When The Brook Grows Cold

By: Tidota Eru

Ch.1: The Spell

It was a calm and starless night in the beautiful city of Manhatten. The sky as covered in thick grey clouds of yesterday's resulting rain. A hole peeped through the clouds displaying the bright full moon in all it's shining glory. Glowing red eyes from an old abandoned tower stared at it's radiance and quickly focused back to a small silver dart reflecting the moon's rays.

Demona breathed in the burning insense of the candles lit around the room. A feeling of power coursed through her bones as she prepared herself for the spell she was about to cast. Lying on a small red pillow, just in front of her, was a mystical looking silver dart with an end more piercing than a needle.

Demona had to cast this spell very carefully or else it could turn on her. Removing the contents of a rusty old jar on one of the selves she sprinkled the contents over the dart making it glow a deep shade of blue. Taking a deep breath Demona began to cast her spell.

"Transform the creature struck by this dart,

And may his monster form start.

When the moon rises at the dart's will,

He will do nothing but kill,"

Everything grew still for a moment as Demona stopped. One by one, the flames from the candles started going out as if a huge gust of wind was trying to quench thier fire. Demona's eyes turned back down on the dart noticing that deep blue glow that had surround it earlier changed to an eerie black.

Grinning the flame-haired gargoyle picked up the dart and put it in her flight pouch. Pumping her majestic wings Demona jumped out of the broken tower window and glided of into the night in search of her prey.

"Prepare yourself my love" she whispered as she flew "cause you're in for a spell-tacular time,"

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Meanwhile...

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"You got to be kidding me" said Brooklyn to the two bank robbers standing a few feet in front of him "is this all you guys got?"

One of the bank robbers drew out his gun and signaled for his partner to do the same. Whatever this freak was they were going to take him down hard. Seeing the guns muzzles pointed at his head Brooklyn knew there was no way he could dodge both of the bullets. He was dead meat for sure.

"Goodnight freak," said the first bank robber as he pulled the trigger.

Brooklyn cringed at the sound as the gun fired. A sharp pain cut across his leg and he looked down to see a long deep stracth with a thin trail of blood gushing out from it. Breathing a sigh of relief Brooklyn thought "Just a stracth. This guy must have bad aim. I wonder how Goliath and Lexington are handling thier getaway van?"

Only just a few minutes ago Brooklyn had been flying on patrol with Lexington and Goliath. When the National Bank alarm sounded the three gargoyles imedately went to investigate. Turns out a high-class bank robbery was in process by the time they got thier. With a get-away van and everything.

Brooklyn volunteered to take care of the two bank robbers inside while Goliath and Lexington tried to disable the van. Eyes glowing white Brooklyn lashed out his whip-like tail at the two back robbers trying to ignore the sreech of pain coming from his thigh. The robber may have missed his intended target, but he had caused Brooklyn some pain either way.

His tail swept past the robbers heads as the two men ducked to aviod being crushed by his gaint tail. A stone pillar standing as one of the supports for the bank building got hit instead and broke into a thousand stone pieces.

A blood-chilling roar escaped from Brooklyn's beak scaring the two bank robbers out of their wits that they ran outside and striaght into the arms of the cops.

"There's a monster in there!" said the first bank robber "with glowing white eyes and scary white teeth,"

"Take us to jail" begged the second bank robber "anything. Just take us away from here,"

The cops gladly obliged and took the robbers into custody. One cop in particular named Elisa Maza looked up towards the bank's rooftop to see a red, beaked gargoyle with his flowing white hair shining in the night. She smiled as she saw the gargoyle give her a thumbs up before he glided off into the night.

Returning the gesture Elisa went back to work at reading the prisoners their constitutional rights while at the same time thanking the red gargoyle for help he gave in thier capture.

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A few moments later Brooklyn was back with Goliath and Lexington heading for the way home. As Brooklyn finished telling them what he had been doing Lexington piped up.

"I can't believe we missed those guys getting captured" said Lexington his vioce getting curious "what did you do to those guys anyway,"

"I roared and they ran striaght to the cops," said Brooklyn grinning as he remembered that moment.

"We only have one more sector to check and then we'll call it a night," said Goliath.

Everything was silent for a moment as the three gargoyles glided through the night. Brooklyn relaxed as he felt the wind beneath his wings suddenly become smooth. Taking a glance over his shoulder Brooklyn's eyes grew wide and the silence was broken by his voice shouting "Goliath look out!"

Responding instinctively at his second in commands voice Goliath dodged just in time to aviod a speeding Demona weilding a silver dart in her hand. A angry growl escaped from Demona's mouth at the failure of missing her target.

Brooklyn, just now recogonizing Demona, roared and charged straight at the red-haired gargoyle. Demona and Brooklyn were not exactly the best of friends. The two gargoyles hated each other. But when push comes to shove Brooklyn had the most reason to hate.

Not to long ago Demona had tricked Brooklyn to bring her the Grimorum and cast a spell to gain control over Goliath's mind. Ever since that moment Brooklyn held a deep hatred for Demona that made him instantly attack her on sight.

Grabbing Demona's hands Brooklyn reached for the dart saying "What you got there Demona? Trying to get Goliath under your control again?"

"None of your business," growled Demona struggling to get free of Brooklyn's grip. The red, beaked gargoyle seemed to get stronger as he got angrier, but Demona still wriggled loose from his grasp.

Pulling out a dart blower from her pouch Demona loaded the silver dart and took aim at Goliath.

"Goliath!" yelled Brooklyn and raced off to save his clan leader.

Lexinton had tried to stop Demona from firing the dart by sneaking up behind her, but with one swipe of Demona's tail the little green gargoyle was sent flying into the rooftop nearby. With a deep breath Demona launched the dart and a scream of gargoyle split through the night as the dart made contact.

The scream, however, was not Goliath's. Unbelief in her eyes Demona was shocked to see that Brooklyn had managed to get to Goliath in time to block the dart with his body.

Brooklyn couldn't remeber a time when he had ever been in so much pain. The dart had struck him in the arm luckily missing all the fragile spots. There was no telling what this dart would do to him, but at least Goliath was safe. Just as Brooklyn reached to pull the dart out from his arm the dart dissolved before his very eyes.

"Brooklyn look out!" cried Lexington.

Brooklyn looked to see Demona racing toward him at lightning speed. The fury filled gargoyle dug her claws deep into Brooklyn's shoulders pushing him away from Goliath.

"You've ruined everything!" cried Demona, her voice full of mallice.

"Let him go Demona," said Goliath with Lexington by his side.

Hissing Demona flew away leaving the three gargoyles behind.

"Are you alright Brooklyn?" asked Lexington.

"A few bruises and stratches but I'll be okay," said Brooklyn as he flew up to join Goliath and Lexington.

Goliath didn't feel convinced as the three arrived at the Clock Tower however. Whatever Demona had designed the dart to do was obivously meant for him. But, Brooklyn had managed to save him from being hit by the dart by getting hit instead. The question now was: What would happen to Brooklyn?