The Other Clans

Genutech

The next night, Lilias, Brooklyn, and Goliath returned soon after night fall. After Elisa, Donnan, Broadway, and Lexington retold their tale, he quickly responded. "I don't know what you're talking about. Surely you know that I am not in the habit of playing childish pranks or laughing maniacally in the dark," Goliath defended himself.

"Do you even know how to laugh maniacally?" Hudson questioned dryly.

"Does he even know how to laugh?" Elpheth mumbled to herself, earning an elbow to the ribs from Gillian.

"But Goliath, we heard you," Elisa argued. "We saw you!"

"No, you couldn't have," Lilias defended.

"Yeah, Goliath was with us all night; we never left midtown," Brooklyn added.

"The only one of us who could have possibly done this would have been me," Lilias added. "But I don't think I was gone for more than half an hour." She looked back at Goliath and Brooklyn for confirmation,

"Yeah," Brooklyn confirmed.

"I don't get it, if Goliath was in midtown, who was messing with us last night?" Broadway asked, looking at Lexington.

"I think that the best course of action would be to go and see if... whatever it was left anything behind," Lilias suggested as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Agreed," Goliath growled. "Broadway, Lexington, Donnan show me where you were attacked last night." The three younger gargoyles nodded and led the way to the spot where they had seen the shadowy figure. Goliath picked up Elisa and followed close behind; Lilias trailing the group.

Goliath glanced around. "Here?" he asked Elisa, who he had carried for the flight.

"Right here," she confirmed. "This is where the figure stood when the lightning bolt struck." Broadway and Donnan stood close by, but were also looking around. Lilias and Lexington were scouting a little farther out. Donnan glanced over at Broadway when he leaned down and picked up a metal band of some sort.

"What's this?" Broadway asked as he handed it over to Goliath. Lexington and Lilias came back over to look as well.

"Looks like the kind of tracking device Genutech uses," Elisa told them.

"Genutech," Lexington mused as he looked at the band. "Genetic engineering. The creature we saw last night might have been one of theirs."

"Lexington," Goliath started, "you, Donnan, and Broadway go pay them a visit. See what you can find out."

"Sure thing," Donnan replied, taking to the air. Broadway and Lexington smiled and nodded before following after him.

"Before you even start, I am staying here and helping you search," Lilias told Goliath and crossed her arms over her chest. "Two eyes in the sky are better than one."

"Agreed," was all he replied with as he looked into the darkness around them.

"If Genutech's involved then Sevarius is too," Elisa told Goliath after the three had left. "I don't need to remind you who he works for."

Goliath looked at her. "Let's see if we can find this creature," he said before walking off to start the search. Lilias gave Elisa a small smile before following after to help him.

Lex, Donnan, and Broadway landed quietly on the Genutech roof. Broadway easily ripped them an entrance through the steel plating of the ceiling. They dropped down into a dark room and looked around for anything useful. Lexington smiled at their luck as his eyes caught sight of a computer. He walked over with Donnan and Broadway close behind. Lex started up the device with expert fingers and started filtering through the information stored in the device.

"How long will it take you to go through all that?" Donnan asked, looking over Lex's shoulder with Broadway.

"The databank's to big, I'll have to narrow down the search," Lexington told him.

"How you gonna do that?" Broadway asked.

"Look up 'Gargoyle creature'?" Donnan asked, only half joking.

"No," Lex glared over his shoulder at Donnan. "By guessing. Whatever we saw last night, it looked and sounded just like Goliath, right?"

"Right," Donnan answered hesitantly. Lex turned and started typing again.

"So what are you typing?" Broadway asked.

"C. L. O. N. E." Lex told the two.

"Cla-Clone?" Broadway asked, sounding out the word. Lex pressed enter and the a Log book popped up.

"Clone it is," Lexington smiled back. "We're in."

A video started playing and Dr. Sevarius' voice emitted from the computer's speakers. "The skirmish at the castle was executed flawlessly." The screen showed Goliath struggling with one of the old metal gargoyles. "Owen reports that Goliath never suspected that the... rogue robot which caused his injury was activated for one purpose: the extraction of living cell samples." The screen fizzled and switched images, showing part of a laboratory. "Enough to facilitate a successful cloning procedure. All data indicates that my accelerated growth process is overriding the normally slow aging rate." The screen fizzled again and now showed a Goliath sized gargoyle floating in a tube of liquid with Xanatos and Dr. Sevarius on either side. "The only side effect seems to be an odd skin and hair pigmentation. THe new data indicated the clone has reached full gargoyle adolescence in a mere nineteen weeks." The screen fizzled once again. Dr. Sevarius stood at the base of the Goliath clone's tube. "The artificial maturation rate has been augmented by an ongoing subliminal education program. Personally designed by Mr. Xanatos to teach his own unique slant on things." Donnan glanced at the other two as the screen fizzled again. This time the clone was standing outside on what looked to the turret of a stone castle. Donnan assumed it was Castle Wyvern. Dr. Sevarius' droning voice brought Donnan's attention back to the video. "Now that subject is fully grown, it's time for it to leave the nest and take its rightful place in the world." The video log cut to a fizzling screen.

"This is bad news, isn't it?" Broadway asked, gesturing to the computer with a claw.

"You can say that again," Lex replied, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"This is bad news," Broadway said again.

Donnan shook his head. "I can see why you hate Xanatos so much," he commented with a low growl.

"You don't know the half of it," Lexington told him.