the lil' darling you came back for!"  Elisa blushed at the comment which
brought a wide grin from Rogue, she was definitely amused by this.  Her
amusement was not to last as she went flying across the hall, a smoking
hole in her jacket the only clue as to the cause.  With eyes glowing like
white hot steel he turned to see Sinister with hand upraised as if ready to
fire.  "I so do hate it when uninvited guests show up, it is such a
nuisance" remarked Sinister as he proceeded to revive another ravager.  He
was interrupted in mid dial as a crimson shot of light blew a large chunk
of his arm off.  "I know exactly how you feel Sinister" said a voice
Goliath never thought he'd be so glad to hear.  In an anguish filled roar
Sinister yelled" Xanatos!"  Standing in the beaten and torn doorway of he
had entered through a while ago stood the cocky smile and smoking laser
rifle in hand.  Seeing the manipulative millionaire standing there
infuriated him, it was a clear violation of the order he had given.  Still
if it hadn't been for that Elisa and he would have been dead.  "Glad you
could join the party" he said with a grin as he hobbled towards the
grinning businessman. "My pleasure, now whataya say we finish cleaning
things up here?" Xanatos asked with a crooked smile clearly showing his
intent.  A nod was all Goliath did in response and with that the conscious
X-Men went to finish off the remaining ravager which left the Manhattan
clan to take care of Sinister.  Even Luna, whom he figured to weak to walk
much less fight looked like she could still put up a fight worthy of
mention.  Acknowledging his concerned look with a smile they proceeded to
deal with the man responsible for their recent torture and it looked like
Luna was going to especially enjoy it.
	Luna's body still ached like hell but there was no way she was going to be
left out on this little chore.  This inhuman mortal had caused no end of
pain and had mocked her family with insults beyond count in the past couple
of hours.  She wanted him to fight back but he showed no signs of it, he
only backed up further.  He looked rather pitiful now that all his toys had
been destroyed and he was left to face them alone.  "Oh how the mighty have
fallen!" Elisa said with a villainous sneer on her face.  Elisa had
probably suffered the worst of them all, she knew that her confrontation
with her worst fears had hit her hard.  That much she could tell when she
had entered her friends mind a few hours ago.  Now along with her Elisa was
going to give Sinister a real lesson in fear, one that they would make sure
he wouldn't soon forget.  As they drew closer his expression of fear seemed
to intensify but then with no warning signs whatsoever he broke out in a
wide smile.  He was obviously insane, that much could be seen by his
genetic infatuation, so this change in moods was not disturbing in the
least.  Deep down inside her there was a part of Luna that was screaming to
turn around and check if there was anyone behind them.  Normally she would
give that screaming fragment of her mind some attention but now she was
only thinking about one thing.  That namely being "I wonder what he'll look
like once he's been clawed into dust?".  As a wave of nausea came over her
she thought that she should have taken the others advice but when she
noticed the others feeling the same way she knew something was wrong.  The
footsteps she heard behind her pretty much told her the basics, Sinister
had just pretended to be terrified so his mutant comrades could come to his
aide.  As her vision once again began to blur she could see Xanatos
struggling to raise the laser rifle and fire but he was having little luck.
	Xanatos was beginning to regret agreeing with the rest of them but it was
to late to start complaining now.  He had been fortunate to find a
primitive laser rifle in this place and right now he planned to put it to
good use.  He was reasonably sure of where he was and where the lady with
the tye-dye dress on was the only thing he was having trouble with was
keeping the rifle steady.  He would only have one shot before he attracted
much unwanted attention so he would have to make it a good one.  Taking
care to aim in the right spot he aimed at the ceiling above her and fired,
resulting a downpour of debris that thoroughly buried the blonde Vertigo.
Sinister's friends didn't give them time to regain composure as he was
immediately hit from behind by the second blonde brat whom he had heard
Sinister call Ruckus.  He hit the ground with a thud but fortunately it was
just the thing to clear the remaining cobwebs and get him rather angry.
Without moving a muscle in his upper body he swiped his feet along the
ground and took Ruckus' feet out from under him.  As soon as he heard the
gratifying thud he spun onto his back and brought the heel of his boot
straight down on the solar plexes of his foe.  Within a few seconds Xanatos
was on his feet and and poised over Ruckus with his gun aimed at the large
head of his.  Ruckus began to open his mouth but Xanatos had seen this
trick coming and immediately placed the business end of the rifle in the
punk's mouth.  "Go ahead!  Make my early morning!" he said in a "Don't mess
with me I'm in a bad mood" voice.  Ruckus definetly got the point as he
promptly put his hands up in the air.  Now if Xanatos had grown up to be
the sort of person that the public took him for,  he might have been
content with this situation but thanks to his years with the Illuminatie he
had learned otherwise.  Not wasting a second he immediately took the butt
end of the rifle and gave Ruckus a home run hit to the side of the head.
The weirdo slumped to the ground in a heap and Xanatos decided that he
would probably stay that way for the rest of the night.  Looking over at
the clan he saw that they were having little trouble subduing Sinister and
his hairy friend.  He wondered how the X-Men were doing with that ravager,
hopefully they were doing as well as he.
	Jubilee was about ready to just give up, fighting these ravagers seemed
hopeless.  For every one they knocked down one of the others just took it's
place.  Not only that but they were slowly adapting to every one of their
powers.  It had already managed to keep Wolverine at bay with an electric
force field and Cyclop's optic blasts were having about as much effect as
her fireworks were.  That still left Gambit and Storm to deal with but it
was only a matter of time before they were worn down by these things.  They
had to take care of the restructuring mechanism if they were going to put
an end to this.  Carefully she made her way over to Beast and hoped he had
a plan.  "Hank, you have an idea as to how to stop these things?" she asked
as she fired a few shots at the ravager.  "The restructuring program must
have a maintenance terminal somewhere in the installation" , he replied as
he tackled her to avoid a laser blast, "if I could simply access it I may
be able to shut it down, though I doubt our robotic host will allow us to
leave!"  He had a point but fortunately she had the solution right in the
palm of her hand so to speak.  "I have an idea, just get ready to run when
I yell" she said and immediately ran down in front of the ravager and began
blasting at it's head.  "Go Beast go!" she yelled with the tone of fear
present in her voice.  She didn't know if he went or not but she dared not
take her eyes of her target for a second.  She hoped that her light show
was giving Beast enough cover because if it didn't things were going to get
real messy real soon.  Out of nowhere one of it's arms came swinging down
at her and it was moving to fast for her to dodge it.  It hit her with the
force of the Juggernaut and sent her flying through the air.  Fortunately
Rogue was able to catch her before she hit the ground, to her dismay her
mind reminded her that she would be hitting the floor plenty of times
before the night was through.  After depositing her on the ground a fair
distance away Rogue flew back into battle.  In the background Jubilee could
hear the gargoyles fighting up a storm farther down the hall, especially
the one called Goliath.
	Goliath was still being careful of what he did even though he judged that
the battle was pretty much over.  Two of Sinister's minions had already
fallen to Xanatos and the remaining one was being kept occupied by the trio
and Bronx.  That left Hudson, Luna, Elisa, Angela and he against Sinister
himself.  At face value the odds would seem to be in their favor Sinister
was still a skilled warrior and was surprisingly able at keeping everyone
of them at bay.  Hudson was the first of the group to strike out against
Sinister, making a wide swipe with his sword.  The pale man sidestepped the
blow and once established handholds on both the sword and Hudson's arm
threw him halfway to where the X-Men were fighting.  Goliath wanted to go
to Hudson's aide but he couldn't leave Elisa and the others.  He could see
movement from the old  form of mentor and judged that he would live to see
another night.  It was now four to one which still gave them the edge but
he knew that it could be lost at any time.  Suddenly Sinister lashed out
with a blast from his hand which sent Luna rolling head over heels away
from the fight.  Elisa seemed to be particularly angered by this and lashed
out with her razor sharp talons, cutting straight through one of his arms
and sending it thudding to the ground.  Sinister screamed out in pain and
immediately leaned up against the wall, looking at the place where his arm
used to be.  "Whoa, talk about losing an arm!" Elisa exclaimed as she took
a few steps back.  Looking down at the arm Goliath found it odd that it was
not spasming from random nerve firing.  Upon closer inspection he saw that
the arm looked more inorganic then organic.  It looked like a sapphire
crystalline formation at  the point where  the arm ended.  From what he
could tell he just may have found a way to end this for good.  Checking
with Sinister's status he found that the scientist had just about recovered
but aside from the shock and pain he seemed relatively unimpaired.  That
was all he needed to know as he charged at the scarlet eyed villain intent
on a little rearranging of his anatomy.  As he began digging in with his
claws he could hear Elisa and Angela's shock as he slowly reduced Sinister
to nothing more than an appendage less body with a head.  Looking back at
the Angela and Elisa they looked as though they were about to hurl.
	Elisa was feeling very sick to her stomach at what she had just witnessed.
She had just seen Goliath literally tear Sinister limb from limb.  Once
finished he looked as calm as a cucumber, he looked at her as if nothing
had happened.  He had obviously noticed their worried glances and
immediately provided an answer.  "Do not worry Elisa, Angela, he is in no
danger of losing his life" Goliath said as he beckoned them to take a
closer look at the dismembered appendages.  She was afraid she'd see
something gross like a weird type of blood but instead she saw something
like what an arm broken off a statue.  No blood, no guts, nothing but
jagged edges and bumpy surface where the arm ended.  She was still a bit
leery about what was in front of her but she would be able to withstand it.
Angela looked a little less convinced but Elisa didn't think they'd be
seeing what she had to eat this evening.  "He is virtually made up of an
inorganic substance" , Goliath explained slowly, " so although he feels
pain he is in no danger of  dying so long as his head stays attached to his
body."  With her stomach satisfied she looked over to see that the trio and 
Bronx had dealt with their enemy quite handily.  An explosion down the
large hall told them that the battle was far from over so they immediately
charged away from the scene to aid their mutant friends.  As they
approached she could see that Cyclops and Jubilee were down but apparently
alive.  Not wasting any time she raised her hands in preparation for a
spell.  "Fallen 'bots torn away, heed my words for the day, strike with
anger like a fey, and rend him scrap with my ray" she chanted  as she aimed
for the remains of the destroyed ravagers.  Fortunately they hadn't changed
into iron so Elisa's magic did have an affect on the metal parts.  In a
storm worse than hail the metal parts flew through the air at the bulky
ravager.  She knew that the electric force field would stop most of the
debris but not all of it.  Soon there was a fair pile of junk at the
ravager's treads but the debris that had gotten through the force field had
turned it into one of the worlds largest pin cushions.  Suddenly it began
to move, Elisa couldn't believe it was still even partially operational.
"Hasta la vista baby!" yelled Xanatos as he brought his laser rifle up and
fired a clear straight beam through the ravagers head.
	Xanatos had always wanted to say a cliched phrase like that but could
never find the right opportunity or phrase most of the time.  After the
ravager fell to the ground, it's CPU turned into junk, everyone looked at
him with an astonished look on their faces.  He knew no explanation would
suffice so he simply smiled and shrugged at them all.  They accepted that
excuse for now but he had a feeling the trio would be taking cracks at him
about it later.  Their attention was only on him for a second as they
returned all their concentration on the ravager, waiting for it to
reassemble itself.  For a moment it seemed as though the battle between
them and the ravager would begin anew but just as it seemed to begin to
stand up it slumped down again.  "Guess Sinister made the mistake of using
duracell" remarked Brooklyn as he poked the ravager with his tail.
Everyone seemed to smile at that remark, after such along harsh night a
good laugh was priceless.  With everything now tended to all that remained
was contacting Owen back at the tower and getting a chopper out here on the
double.  The X-Men may have their own plane but he had a feeling that the
gargoyles were on the verge of collapsing.  He wasn't exactly in top
condition either and a relaxing helicopter ride home and a hot shower
afterwards sounded like heaven.  The sound of steel against stone
immediately drew everyone's attention back to the ravager but it was still
in the same limp position it had been in before.  Everyone relaxed once
they identified what they thought was the source of the sound but that
would prove to be a big mistake.  For they have repeated the mistake that
Xanatos made in the first rescue attempt "Never take you eyes off your
opponent" and unfortunately for them that was just the type of mistake that
could get someone killed
	"They will pay for this!" thought Sinister as he gazed upon his various
torn appendages on the floor.  Not only did they defeat him with little or
no trouble but they left him in a most unbecoming position.  Fortunately it
would seem that the X-Men failed to inform the gargoyles about the full
extent of his abilities.  Abilities that include being able to reform
himself if put in just such a position.  Slowly he began the reforming
process, turned his arms into a liquid and then guiding their path towards
him.  Like water trickling down a driveway came the black-purplish liquid
that were his two arms.  It was taking longer than usual but that was to be
expected since the damage was more extensive.  On past projects he had
gotten nothing more than a blast or two to the chest, which was easily and
instantly healed.  This was more extensive so it only made sense that it
would take longer.  A minute or two later his right arm was completely
reformed and back on his body, as was his left hand.  Now came the decision
as to how he would exact his revenge, would he attempt to get them all or
just get one which would hurt them dearly.  They had all hurt him
significantly but the cause of that pain had been the sorceress gargoyle
that he had risked everything to obtain.  He had been too greedy and it had
cost him dearly.  It was only logical that she be the one to pay the price,
the ultimate price for thwarting the will of Sinister.  He was pretty sure
that by now they had dealt with the remaining ravager so that only left the
possibility that there were still a few internal defences on-line.  Bring
his wrist band to eye level he brought up the nearest section security
layout and was pleased to see that there were three laser turrets still
on-line.  Bringing up the video displays of the miniature cameras he
quickly and swiftly aimed all three at the object of his hatred.  He had
them move all simotainiously so as to not draw any attention from his
oblivious target.  To insure complete success he activated the laser sights
on each turret for maximum accuracy and aimed all three at her heart.
Suddenly he saw that the gargoyle Luna had spotted the laser sights and was
beginning to run over to warn her comrade.  Refusing to fail yet again he
fired all of the lasers immediately, hoping that victory would yet be his.
	Luna's stomach and lower chest still ached from the blast that Sinister
had nailed her with but she knew that it was nothing a bit of stone sleep
couldn't cure.  After she had recovered and discovered what Goliath had
done to Sinister she felt her stomach do a complete flip at the sight of a
dismembered body.  When they had heard the commotion of the X-Men's battle
with the ravager she had been overjoyed that the disgusting and gross sight
was no more in her line of sight.  When they had arrived on the scene it
had appeared that they had arrived just in time, the X-Men were managing to
hold their own but they had begun to take on casualties.  She was about to
try and get airborne but when a emerald glow sprung from Elisa's hands she
knew that it would be unnecessary.  Luna watched in pride as she saw her
student's spell reach fruition.  Elisa had been steadily improving in her
mystic abilities over the past two weeks and to see such a magnificent
display of her magical prowess made Luna surge with pride.  A few more
lessons and she would be a match for any child of Oberon, maybe a
formidable opponent for Oberon himself.  "Now, now Luna!  Let's not get too
arrogant, she may be a skilled sorceress but she was still just a mortal
and that gave Oberon all the edge he needs" thought Luna as she shook her
head.  Looking over at Elisa she grinned at the improvement that had been
done over her original form, no longer the mortal detective but instead a
skilled gargoyle sorceress of formidable strength.  Just then she noticed
something strange, she could see faintly three red dots fixed on a spot on
her back.  Suddenly she knew what they were, laser sights and where there
was laser sights there was usually a laser.  Wasting not even a millisecond
she immediately broke into a sprint and raced across the hall towards
Elisa.  Back in Norway she watched both her sisters die because she could
do nothing to prevent it.  Now that she could do something she would not
allow herself sit by and watch as another sister perished in front of her.
Once she came within five feet of Elisa  she could see the lasers were
seconds away from firing so in one tremendous leap she tackled her clan
sister.  The joy of her victory was short lived as three quick stabs of
heat struck her back.  Then suddenly all the fear and pain of tonight's
adventure began to fade and even when she saw Elisa's sorrowful gaze she
could not help but feel at peace.
	"LUNA!" screamed Elisa as she gazed down at her clan sisters smoking back.
Not wanting to believe what her soul was telling her she cradled her
friend's limp body.  Her mind was all a flutter, thoughts were racing
around faster then she could comprehend them.  Looking around her for the
source of her sorrow she could see the X-Men and the clan destroying the
laser turrets, the apparent source of the blow.  Jean Grey ran quickly to
her side and indicated to Elisa that she needed to examine the wounds.
Slowly she complied, frightened that any quick movements would cause
further injury.  Blood was flowing from the wounds, burned with a black
perimeter showing where they hit.  It seemed to take forever for Jean to
conclude her examination, like she was purposely trying to avoid giving a
diagnosis.  She knew the feeling well, she had felt the same way soon after
her brother had been turned into a mutate.  She had avoided telling her
parents and sister for quite a while but eventually decided that it was
time.  This was hitting her with the force of a pick-up truck, although she
hadn't known Luna for very long there was still a sister like bond between
them.  In between patrols and nights with Goliath she had enjoyed talking
and learning from her.  Elisa knew that Luna enjoyed it just as much if not
moreso.  Seeing her like this with death's dagger hanging over her was
nothing less than torture.  Finally she noticed Jean raising her head and
intently awaiting the diagnosis.  Even before the X-Man opened her mouth
she knew what it was, the expression on her face already told her what the
verdict was.  "I'm sorry, she's not going to make it." said Jean as she got
up to leave.  Pain and anguish filled Elisa's soul, Jean's words burned in
her like a white hot poker.  She searched through her knowledge of spells
and sorcery for a way to save Luna.  Some spell that would heal her and let
her live to see another night but she could find none.  Then a spell
appeared out of nowhere in her mind and made all her sorrow and pain vanish
in the blink of an eye.  Goliath immediately sensed this change in her mood
and asked "what is it my love?"
	It was indeed a sad day for Goliath and his clan, for they were about to
lose one of their own.  It hurt him deeper then most because he felt that
he had somehow failed as leader of the clan.  Failed to notice the lasers
being activated and aimed at Elisa, if he had perhaps all this tragedy
could have been avoided.  At least they had taken care of the lasers
responsible for the villainous act, so as to prevent further tragedy.  The
pain and sorrow present on Elisa's tender visage caused his heart to ache
even more.  He knew of the human bond between family members and knew it to
be as strong as any natural instinct.  To see her clan sister in such a
state must be putting her though untold levels of pain.  Suddenly the
expression on Elisa's face changed, from one of sadness to one of hope.
"What is it my love?" he asked with concern.  "I just may have found the
key to Luna's salvation, I just hope it's not already too late" Elisa said
as she quickly got to her feet.  "What is she talking about?" asked Rogue
with a look of sheer confusion on her face.    "Donna is skilled in the
ways of sorcery, she must have found a spell to save her sister" Goliath
explained as Elisa slowly floated a few feet off the ground.  "Is there
anything we can do?" asked Jean as she watched in amazement at his angel's
gradual ascent.  "There is nothing you can do, it is what I must do" ,
Elisa said in a vice almost god like, "I am not sure if I am skilled enough
to accomplish this safely so I will teleport you all back to Xanatos'
tower."  "What about the ravagers and Sinister?" asked Angela as she looked
at the devastated remains of the ravagers.  "Luna and I will deal with them
if I am successful and if not I will deal with Sinister and his miscreants
personally" answered Elisa and with a quick wave of her hand Goliath was
blinded by a bright flash of emerald light.  When his eyes were freed from
the barrage of light he was startled to see that they were all back at the
castle.  Even the X-Men's planes had made it back in one piece.  Owen soon
strode from the doorway and immediately went to Xanatos' side.  "Sir I am
relieved to see you are all right, I had doubts as to Ms. Wyvern's ability
to rescue you" Burnett said as he took out his cellular phone.  "I wasn't
worried, what I am worried about is what she may do to Sinister if her
attempt to save Luna fails" Xanatos said as he gazed in the general
direction of the installation.
	Luna felt at peace, for once in her life she had nothing to worry about.
Just peace and quiet for all eternity.  She would miss her friends and the
other children of Oberon, she might even miss Puck.  Her little imp of a
brother had been a nuisance over the past millennia or two but still he was
the kind of person you just loved to hate.  She would definetly miss her
parents, Lord Oberon and Lady Titania, they had made her into what she was
today and she had nothing but gratitude for them.  The people she would
probably miss most of all were the gargoyles but especially she would miss
Elisa.  Before she had been changed into a gargoyle she had thought of her
as nothing more that a focal point of destiny, one focal point among many.
She had caught her first glimpse into Elisa's true character soon after the
defeat of Loki atop the tallest tower of castle Wyvern.  She expected the
normal amount of gratitude for saving but she had not expected her to
invite her into the clan.  The gesture had caught her totally off guard but
she was able to maintain her usual calmness.  In the weeks that followed
she had come to know Elisa well and enjoyed every moment they spent
together.  She would miss Elisa but took comfort in the fact that her
friend and sister would survive.  Suddenly a tingle of life swept through
her body as a wave of what she recognised as avalonic energy.  With that
energy flowing between her she could find out what was going on.  With her
strength fading fast  establishing a link was almost impossible to do and
keeping it was even harder.  Delving into the sorcerer's mind she
discovered to her surprise that it was Elisa and that Elisa's energy level
was reaching it's peak output.  "Elisa, what are you doing?" she thought
as she tried to discover what her friend was attempting.  "I am trying to
save you , so shut up and conserve your strength" was Elisa's response as
she severed the telepathic link.  Fortunately Luna was able to retrieve a
fragment of what Elisa was thinking about.  Luna was shocked as never
before at the spell she saw before her and urgently tried to stop Elisa.
The spell she was going to attempt was to dangerous and could result in
both their deaths.  "Elisa, stop!!" she screamed in her mind.
	Elisa felt as though she would explode, it took extreme concentration like
never before to maintain control over it.  Her eyes were almost blinded by
the amount of energy that was surrounding her.  She remember seeing Puck
and several of the other children of Oberon cast spells as difficult as
these.  It was just about tearing her apart but when Puck was performing
the magic he looked as cool as a cucumber. Never before had she been forced
to concentrate like this.  Even when she had been in collage and was
studying for her mid-terms she was allowed to take a break but in this she
dared not.  Luna was already fading but if Elisa lost control of the energy
flow between them the overload would kill her instantly and Luna along with
her.  She was just about ready to begin the start-up phase of the spell and
just hoped that she would be able to pull it off.  Slowly she focused the
energy and lifted Luna's limp form into the air, bringing her to an
elevation equal to hers.  Being careful not to lose the focus and drop her
she opened her mouth for the incantation. "Across the mists of space and
time, I pose this covenant most sublime, give her this gift for all time,
bonding her spirit with a part of mine, we are bonded forever more, and let
this save you from death's dark door!!"  she chanted sending her voice
echoing throughout the hall.  The incantation complete all that Elisa could
do was ride it out.  At first all she could feel was a sort of joining of
energy, like two rivers joining to form one single continuous loop.  That
was roughly when the soothing sensations ceased and she was bombarded with
pain.  Feelings of being torn apart followed, making death seem almost
preferable to this.  "C-c-can't g-give u-up!  G-got to s-save L-Luna!" she
thought as she redoubled her efforts to block out the pain.  Then an
astonishing thing happened, random thoughts began to pour into her mind.
"E-Elisa h-h-hang on!" was one of them and was followed by other thoughts
but they were in such a jumble so as to be practically incoherent.  Elisa
wasn't exactly sure what was happening but she had a funny feeling that the
spell was working.  Unfortunately the approaching darkness seemed to have
other plans for them as darkness sheathed her from the world once more.
	Sinister wasn't yet sure what was going on but he was pretty sure that it
would be a mistake to stay.  He had pretty much managed to reconnect his
legs but was still making the last few internal connections.  Looking up at
the shimmering mass of energy suspending the two gargoyles in the air he
couldn't help stare in awe at the spectacle.  What he was witnessing went
against everything he knew, everything he believed in with regards to
science.  "Now is not the time to be debating the laws of physics" he
thought to himself as he assessed the status of his minions.  Hair bag was
beginning to come around as was Ruckus but the state of Vertigo was
unknown.  Deciding that she was still of use to him he began to blast off
the debris, eventually revealing her unconscious form.  Slinging her over
his shoulder he turned to see that Ruckus and hairbag were awake and on
their feet.  "Ohhh!  What hap'ened bos'?" , hairbag asked as he rubbed his
forehead, "wher' are da X-Men an dose gargoyles?"  "Gone except for those
two, probably back at Xanatos' skyscraper" , he replied heading for the
door, " I haven't the time to explain what exactly happened but suffice it
to say it's in our best interests to beat a hasty retreat."  Once the two
dolts caught sight of the mass of energy they agreed with him and followed
him.  Five minutes later they reached their plane outside and climbed on
board extra fast thanks to the motivation that was still in the
installation.  Soon the engines ignited and they sped off in a
south-southwest direction at roughly mach 3.  Bringing up a rear view of
the plane from a video camera he watched as the installation slowly shrink
from sight.  This was going to cost him significantly in the short run, not
only had he lost his alias as Dr. Essex but also the installation and quite
a few ravagers.  "Ah well, I'm sure I can require the ravagers eventually"
, he thought to himself as he sat back in his seat, "as for the
installation, the equipment is expendable and the hair-trigger virus should
take care of sensitive information left behind." Suddenly a stunning flash
of light lit up the sky blinding everyone in the cockpit for a few seconds.
Once he had recovered his sight he looked at the video feed and couldn't
believe what he was seeing.  The entire installation had vanished and in
it's place was little more than a smoking crater.  "Ahhh well at least I
don't have to worry about those two gargoyle vixens anymore" , thought
Sinister as he shook his head in disappointment, "nothing could have
survived that blast.  Still its a pity Luna had to die, who knows what I
could have learned from her?"
	Luna moaned as she slowly sat up, still considering how close she had come
to dying she wasn't complaining.  A similar moan from a few feet in front
of her confirm Elisa was in approximately the same condition.  Although he
was still a little wobbly on her feet she managed to walk over to Elisa and
help her to her feet.  "That's the last time I try something this dangerous
again" rang Elisa's voice through Luna's head.  Luna was so startled by
this that she almost let go of her arm, sending crashing back to the floor.
Apparently the spell was a success, not only in the sense that both of
them had survived but like the spell stated they were now bound together in
spirit.  Thus they could hear each others thoughts almost instantly, as
though they had been born that way.  Still unsure of things Luna decided to
experiment a bit with this newfound ability.  "Elisa, can you hear my
thoughts?" she thought as she watched the black haired gargoyle for a
reaction.  She didn't have to wait long, as soon as she finished the
thought Elisa backpedalled with her eyes as wide as ping pong balls.
Deciding that it would probably take a mortal such as Elisa a while to get
used to hearing thoughts of this type she changed to a more vocal form of
communication.  "It's okay Elisa, I was just testing a theory I had" , she
said out loud in an effort to calm her comrade down, "apparently the spell
you cast has made a bridge between our two minds allowing us to hear one
another's thoughts."  The explanation she had dealt seemed to calm her down
for the most part but she was still a bit in shock, her hanging mouth
proved that much.  "Close your mouth mortal, you're catching flies" she
snapped as she pushed Elisa's jaw closed.  That little crack seemed to have
done the trick as a grin came over Elisa's face and was followed by a big
hug.  "Yes, yes, I'm glad to see you too!" , she said as she pushed Elisa
away, "but let's save this stuff until after we deal with Sinister and his
mindless cretins!"  Elisa was reluctant but eventually let go, she quickly
wiped the tears away and regained composure.
	"Speaking of whom just where is that sicko!?" Elisa said bitterly as she
looked around the room.  She looked to where she had last seen him but he
was nowhere to be found.  Since last time she saw him he was nothing more
than a head attached to limbless body she assumed that one of his pals must
have woken up and dragged him off.  "Oh damn!  He got away!" , Luna said
with eyes of fire, "and I so wanted to dig for his breakfast!"  Elisa could
sympathise with her white haired matron.  After all he had just tortured
her clan by putting through several painful experiments.  Xanatos no doubt
wanted him so that he could sue him for the damages both personal and
physical.  The X-Men probably just wanted him to stand trial in court for
his crimes.  Not much chance of finding him now since she had no idea just
how long they had been unconcious.  "Since we can't take our anger out on
Sinister himself lets take it out on the next best thing, namely his
assets" Luna said as she grinned in a manner most mischievous as she eyed
the scattered ravagers.  Although it would be nowhere near as satisfying as
tearing Sinister limb from limb she felt she could satisfy her rage as Luna
had suggested.  Luna stood close to her and they both prepared for one
final spell.  "Place of torture most unjust, over this be a large fuss, as
we leave this lewd place, make it vanish from this place!" she chanted and
in one blinding flash of light they opened their eyes to find them back at
the castle courtyard.  They were not even allowed to talk as they were
immediately greeted by friends old and new.  They were happy to see that
both Luna and her had made it back in one piece along with Luna's amazing
discovery.  Elisa eyed Owen by the doorway and knew what had to be done
now.  After making her way past the "welcome backs" and "glad to see you in
one piece she was finally able to get to Xanatos' major domo.  She could
feel a bit of reluctance in her being but firmly took off Odin's
bracelet-like object and gave it to Owen.  "Thank you miss Wyvern, I'll see
these to their proper spot" he said and then walked inside.  Turning around
she could see that the X-Men were preparing to leave so she decided that
she had better move it if she wanted to say her goodbyes to Jubilee and the
rest.
	"What a night!" Jubilee exclaimed as fatigue began to take over.  She knew
that she would never forget what she had seen tonight, not even if she
lived to be a hundred.  She had seen acts of sorcery, giant killer robots,
creatures that had remained hidden from the world for untold years and a
device capable of time travel.  Had she known that she would have this much
fun going to that movie theatre she would have gone sooner.  Looking off
the side of the building she could see the sky begin to lighten up and the
blackness of night begin to fade.  "Come it has been a long night and its
time for us to sleep" Goliath said as he began to walk toward the main
tower.  This brought up a question in her mind "why are they going up to
the tower if they want to sleep?"  She was about to follow when Xavier
glided in her way and stopped her.  "Jubilee, you and the X-Men remain down
here" , Xavier said with a look of pure seriousness, "I need to speak with
Donna alone and I don't think she would be  comfortable if there weren't so
many people up there."  Reluctantly she nodded and stayed put as the
Professor followed the gargoyles into the tower.  She was puzzled a bit by
Xavier's order but not so much as to ask him about it.  With a sigh and a
large pout on her face she stood and waited for the Prof to return, hoping
that he would share what he learned later.  Looking up the tall pillar she
watched as the gargoyles sat on the stone platforms.  Donna, Luna and
Goliath on the top and the rest one level down.  She was able to tell when
the Professor arrived when the three gargoyles of the top floor turned
their head to meet him.  She couldn't quite hear what they were talking
about but it was pretty clear to her that it was pretty important and
involved Donna.  About ten minutes later the Professor returned from the
tower and floated right on past her towards the Blackbird.  "Well
Professor, did you find out what happened to Detective Maza?" asked Cyclops
walked by the Prof's side.  "Yes I did" was all Xavier said.  "Where is
she?" Jubilee asked as she ran up to the lead with Xavier.  "That I cannot
reveal Jubilee, it is a secret only Donna has the right to tell" replied
the Professor with a tone of finality to it. Jubilee knew that it was the
Professor's sign that he would not reveal any more about the discussion he
had with the three gargoyles.  She hoped he would tell her later but she
doubted it.  The whereabouts of Elisa Maza would apparently remain a secret
for as long as Donna kept it one.
	Elisa for one would be welcome the stone sleep with an added enjoyment.
Her body felt like lead weights as did her head.  Obviously the spell she
had cast was one of the tougher ones so it was only logical that she would
be tired afterwards.  Just as she was about to strike the pose she would be
frozen in for the day she whirled around to see Professor Xavier come up
the stairs in his chair.  "What do you want Professor?" she asked although
she knew exactly what he would say.  "I would like to ask you if you know
where Detective Elisa Maza is?" , Xavier asked in a calm neutral way, "That
was my main reason for trying to locate your clan, she has been missing for
several days."  Now came the tough decision for Elisa, did she dare trust
the man with her secret.  Xavier had been in her mind and heard Xanatos
slip already, that would be enough to keep the telepath asking about it for
a while.  "You can trust him Elisa for he has secrets of his own we can
use" came Luna's voice in her mind.  She was probably right, Luna probably
knew all about Xavier so if things turned bad they would be well armed.  "I
will tell you Charles Xavier but you must promise to keep it a secret for
the rest of your days" she said with seriousness.  "I promise" he said.
Taking a deep breath Elisa prepared in her mind what she was going to say.
"I am Elisa Maza, I was transformed into a gargoyle after being bombarded
with mystic energies from the sphere of Titania while investigating a
robbery at the museum" she explained while she kept a close eye on his
expression, "in the course of trying to retrieve the sphere from the
perpetrators I was forced to destroy it in order to prevent countless
deaths."  For a while all he seemed to do was just sit there, looking at
her as if it would have something to add.  "It must have been very hard for
you to do" he said as he held her hand compassionately.  "It was but the
things I stood to lose outweighed the things I stood to gain" , she said as
she gazed at Goliath for a few moments, "and some things I just couldn't
bare to part with at all."  With a nod Xavier said "I understand, if you
ever want to talk about it I would be glad to help, I know what it's like
to suddenly be different."  "Thanks, I'll consider it" she said as she
began to walk  over to join Goliath.
	Goliath's body ached with the stress and torment he had endured over the
past couple of hours.  Fortunately sunrise was just a few minutes away and
he would be healed when next he was awake.  He knew it had been hard for
Elisa having her human life stripped from her but it wasn't until she said
it now that he realised just how hard.  "Elisa how do you feel?" he asked
her as she jumped up on her perch.  "Glad to be home and soon to be asleep"
she replied as she tried to fix her hair.  "No I mean how do you feel about
no longer being human and having to confront your family with it" he said
as he tried to look sincerely concerned.  It took a while longer for her to
answer this but like the strong individual he knew she was an answer soon
came from her lips.  "I can deal with no longer being a cop and having to
live here, my feelings for you make up for that loss" , she said with
slight depression, " as for confronting my family with my new life I'm not
sure if I want to tell them."  He was glad to see how strong Elisa's love
for him was but he knew as a parent that Diane and Peter Maza deserved to
know.  He prodded her into explaining why with a puzzled look on his face
and like a charm it goaded her into responding.  "I'm afraid of what  they
may think of me and what trouble they may get in if anyone else finds out"
, she said as she gazed at the horizon, "I would rather keep them in the
dark then have to face those fears, see their reaction to me."  With the
reason now exposed it was Goliath's job to try and help her resolve it,
otherwise this problem could be trouble for her later.  "Elisa, your
parents love you no matter what form you take or what may happen because of
it" , he said as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "whether
human or gargoyle you are still Elisa Maza and they will love you either
way, I know I always have."  A smile on her face confirmed his success as
she then said "thanks Goliath."  He smiled and nodded in acknowledgment, he
knew what she was trying to say.  "I don't mean to interrupt but the suns
gonna pop up soon so you tow better get ready" Luna said as she nudged him
in the side.
	The sun was almost up and Luna for one was glad that it was finally here.
She ached all over, she even ached in places she didn't know she had.  Pain
was definetly one of the drawbacks to being a mortal but it was just one
among the many things in her now mortal life.  Still she needed to try and
follow Elisa's example, think positive thoughts and stay away from the
negative if possible.  Looking over what had happened in the past ten ours
or so it wasn't completely bad.  For one thing she was able to gain more
combat experience which would help her face the lesser enemies with added
skill.  She had been able to pay back Sinister for the pain he had put her
through by taking a bite out of him financially.  They had all made some
new friends out of the X-Men and Elisa's mystical prowess had reached a new
level of excellence.  It was a good thing that Oberon had ordered Puck to
equip Elisa with Odin's old toys, they never would have been able to beat
Sinister without them.  She found it encouraging that Oberon would show
such concern over her, especially after breaking one of his most
fundamental laws.  She wondered if he mentioned anything to Elisa about
perhaps allowing her to have more freedom with her powers or anything else
positive about her.  "Elisa, when Oberon had Puck give you Odin's bracelets
did he say anything about me in particular?" she asked vocally to her clan
sister.  She had expected a quick answer but she hadn't expected a puzzled
look to accompany it.  "Oberon never gave Puck any orders, he never even
showed his face tonight" , Elisa said in reply, "Owen simply took me down
to a enormous vault and gave me the bracelets."  That didn't make sense, if
Oberon didn't tell Puck to give Elisa the bracelets then that would mean
that Puck did it of his own free will!  Before she could say another word
the sun rose and stone sleep silenced her for the day.

						 Epilogue

	Xanatos ached like never before and was ready to just jump into bed and
sleep the entire day away.  Fox had waited for him the entire night so they
were both eager to hit the sack and catch some z's.  He was just about to
close his eyes when Owen entered the room with a most unusually worried
look on his face, this made him afraid.  When in his Owen persona Puck
never showed any emotion whatsoever, to seem in such a state worried him
just as much as his major domo.  "What is it Owen, what's wrong?" he asked
as he got out of the bed.  "I have some dire news Mr. Xanatos, news which
could mean dire consequences for everyone" , Owen replied as he retrieved
some cloth from his blazer pocket, " do you remember the man who escaped
from Angela, Hudson and Bronx earlier this evening?"  Xanatos didn't like
where this discussion was headed one little bit.  He had had a bad feeling
before the party when he felt as though someone was watching him.  "Yes,
what about it?" he replied hoping this wasn't going where he thought it was
going.  "On the way back to the main vault in the sub-basement the security
detail was attacked by an unidentified assailant and were all killed" ,
Owen said  as worried as ever, "when reinforcements arrived the temporal
gateway was gone, container and all."  This was exactly why he had wanted
extra security, to prevent the gate from falling into evil hands.  "Do we
have any clue as to who may have stolen it?" he asked hoping it was some
gangster that he could easily track down and deal with.  "Yes sir but I am
afraid it does not improve things significantly" Owen replied and tossed
the cloth he had been holding to Xanatos.  He caught it easily and
immediately began to examine it.  He could see where perpetrators blood had
soaked through, obviously one of the guards had been able to get a shot or
two in.  It was apparently a mask of some sort, mostly black but when he
turned it around to see it's front his heart sank and a look of definite
concern covered his face.  "Owen talk to every source, mole and spy we have
in the city, I want to find him before he gets a chance to use the gate" he
said and threw the mask on the bed and left the room.
	Looking at the mask briefly you would probably fail to see anything
significant and would wonder why Xanatos was so worried about this bit of
evidence.  If we take a closer look at the mask we would see it had two
slits for eyes.  The part that identified it to Xanatos was the four red
streaks that covered the front of the mask.  Streaks that were only
interrupted by the eye slits.  Upon even closer examination you might think
that the streaks had a jagged look to them, as if they had been made by the
slash of a wild animal.  Were these marks from the fight? No, these were
woven in using red cloth.  Put all the facts together and there can be no
doubt, the Hunter John Cannmore had stolen the temporal gate.

The End