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Welcome Back to London Part III

I woke up in a small room, laying on my back and I noticed that my head was finally clear. I sat up and noticed all the bandages around my body. The sun peaked through a gap in the curtains and it took me a while to remember what had happened the previous night.

Had I dreamed that, I thought, or did it really happen?

I heard footsteps and a large humanoid panther walked into the room wearing striped trousers and a white shirt.

“Morning sleeping beauty,” yawned the cat, walking over to the kitchen and opening the small doors in the wall so that he could see me while he put a kettle on the stove, “and how did you sleep?”

I said nothing and continued to stare at him. I had heard of creatures like him before but I had no recollection of whether they were daemons or not. Better to be safe and presume that he was with the shadowmancers.

“Sorry about your clothes but they were all wet and bloody so I put them in the bin,” the cat continued calmly and I quickly realised that I wasn’t wearing anything. I drew the blanket closer to my body while the panther went on, “also your armour was damaged and covered in blood and who knows what else so I hosed it down and left it outside. So,” the cat turned around and bit into a biscuit before sipping on his tea, “what’s your story?”

I remained silent and slowly stood, wrapping the blanket tightly around my midsection as I went. The panther walked out of the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe, his eyes never leaving me for a second. My tail reached behind me and grabbed something hard then I flicked it towards the panther, who ducked, then I tackled him to the ground.

We rolled on the floor for a moment before he kicked me in my chest and sent me flying across the room and against the wall. I got up and tried to call the wind but I quickly remembered that my magic had changed. The panther took my moment of confusion as an opportunity to throw me to the ground then he twisted my arm behind my back, pinning me to the floor.

“Give up yet?” he panted, “Because I could go on.”

I nodded and he let go then went to pick up the lamp I had thrown at him earlier from its position next to the front door. I rubbed my wrist as I stood up, weary of my captor now that I knew his strength.

“So, are you hungry?” asked the panther calmly while he cleaned up the shattered lamp.

I said nothing and sat back on the floor, wincing a bit at the pain from my chest, then I took a proper look around the room.

It was an average size human dwelling that had a small hallway to my left leading to four doors and a kitchen area partially walled off from the room I was in. the room was well furnished with several pictures on the turquoise walls, most of them with a blonde human girl and other humans, and there were two red armchairs situated one either side of the long red couch behind me that was adjacent to a large window decorated with navy blue curtains that lead to a small ledge outside that I could see through a small crack in the curtain. There was also a small brown table in front of me on top of a large crimson rug, covered in black fleur de lys, which looked like it was several years old.

The table had a few small cardboard boxes on it that had weird names on them, like Clue and Twister, along with several small wooden circles stacked on one corner. The room also had a weird looking cupboard stationed against the wall to the kitchen so that the small shutters the panther had poked his head through were just above it.

The panther walked over to me and set a small green tray out in front of me, bearing with it a glass of some orange liquid and a plate full of yellow mush and strips of cooked meat.

“Here,” he said, “these are my famous scrambled eggs and some well fried bacon along with a glass of orange juice to wash it down. I wasn’t sure what you would eat so I went with the basics. Enjoy.”

I didn’t want to touch anything that the cat had given me but my starving stomach betrayed me and a low growl echoed across the room. I dug in hesitantly, and was surprised to find the meal rather enjoyable. The bacon was crisp and crunchy while the eggs had a spicy taste to them that enhanced their flavour tremendously. After the meal, I downed the orange liquid in one swig and stifled a burp while the panther sat down in one of the armchairs and tapped something on a flat metal board.

“Glad to see you enjoyed it,” said the panther, “Oh and I’m Barry by the way. Do you have a name or…?”

“It’s not your concern,” I said before I could stop myself.

“Oh so you can talk,” said Barry, an odd tone to his voice, “Well then that answered that question. So, what are you exactly? I can’t find any record of you in the Internet and, trust me, that’s just plain weird.”

“What’s an internet?” I asked, “I am unfamiliar with the term.”

“The Internet is, well, think of a library. An extensive, invisible library that had almost all of the information in the world stored in it. Now that library exists in another, let’s say plane of existence, which can only be accessed through certain devices, or tools if you prefer. With me so far?”

“I would assume so,” I replied, my mind racing.

“Good, now the internet houses a lot, from books to TV broadcasts and radio transmissions. If you’ve existed on planet Earth, the internet should have something on you. That’s why it’s so weird that I can’t find anything about your species. It’s a complete mystery.”

“I am a gargoyle,” I replied coolly, “We have stayed in the shadows of mankind for centuries and thus your “internet” would have no record of us.”

“Nope,” said Barry, looking back at his metal pad again, “you don’t look like any gargoyle I’ve ever seen and trust me, I’ve seen a lot of gargoyles. Take a look.”

He turned his metal pad over to reveal a bright screen with images of different statues and depictions of stone creatures. Some of them resembled gargoyles whilst most did not and it took me a while to realise that none of them even looked remotely like I did.

“These images on your magic pad mean nothing,” I said sternly and turned away from them.

“Magic pad? Oh, you mean my tablet. Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s not magic mate, it’s science.”

“I am familiar with human science and I know as a fact that they cannot create such a device,” I replied, my back still turned to him, “Whatever the source of this thing’s power is I know that human couldn’t possibly stop squabbling enough for them to create something like that.”

“Wow, prejudice much?” muttered Barry then I heard him gather my tray and take it away but I didn’t turn around to look. I looked at the pictures on the wall and I wondered, if this house belonged to the dark-haired human in the photos, where was she?”

***

Sam had left her apartment earlier on in the day to go to her part time job as a waitress in the coffe shop down the road. Her Saturday shifts started early in the morning and ended a little after noon, that’s when she got the message.

Her phone had pinged just as she was cleaning up her last table and when she had looked at it Sam saw an alert message from her uncle.

_ _

Meet me at BB ASAP. We’ve got a big problem.

Lx

Sam changed out of her uniform, went to her car, and hurried down the road to Big Ben. As she passed the London Eye, Sam thought she saw a ripple in the air and she focused her aura through her eyes, dispelling the glamour that was cast around the area so she could see where to go. Thanks to the spell regular humans probably wouldn’t even notice that the clock was broken as the glamour covering Big Ben was cast over a wide area, meaning that it was incredibly powerful. Sam parked her car on the side of the road then walked towards the clock tower, her slender frame covered in a thick jacket and track pants along with white trainers and a small bag around her shoulder.

Sam walked through the entrance a took a hidden passage to the top of the clock. There she found several humans and animals alike looking over data sheets, redrawing protection glyphs and some were even engaging in deep conversations with one another. These were the Seekers, the people who were magically endowed but were better suited to combat threats behind the scenes. They specialised in protection wards, combat tactics and other fields of interests while the Guardians did all of the direct combat.

Sam spotted her uncle talking to a large, dark skinned man in a lad coat with an owl perched on his arm. She started to walkover when a young man her age suddenly stood in her way.

“Out of the way Hector,” Sam warned.

“You’re not allowed here,” the teen sneered, “This concerns only second tier Guardians and above. Last I checked you were below that particular class.”

“Probation isn’t the same as a demotion Hector,” Sam countered, “By the way where’s your avian shadow? You two are almost join at the hip.”

“I could say the same about you and that darn feline of yours,” replied Hector coolly, “I was called here by Canis himself.”

“Well so was I,” said Sam then she yelled, “Hey Uncle Alex!”

Alexander turned from his conversation and waved at Sam. He quickly wrapped up his conversation then walked over to them. Alexander was in his casual clothes today, a red Manchester United hoodie with white linen trousers and black sandals. Alexander hugged Sam then said, “I’m glad you both got my message as this concerns both of you. Are you both fully aware of what transpired last night?”

Both Sam and Hector nodded in response.

“Good, because now we have another problem. There were several medium class demons that escaped the tower when Tezcatlipoca broke the seal. Apparently, the rumours about Big Ben were correct and a large number of dark creatures were sealed within the clock tower. So far nothing major has come out yet but…”

“You’re checking all of the seals and wards around this place just in case,” finished Hector, “But sir, this doesn’t explain why you needed us to come here.”

“You two are top of your respective classes and are shoe ins for the tournament at Easter so I wanted you here because we needed someone to find the beast that escaped.”

Alexander called over the owl and it perched on his arm then spoke in a very robotic like voice.

“We have reason to believe that a creature of immense power and size was realised when the Dark God, Tezcatlipoca, and second class Guardian, Bartholomew, generated an EMP across the area.”

“How did Barry create an electromagnetic pulse,” asked Hector, “That requires a level of skill that the cat clearly does not possess.”

“In this case, EMP stands for erratic-mystical pulse,” said the owl quickly, “It only occurs when two elemental opposites in nature, such as light and darkness, combine in a surge of power equal in magnitude after directly colliding with one another. Such an attack would disrupt the mystical energies that are present in all glyphs and portals, temporarily disabling them. This is exactly what occurred last night.

This situation is quite serious, however, as we do not know the full extent to the creature’s power nor their level of danger to the populace.”

“So you two have the job of doing a little recognisance for us,” said Alexander, “All you need to do is take your partners and look for the creature’s unique energy signature then report back to us when you find it. We’ll handle the rest.”

“You want us-” began Sam.

“-to work together?” finished Hector.

“I’m sure you’ll both do great,” said Alexander as the owl flew off, “you’re both competent miesters and both Barry and Quinten are top class Guardians for their age. You’ll be fine.”

And with that, Alexander left them to go talk to more of the high-level Seekers nearby. Hector and Sam said nothing to each other as they left the tower and made their way downstairs before splitting up to go to their different vehicles.

***

The panther named Barry had left me alone in the room while he went to change clothes. Before long he was back and he threw something at my head but I intercepted it with my tail before it made contact. It was a bundle of clothes.

“Sam just messaged me, she wants us to meet her at the park. Get dressed, we can’t have you strolling around the place naked the whole time.”

The bundle he threw at me consisted of a long-sleeved shirt with no collar, a pair of tiny shorts and a pair of trousers. There were large holes in the back of the trousers and shorts to accommodate for my tail and the shirt was expertly cut open to make room for my wings. Barry also threw me a rain coat to cover my appearance while we were out. I put the shorts on first then the trouser while Barry disappeared into his room and when I was finished he came out wearing a red version of what I was wearing although his shirt had a large picture of a Ferris wheel by the Thames.

“Let’s go,” he said and I followed him out the door. The moment I crossed over the threshold I collapsed on the ground as I felt an enormous pressure all around my body. My vision blurred for a moment and then the pressure was gone. I noticed that I was suddenly far smaller than before and that my head was far too close to the ground for my liking.

“So, that’s your beast form then?” asked a black cat sitting in front of me.

It took me a moment to realise that the cat was Barry and that I was standing on four legs.

“What on earth?” I muttered as I looked at my body. I was now the size of a large dog and my arms, legs and wings had transformed to accommodate for my new body. My wings and torso were still bandaged so I figured that the wrappings were magical in some form.

“You look like a dragon,” commented Barry and he snickered when I tried to walk forward but instead fell flat on my face, “and while it is fun to watch a newbie deal with their beast form for the first time, we are in a bit of a hurry so let’s get moving.

Barry went down the hall at a brisk pace and it took me a while to maneuverer after him as I was not used to my new form. We went down the steps and Barry used a bit of magic to open the door to street.

“You can use magic in this form?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes, it’s difficult but if you practice enough then it gets easier.”

He led me to the underground area where he and the brunet human girl had found me last night. Barry walked over to a small black square painted on the side of one of the concrete pillars and placed his paw in the centre. The square caved in and revealed a hidden passageway that led into a dark corridor. Barry disappeared down the passage and I followed suit, the entrance sealing right behind me.

“Where are we?” I asked while we walked.

“Sam and I had this idea to link some of the places we regularly visit using magic so that I could get around London if she’s not here. This tunnel connects with three other places; an alley near Sam’s workplace, the Lambeth Palace library and the back of a shop two streets away from the GSA.”

Before I could ask what the GSA was Barry stopped moving and I walked into him.

“Ow, why did you stop?” I demanded but Barry didn’t answer. Instead the black feline suddenly sprinted forwards down the passage and I was barely able to keep up. Barry then fired something white from his mouth and another glowing square appeared ahead of us. We ran through and appeared in front of a large brick building next to a lush green park filled with people. A man carrying a smaller human walked right past us and I flinched.

“They can’t see us,” said Barry, his eyes scanning the area around him, “My collar emits a low-level glamour around me so people don’t notice when I’m using magic nor see me when I transform. I expanded it so that the spell could cover the both of us but it only reaches a few metres so don’t wander off.”

He led me to a large red vehicle parked outside of the building, in the driver’s seat sat the dark-haired human that was in all the photos back at the human dwelling.

“Get in,” the girl said when she saw us and the passenger’s side door opened, allowing me and Barry to leap up onto the seat before she drove off. I jumped onto the back seat and sat on my haunches while Barry laid down in the passenger’s seat.

“Someone’s watching us Sam,” said Barry coolly, “I felt it the moment the dragon and I used the tunnels.”

“It’s Quentin,” said Sam as she drove down the street, “He and Hector have been assigned as or new partners until whatever was in Big Ben is found.”

“The Beast escaped the clock tower?” I asked, shocked. That should’ve been impossible.

“How did you know it was monster?” asked Sam.

“Mr Dragon over here is apparently a gargoyle so he knows about the seal cast in Big Ben,” said Barry. Both Sam and I looked at him.

“What? Scorpius told me last night while we were fighting Tezcatlipoca.”

“Who’s Scorpius?” I asked but neither of them answered my question. Sam’s car was rather large, big enough for both me and Barry to be in our humanoid forms but I figured that Barry wanted to attract attention hence why he remained in his cat appearance.

Sam drove us across the bridge and I looked through the back window to look at the clock tower. It has a huge crack forming from the edge of the clock to the centre, leaving a black fissure where the number seven would have been.

As we drove away from the clock Sam’s smaller version of Barry’s magic pad lit up green with an icon that looked like a phone flashing on the screen.

“That’s probably Hector,” she said, “Go ahead and answer it or else he’ll keep calling until we do.”

Barry tapped the screen with his paw and a young red haired girl’s face appeared on the screen, startling him.

“Hey Bartholomew,” said the girl, “Can you put Sam on the screen please?”

“I’m driving Robin,” said Sam, “and you know Barry likes playing around with my phone.”

“Oh, I know, it’s just nice to pretend sometimes. Just wanted to know if you were free today to talk. You left the party in quite a hurry last night and I want to make sure that you were alright.”

“I’m fine but I’m taking Barry for a check-up at the vet so I’ll be busy for the day.”

“Alright then,” said the red-haired girl named Robin, “call me if plans change.”

“Will do, bye now.”

Sam swiped the screen and it went dark. I looked from Barry to Sam, waiting for an explanation but when none was offered I went for it.

“So, who was the red-haired girl?” I asked loudly, determined not to be ignored this time, “and does Bartholomew need to go for a…what’s it called…a check-up? What is that exactly?”

“A check-up is when a doctor specialising in animals examines an animal owned by a human to make sure that it’s in perfect health,” said Barry, “and that was Robin, Sam’s best mate since before I knew her.”

“But you are in good health are you not?” I asked, “and do we not have a monster to find first?”

“That was just a lie to keep Robin away,” replied Sam, “You do know what a lie is, right?”

“I am quite aware of the meaning,” I said sternly, “But why did you lie?”

“Because she’s human and she’s my best friend and because I don’t what her to get caught up in this life. Do you want me to explain that too?”

Barry shook his head at me soI took the hint and stayed silent. My arm started to throb so I absentmindedly scratched it while Sam turned one of the black knobs that were between her and Barry. A woman’s voice rang out around the car and I covered my ear holes with my paws to stop them from bleeding (that may have been a slight exaggeration but it wasn’t far from the truth).

“Oh Adele,” mused Sam, “I love this song.”

Song? This was music to them? I wanted to cover my head with my wings but they were still bandaged and I didn’t want to risk damaging them even more so I settled for blocking my ear holes with my paws and hoping for the wailing to stop. Minutes later we were parked outside an old building that looked old and battered.

“Why are we here again?” asked Barry as Sam got out of the car.

“When Archie did a location spell, using one of the shards from Big Ben’s face, he found a massive collection of magical energy that matched the same frequency as the clock. Hector should have been here by now but we can’t wait for him.”

Barry leapt out of the car but when I tried to follow him Sam closed the door, blocking my path.

“What is the meaning of this,” I demanded, “Let me out!”

“No,” Sam said sternly, “You’re still healing and I don’t want to explain to hector why we have dragon in my car.”

“I am not a dragon!” I yelled, clawing at the windows but I couldn’t make a scratch in them. The girl must have use her magic to protect the car, meaning I was trapped inside as an onlooker until she let me go. The little conniving witch, how did she even do that?

***

Sam and Barry went inside of the old building, leaving their dragon friend to mope about in the car while they dealt with the creature inside.

“Anything yet Barry?” asked Sam putting on a thick jacket that she grabbed from the car.

Barry closed his eyes and expanded his mystical senses to scan the area for any sign of supernatural activity.

“I’ve got something,” said Barry, “I’m picking up a large source of dark magic coming from the roof but there’s something else there- Sam move out of the way!”

Barry tackled Sam to the ground as a large crimson form crashed through the wall and smashed into Sam’s car, activating the car alarm.

“Well that went rather splendidly wouldn’t you say Quentin?”

Hector was walking out of the hole the creature had made and he was adjusting his black gloves on his hands while he approached them.

“Agreed sir,” said another voice and a tall, broad eagle made his way into the street wearing light silver armour and wielding a long black staff topped at both ends with tennis ball sized spheres.

The creature groan from where it lay next to Sam’s car and got back to its feet. It was a manticore, a beast with a lion’s body and a scorpion tail covered with hundreds of spikes. Its head was almost human, except for the fact that it had several rows of teeth and glowing red eyes.

“Permission to engage sir,” said Quentin, twirling his staff in his hands and taking a stance.

“Granted,” said Hector then he looked at Sam, “You can join in if you want but this may be over soon.”

Quentin rushed forwards, flinging a piece of rubble towards the beast, dazing it for a moment, then he swung his staff and smacked the manticore across the jaw before leaping backwards when the beast shot spikes from its tail. The eagle blocked the spikes with his staff then shot out his hands towards the monster and water came spewing out from the ground. The water wrapped itself around the manticore and lifted the beast high into the air. The manticore roared and more spikes shot out from its tail but then Barry was there in his panther form, knocking away the spikes with his tonfa and sending a bolt of lightning at the manticore, electrocuting it into submission.

For a moment, it looked like the two young Guardians had done their work but then Sam heard a knocking noise and she noticed that the gargoyle in her car was yelling something.

“Look out!” the gargoyle seemed to be yelling and he continued to bang on the window.

“What is that?” asked Hector, spotting the gargoyle in the red car.

“Long story,” said Sam.

Barry suddenly clutched his head and yelled out in pain. The manticore’s body turned black and dissolved into a dark fog which rose into the sky, blotting out the sun. Quentin stood in front of Barry protectively but the cloud descended on both of them, covering the two Guardians in its black haze before shooting up into the air and disappearing into the sky.