A/N:

Takes place in an "What-if" Alternate Universe. This has something that's been sitting around in my head for years. Like fifteen plus years actually. Gargoyles was one of my favorite cartoons growing up in the 90s, even after all these years it still has a place in my heart. I hope this story does well by it at least. I hope you enjoy and will comment to share your thoughts.

The Only One?

It sounded like thunder.

But where thunder could be heard, lightning should be accompanying it. This storm had no lightning.

Thunder without lightning is no storm at all.

Even if there was lightning, lightning was not red.

Elisa knew this. She could feel it within the very bones of her body.

She never could explain how she knew what was never learned from being taught. When it came to the very earth itself, its nature, its weather, she just knew things. Perhaps it was a part of whatever she was.

Peter, her adoptive father, a human man, once told her that she was a gargoyle, but he could not explain to her what a gargoyle was, only that he once thought they were myths and legends used in scary stories until he saw her egg for the first time when he was a young boy in 1935. When she was in her twenties, but still in the mind and size of a preteenage human, Diane, her newly adoptive mother, showed her a book with pictures of gargoyles.

But those gargoyles were only architectural waterspouts shaped like bizarre creatures. According to that very book, their only function was to carry water away from the building that they were mounted on; otherwise they were just decorations, but in the medieval times, would have scared away non-existent forces of evil.

Elisa could see not true similarly between herself and those decorations. Where those decorations looked like strange creatures, she looked more human, especially in her face. It was very human looking even with the extra bone structure on her the ridge of her forehead and the tiny horns that came from it, but were often covered by her long blue tinted black hair. Her hands were very human looking, but only had four fingers. They were almost delicate in their structure but the fingertips were pointed, forming claws instead of fingernails. But it was her feet and ears that exceedingly proved she was not a slightly misshaped human.

She never could wear shoes, or even shocks. Her feet were too large and were double-jointed. Her ankles pointed outward instead of curving like a regular human foot. Her six toes, like her eight fingers, were pointed to form more claws. And her large ears looked more like the ears a bat rather than a human.

The only true similarities, in an appearance at least, with many of those architectural gargoyles were the wings and tail. Her leather-like wings where connected to her back and were structured like that of a bat, but she had an additional two "fingers" and as well as a "thumb" on both the wings. The inside of the wings' membranes was the color of dark maroon red on the inside, while the outside of the membranes was a deep black. Her tail was the same color as her skin, a deep tan that it was almost orange, but it was long and whip-like.

But the most major similarity, as well as the most major difference, between Elisa and the architectural gargoyles was that when the sun shined its light upon the earth, Elisa and the statues were both made out of stone. But when the sun retreated behind the line of the horizon, Elisa would become flesh, blood and bone. The statues remained stone.

There were no others like her.

Once there was, according to "Grandfather," Peter's father. Elissa had parents that were like her. Grandfather said they were known to the Hopi tribe as Aponivi, "The Wind Blows Down The Gap" and Hehewuti, "Warrior Mother Spirit." But they never called themselves that, thinking the names as "odd human labels" rather than actual names.

But her parents had sisters and brothers, as well as many mothers and fathers. And they too had many sisters and brothers and parents before them. Grandfather told her that this clan of gargoyles had protected the people for thousands of years, living in peace with one another, both sides teaching one another.

But then the Spanish came…

At first, the strangers were welcomed, but then in 1598, in a pueblo known today as the Acoma Pueblo, the Spanish Don known as Juan de Oñate had found out about the gargoyles living there. Out of fear, Oñate planned to destroy the gargoyles while they were in stone sleep. The Acoma overheard Oñate's plans and, in order to protect their gargoyle friends, they attacked first.

The ambush happened when eleven of Oñate's man entered the pueblo on a mission to kill any sleeping gargoyle they could find. Fortunately, before they could even get near the gargoyles, the Acoma attacked, killing all eleven men.

However, unknown to the Acoma at the time, one of the men was Oñate's own nephew.

Upon news of his nephew's death, the Spanish Don swore revenge on the Acoma people and their gargoyle protectors.

After many days of planning, Oñate had the village attack at sunrise. The Acoma fought bravely but, in the end, they fell. Acoma Pueblo was burned and over six hundred were killed and approximately five hundred others were imprisoned. With the attack successful, Oñate had the imprisoned watch helplessly as Oñate and his men smashed the gargoyle statues, killing the whole clan. Many of the Acoma who escaped the massacre fled to other villages, warning them of the danger.

For almost a hundred years, the tribes that refused Spanish rule tried their best to protect their gargoyle friends. But the Spanish were ruthless, knowing exactly when to attack. Thousands upon thousands of gargoyles were massacred, and due to the gargoyles' inability to breed quickly, they were rapidly dying out.

By the time relations improved, only a handful of gargoyles groups had survived. But they were not enough to either sustain or grow a population. With each new generation seeing fewer and fewer eggs, the gargoyles had to accept that their race was going extinct. Aponivi and Hehewuti were the last gargoyles of their reprehensive clans.

They did not try or even hope for a child, but somehow Hehewuti, who was very old for a gargoyle, became pregnant with Elisa. How this came to be, no one knew. Despite her ancient age, she successfully carried and laid Elisa's egg during the Spring Equinox of 1928.

But alas, Grandfather told her, Aponivi and Hehewuti would never see their daughter hatch. They were old, and Aponivi was growing gravely ill. Knowing this, Aponivi and Hehewuti gave their egg to Grandfather, knowing that he, his family and his tribesmen would keep her safe.

The last thing Hehewuti said to Grandfather was "I like Elisa. It's a beautiful human label."

They disappeared into the night, never to return. And Elisa, without her gargoyle parents to look up to, to learn from, hatched in 1938 on the day of Spring Equinox, surrounded by Hopi tribe people.

This year was 1994, Elisa was fixity-six years old, but she looked, acted and felt younger than what a human would feel if they were lucky to reach these years. She guessed that being a different species, she aged differently.

How long would she live?

Is it possible that she would live long enough to not just only see the deaths of her adoptive parents, but her adoptive siblings' deaths as well? Derek was only in his early twenties and Beth was nineteen. Elisa felt was, equivalently, only a little older than their ages.

There were so many unanswered questions; so many unknowns about herself.

She had no answers as to all the feelings and instincts she had.

Like how she knew that whatever was going on within or beyond the clouds that shielded the upper stories of the Eyrie Building, it was no thunderstorm. It was not natural.

It was strengthening the intense need to protect Manhattan, her city, her home, her protectorate…

Her duty.

The noise like thunder suddenly stopped.

Out from the clouds came, not rain, but stone and metal.

Elisa could only watch from her perch as the debris, no doubt pieces from the Eyrie Building rained down on the people and car below on the streets. Instinct was telling her to try to stop the fragments from harming her human charges. But rationality told her that she would only end up street pizza if she tried. Elisa was stronger than a human, but she was not that strong to break the descent of a few hundred pounds of rubble and survive.

Besides, it would also reveal herself; something she could not afford.

She could only watch as steel fell upon a taxi cab, impaling it to the ground. She considered it was only pure luck that the taxi driver and his passenger got out of the vehicle not even a second before the steel impaled the car.

The comforting sound of police sirens filled the streets, even as the thunder-like noises and the "red lightning" started up again from within the cloud cover.

Elisa scanned the newly arrived police officers and spotted a familiar face. She could see Officer Morgan among the officers trying to keep the scared and confused crowd away from the Eyrie building. Morgan was one of the few police officers who knew of her existence and she trusted him keep her existence a secret. In return he kept her informed of situations within the borough that she could not directly help out in without revealing herself to anyone with credibility. Criminals themselves had no credibility, but everyone else was an uncertainty.

Elisa turned on her communicator to Morgan's radio frequency. "Morgan! Maza! What's going on here?!"

From a hundred feet up, she watched Morgan grab his radio and almost shout into it to be heard over the noise of the crowd, "Got me, Maza! Must be one heck of a party up there!"

"Party" is not what Elisa would describe it, but there was no time to comment it. Three more thunderous booms and then more debris was falling onto the street and nearby buildings. Elisa dived to the left, throwing herself off the parapet she was perched upon and back onto the gravel roof of the building, as concrete debris fell on the spot where she just was only a second ago. More debris, small enough not to go through the roof, but large enough to badly injury her, continued to fall around her for a few seconds before the deadly shower ended. In her ear, she could still hear Morgan ordering the crowd to get back through the communicator.

Elisa shook off the intense feelings of fear and adrenaline off, willing herself to focus, placing a hand on a nearby large piece of debris that, actually surprisingly didn't go through the roof from its size. However, once her eyes refocused, she noticed something odd about it.

Four marks…

Four marks that she knew by just looking at them that them that they were not made by the concrete shattering off. No, these marks were dug into the concrete, and they were very close together.

Elisa moved her hand, placing the claw ends of her hands into it.

A near perfect fit.

"Claw marks?"

Another thunder-like noise went off above her. The female gargoyle looked up as she saw more debris falling toward her. This roof was no longer safe.

Without wasting time getting up, Elisa started running like a tiger on all fours, her body easily accommodating, heading toward the other side of the roof. Without hesitation, the deadly new wave falling around her, Elisa sprung onto what was left of the parapet and pushed off, opening her wings wide to catch the air current.

As she glided away to safety, it started to rain, but she did not notice it. For only one thought was on the centerfold of her mind as she looked back up at those clouds were the not-thunder could be heard and the red not-lightning could be seen within them.

"What could be strong enough to leave claw marks in solid stone?"

She could not know it then, but the search for an answer to this question would lead her to finding out what she had always wanted, but never hoped to have.

She was not alone.

Yes, this alternate universe is about Elisa being a gargoyle instead of a human. I've read similar stories like this but I couldn't find anyone trying it this way before. I hope I've created something new for you to enjoy, and I hope am I staying true to characters as much as I can.