Species: Human-Gargoyle Hybrid
Gender: Female
First Appearance: "Daddy's Girl" by Christi Smith Hayden
Other Appearances: "The Last Gargoyle," "Lex And The Party Girls," "Trick Or Treat," "Deep In The Heart," "Lex Sings The Blues," "Avery's Bad Day," "Mockingbird," "Road Trip," "Some Enchanted Evening," "Angry Young Gargoyle," "Lost And Found," "Little Blessings," "Despair And Deliverance," "Rockaway At Midnight," "Faith," "Impossible Dream," & "Home For The Holidays" by Christi Smith Hayden.
Created by: Christi Smith Hayden
Bloodline: Daughter of Spike a.k.a. Garnet Doyle, a nomadic gargoyle,
and Deanne Bishop, a human; plus aunts, uncles, and
more cousins than you can shake a stick at.
Status: Employed as a nanny for Alexander Xanatos and the clan's rookery keeper.
Avery hails from Shackelford County, Texas where she was born on the
Bishop family ranch in 1970. Her conception was serendipity; her parents,
Spike, a gargoyle who thought he was the last of his kind, and Deanne Bishop,
a Texas-bred ballerina,
were honeymooning near some Native American ritual sites consecrated
to Coyote. That, combined with the Memory Stone,
a magical talisman linked to Spike's bloodline, led to Avery being born.
She had a deliriously happy childhood until the age of six, when a zealous
fundamentalist learned of Spike's existence and invaded the ranch. Reverend
Enoch Jones shattered Spike in his stone sleep right before Avery's eyes,
and nearly stoned her to death before her uncles and their ranch hands
intervened. She displayed one of the first quirks of her hybrid nature;
falling into a
comatose state where her injuries healed slowly over time.
This experience taught Avery the value of hiding who and what was she
was, and she became very good at it. She chose her
friends carefully, telling them only as much of the truth as she thought
they could handle, revealing her secret to only a chosen few, such as her
college room mate, Natty Jones. Back on the ranch, she learned to fly on
her own, studying eagles and hawks in flight and duplicating their movements.
As result, she has an unconventional flying style compared to the other
gargoyles.
Her love of children lead her to being an au pair in college and later
obtaining her license as a nanny. Avery also toyed
with the idea of going into the medical field, completing a training
as an emergency medical technician. She spent several years working as
a nanny around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area before her mother was diagnosed
with a rare form of leukemia,
which was suspected of being genetically linked. She returned home
to Bishop Ranch to tend her mother until her death.
It was during the period of mourning that followed that Avery heard
about the discovery of gargoyles in New York City. She
decided that she would take up her father's dream of finding others
of their kind and packed her bags. The rest is history.
When Avery debuted, she made quite an impression on everyone she met,
from the Xanatos family to the gargoyles to Hyena
and Jackal. It took a few months for her to feel
she could trust the residents of the Eyrie Building enough to reveal her
secret. By that time, Avery and Brooklyn
had fallen in love.
Subsequently, she revealed her story to the clan, or rather that of her parents. Using her suitcase of family treasures - videos, pictures and recordings - she told the clan about her father, Spike. He had been a lonesome wanderer, convinced he was the last gargoyle until he made a friend one dark and rainy night. The events that followed led to him finding love with an understanding woman and eventually to Avery's birth. She also gave an early look into her extended family in Texas.
Avery and the Manhattan clan spent Christmas in Texas. Everything would
have been just fine if the leader of the local Quarrymen,
Enoch Jones, hadn't decided to invade Bishop Ranch. The Bishops rallied
to defeat them, using homegrown ingenuity and cowboy know-how. As a special
Christmas treat, Avery used the Memory Stone to summon the ghost of her
father, Spike, to show him that she finished his quest for him. Brooklyn
asked her to be his mate, with Spike's blessing.
Sometime later, when Avery had a bad day, she got to show off Avery's redneck temper when she went head-to-head with Demona. It wasn't pretty.
Soon thereafter, several milestones occured in Avery's life. She celebrated her 27th birthday, chaperoned Lex to a graduation, and showed her willingness to fight for the clan. When Goliath, Broadway, and Brooklyn were captured by the Quarrymen, she and Lex joined forces with her uncle Leroy and his squad of Navy Seals to raid the secret lab where the guys were being held. All this - and finding out she was pregnant too.
While Owen Burnett and Natty Jones went on a sort of date, Avery was injured in trying to protect Alex from the Weird Sisters.
Tragic events occurred a few months later, as Avery's cousin Dennis
was diagnosed with leukemia, and a fight for his life ensued. A compatible
bone marrow donor was found but unfortunately, she was a pregnant hybrid
gargoyle. In the meantime, the Hatchlings - Omaha, Austin and Moraine,
rescued as eggs from the Quarryman lab where the Manhattan clan had been
imprisoned earlier- were born during this time period. Shortly thereafter,
Avery went into early labor and her son, Crim, was
born.
Avery seemed to sink into the background for a time, but became a key player again more recently. She dreamt of a world where her father, Spike, had never died, and was later transferred into the Bishop ranch of 2039 by a misfiring curse cast by Demona, where she had a bittersweet view of her future. She passed the Memory Stone to her daughter, Harley, before returning to her own time.
Avery is ninety-eight pounds of pure spunk. She is generally good-natured
with a wry sense of humor and keeps her head,
seldom losing her temper or flying into a panic. Years of hiding have
taken their toll however; she is an intensely private person, reluctant
to completely open up, even to her own mate. Although she does not lie,
she also does not tell the complete
truth. She has never completely gotten over the childhood trauma of
her father's death and when a gargoyle's life is threatened, will fight
to save them as she could not save her father.
Avery posesses the typical abilities of gargoyles, with a few differences.
As mentioned above, her style of flight is different in
nature than that of other gargoyles, being closer to true flight than
gliding. She does not turn to stone during the day, but when she is severely
hurt, she enters into a comatose state, one wherein she heals at an accelerated
rate. This state is not broken until she is fully recovered. Her claws
and talons are not as tough as those of 'pure' gargoyles, and she has no
prehensile tail.
Avery is remarkably human-looking in appearance. She has a light peach
complexion with lavender undertones and honey blond hair, worn long to
conceal her pointed ears and nubby brow ridge. Her wings are lavender,
deepening in color on the back. They are five-fingered bat-type wings;
one wing 'thumb' on the spar with four webbing 'fingers' giving her an
extra
section of webbing compared to other gargoyles on her wing type. This,
combined with her small size (5'2'', 98 lbs.), makes her one of the fastest
gargoyles in the clan.