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Shadowdancer

By Dracon

[Notice: The characters and events within are inspired by the "Gargoyles" TV Series and as such credit goes to the creators of said series. If any characters appear in the story from said series, those characters belong to their creators.

Should anyone wish to use the characters or events within in their own works, permission is hereby granted to do so. I just ask that you let me know if you are going to do so and provide credit in your work.

Underage viewers should not read this series, and all readers do so at their own risk.]

"A Voice From The Other World..."

----Chapter VII----

Branson looked at Jamie, and appeared to be quite pleased. "Jamie, you've gotta realize... you've already done more with magic than I was able to. And Jessica spent months trying to teach me! If you can do this much in three days, I don't doubt that you'll be able to find my Jessica with more time."

Moved at the unyielding show of faith, Jamie had little choice but to accept his praise. Still a bit uncomfortable with his belief in her abilities, she tried to change the subject. "Branson, have you seen Trent around recently?"

Shaking his head, he answered, "No... I've been in here for the last few hours, trying to deal with my backlog, heh. He might be hanging around on the first floor, though. He keeps our security systems working properly, so..."

Jamie thanked Branson for his help, and turned to leave. Branson called out to her before she could leave, telling her, "Oh, by the way! An old friend of mine should be stopping by tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing him again."

Smiling, Jamie said, "Well, if he's a friend of yours, he has to be good people. I'll be happy to say hello."

Jamie headed down to the first floor, pleased that Branson seemed so much more in command of himself again. She wandered for a short time, keeping an eye out for Trent, until she heard a metallic clanging. Breaking into a run, she dashed toward the source of the sound, uncertain of what it could be.

Skidding around a corner, she saw Trent bash a camera with his wrench. He seemed to be concentrating on the misbehaving device, and appeared not to have heard her. With a final 'clang!', the device began to rotate back and forth in a sentry pattern.

He turned to see Jamie stare at him, and shrugged helplessly. "Percussive maintenance, sometimes these idiotic things like to stick!" With that, he bludgeoned the camera once more, for good measure.

Jamie laughed at his 'hands-on' style of repair. Concern showed on her face once more, though. "Trent, uhh... how are you feeling?"

Hefting his toolbox, he motioned at the dented camera. "Well enough to fix that thing, anyway." Solemnly, he looked at her, his eyes widened. "But, I have to apologize for... earlier. I really don't know what came over me."

Waving her hand, as if to indicate how unimportant it was, she answered, "Look, it's my fault anyway... I didn't know the power of my own pheromones. I don't want you to worry about it, okay?"

With a sigh, he speaks resignedly. "Jamie, I'm not a kid. I shouldn't be ruled over by my hormones that way. But if you're not mad, I guess I'll let it drop."

Trent motioned for her to take the toolbox. "Why don't I show you my rounds? Can never hurt to know your own defenses, yeah?" He pointed down the hallway, telling her to follow him.

With a start, Jamie realized that she recognized the room that they approached. It was the house's grand foyer, and it was also the last place she had seen most of her friends. She sighed heavily as she approached, wondering what his friend Brian was up to at this point.

A wry grin crossed her face. Knowing him, he probably had no idea that "James" was acting strangely right now. She had to wonder how Jessica was faring in 'his' new form, though...

She noticed Trent looking at her rather oddly. "You okay, Jamie? You just started staring off into space."

Shrugging, Jamie said, "Sorry... I was just thinking about my original world."

He growled, not putting too much menace into it, and said, "Well, you can do it on your own time." He pointed to a camera mounted unobtrusively, with a wide view of the door. "See that? That's one of my favorite toys; the camera's a dud, y'see."

He pointed to a small, discolored patch near the door. "That's the real deal, an air pressure sensor. If anyone opens that door without me knowing it, it screams to wake the dead."

Pulling a small remote out of his pocket, he turned down the alarm's volume, then hurled a screwdriver past it. It released a faint squealing sound until Trent shut it down again, retrieving his screwdriver in the process. "Ahh, I have a great respect for that little thing."

The two gargoyles wander the house for awhile, testing and fixing more types of security gizmos than Jamie had even known existed. Looking at his watch, Trent notes the time. "I think I can take it from here. It'll be dawn soon, so I'll give you some time to do... whatever you need to get done."

Thanking him, Jamie headed up to her room. She didn't intend to leave the window open all day... though, given how potent her scent seemed to be, that might be necessary! She was surprised to find, when she entered, that the window was already closed. The latches had seemed solid, so it seemed odd that they would have released.

A flicker caught her eye, and she turned towards it, seeing that her computer's displays were active. She knew she had not left them on, and drew her sword, wondering if the invader was still lurking around. Since she saw no immediate threat, she examined the screens, curious as to what this apparent interloper had been doing.

The screens were filled with static, which almost seemed to form patterns to her eyes. As she approached, the snow faded to a field of pure white. Words began to appear on the screen, and a filtered voice spoke through the speakers.

"Fear not. We have already left, you may lower your weapon. We bring greetings."

The text turned from black to red, and the voice took on a deeper tone. "We are Lancelot..."

It paused, color-shifting to green, and a higher-pitched, feminine sounding voice spoke. "... and Guinevere."

The text shifted back to black, and the voice returns to its original, filtered state. "You will find a disc in your system's drive. We grant you this data as a sign of our good intentions. Use it as you will."

Abruptly, the screens turn solid black for a moment, then reveal the normal desktop, as if nothing had happened. Puzzled and more than a little disturbed, Jamie scanned around once more, confirming that there seemed to be no threat.

Sheathing her sword, she shook her head at the sheer oddity of the occurrence. She activated the intercom, used the conference call function. When the other three responded to her, she described the situation. "I think we all need to be on the look out for intruders. They've got be around here somewhere, and I want to know what this is all about."

Elayne interrupted, "Check to see if that disc is there. If they're telling the truth about that, maybe they're serious about an alliance."

Trent disagreed. "I just checked over our alarm system, and I read nothing. Why go to all the trouble of avoiding the lot, when they could have just knocked? I don't like it."

Branson sounded about as disturbed as Jamie felt. "I agree with you, Trent, but let's face facts. We don't have long 'til dawn, we really can't go hunting them down. Jamie, bring the disc down to my office tomorrow, how's that?"

Realizing that Branson was correct about the time problem, Jamie reluctantly agreed to his plan, then broke the connection. Before she left to go to the roof, though, she made sure that her window was securely locked.

She'd hoped to be able to put her sword away, but it comforted her to know that it was there, even if it wouldn't help her too much during the day. She thought about grabbing the particle carbine, but figured that would be simple paranoia. No sense alarming the others any more than she already had.

When she arrived on the deck, she saw that Elayne and Trent were already present, and scanning the surrounding buildings with high-powered binoculars.

Trent heard her approach, dug into one of his jacket pockets, and handed a pair to her. "Take the south side, I'll give Branson the north when he gets here."

It took Jamie a moment to figure out how to activate the complex optics, but the gyroscopic stabilizer made their picture very clear, allowing her to easily scan her side of the area.

She heard Branson arrive, listened to Elayne welcoming him, but before she could greet him herself, she saw a flicker of shadowy movement. Zooming in, she felt she could almost make it out, and shouted, "Hey, guys, get over he..."

The sun chose that inconvenient moment to break over the horizon, and the rest of Jamie's report was lost as she shifted to an inhuman bellow, unable to fight against the inexorable advance of her transformation...