Gargoyles: Clan Manhattan -- Volume #16: "Life as Seen From the Fish Bowl"

Volume #16: "Life as Seen From the Fish Bowl"

You wake up in darkness. Nothingness. Your sight is impaired, you think. Maybe your right eye gave out again. Maybe it was damaged again, you hope.

Then the realization hits you.

Your sight isn't impaired.

You are.

Slowly, you open your one remaining eye. The sights before you are those which made you fearful and defiant mere hours before.

Rokkans. Though these appear to be scientists, they still cut a figure of terror into your mind. But why can't you act on your rage?

You watch them pass some technological items between themselves. One adjusts some controls on it, passing it to another technician. They approach you carefully, and you can now see what the item is.

It's an eye.

The new technician in the lab takes the eye from his assistant, approaching you. The eye enters the dark area of your sightline.

And suddenly it becomes so much clearer. Your other eye works now. Though its sight line has made your entire right side red, you are satisfied with your full sight.

What does not satisfy you, though, is that you have no control.

You are awakened by another presence in the lab, where you are lying. The lights come on, and you see a female figure approaching. A blue female figure.

You instantly recognize the face as soon as she approaches. And much to your chagrin, she is smiling.

Demona.

She approaches you, rubbing a talon against your cheek. For some reason, you don't feel it.

"How are you feeling?"

Like tearing your eyes out ...

"I'm fine."

Why are your words not coming out? Who has taken over your body?

"Good. We'll need you out on attack parties soon." She places a kiss upon your forehead. "My brave grandson."

Rage builds in your heart. Rage that you cannot express.

You are awakened by the sounds of a power wrench. You open your eyes and see technicians working on you once again, attaching a new appendage to your piecemeal body. Demona comes in behind them.

Queen of darkness, mother of despair ...

"Leave us." Her command to the technicians is quickly obeyed. They leave the two of you alone in the laboratory. She smiles again.

"That should make you more effective. That old Xanacorp thing did nothing for you. Truth be told, I think it was a piece of a Steel Clansman."

She holds up another appendage. Your old arm.

Give that back!

"Pity. Such a powerful young gargoyle, such wasted potential." She sighs. "I have such dreams and plans for you and your mother."

She clicks a lever on a nearby control panel. Your bindings are released. You can stand freely before the gargess. And you do.

You want so much to strangle her with your new arm. But you can't.

"Epsilon squadron is waiting for you. You're taking the Aerie Building tonight."

NO!

"Orders?"

NOT THE CLAN!!

"As much intel as you can on the Earth Forces and the Clan. We've received word that the humans have joined forces with the Clan, I want to know for sure."

You nod. You don't want to, but you nod.

"We will."

Demona comes closer to you. She places a hand on your shoulder.

Unhand me ...

"I know you won't let me down."

Let me go!!

"I won't. You'll see."

NOOOOOOO!!!!

You are gliding high above the city, leading an attack squadron. They are a good enough group. You wish you could turn them. But you can't.

You look over to the skyline. The Aerie Building is not too hard to find, being the dominant part of the horizon. You nod your head, leading the squadron to the castle.

"Tight formation, minimal casualties. We're collecting intel, not going in shooting."

Rosanna ...

You see in the distance, silhouettes rising to meet you. Hostile silhouettes. You don't recognize some of the defenders, but many of them you consider your friends.

"ATTACK!!"

The squadron disperses, taking their attack positions. You desperately want to control yourself.

Lina ...

The defenders rise to meet you. Two you can't recognize. But three of them are your friends.

Lexington ...

Graeme ...

Liberty ...

And one of them ...

ARIANAAAAAAA!!!

You come face-to-face with Graeme. He grits his teeth, talking through them.

"I don't want to hurt you, Samson."

Don't make me ...

"You won't. It'll be the other way around." You raise your cyborg arm and fire a long beam toward the beaked green male who you consider your best friend. It hits him square in one of his shoulders. He tumbles through the air, back toward the castle, but regains his balance and zooms toward you.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Graeme roars. You respond by planting your metallic fist into his gut.

Don't make me kill him ...

You nearly let fly with a point-blank blast, but are interrupted by Lexington barreling into you.

"Don't! You'll kill him!"

"That's the idea, pipsqueak!"

Oh, God, Lex I'm so sorry ...

You watch yourself, horrified by your actions, your words. Words that come from your mouth, but could never be yours.

You see yourself hurt your friends. Graeme is only the first: you swat down Lexington easily with your tail. Liberty tries to restrain you while Lina cooks up a spell with her stone, but they ultimately fail. Your strength overcomes Liberty's grip, and a swift kick takes Lina out of the fight, swooping into a death dive trying to catch her stone.

That leaves you alone with Ariana.

The fight around you is going well for the Clan. Rokkans are falling, and no valuable intel can possibly come from this skirmish. You look around at the fight, then at Ariana, bo staff in hand, ready for anything.

Ariana ...

She snarls at you. "Don't make me kill you, Samson."

Ariana, my love ...

"Don't let the blue bitch control you."

Make me whole again ...

Ariana approaches, still in a combat stance. "Come back to us."

You struggle and fight, finally breaking through to the surface.

"Help ..."

Her eyes lighten from anger. "What?!"

"Help ... meee ...."

The magic fights you all the way. Unfortunately, the magic finally wins. You are thrown aside, as easily as your body throws aside Ariana.

You look around, seeing the surviving Rokkan forces regrouping. Quietly, you take to the air.

"Regroup and fall back! Behind me!"

The rest of the party joins you behind. As you glide off, you can faintly hear the sobbing in despair.

Your return to the Rokkan command center is welcomed greatly by Demona. The rest of the troops greet you in friendly tones.

"Report."

"The attack was a wash. I think they were ready for us. I do have some useful information, though ..."

Demona nods. "Go ahead."

"The Avalonian gargess, Lina, has a vulnerability. She cannot use magic without a stone she has to carry."

Demona smiles. "Of course. She's so young and inexperienced, she can't use magic without an avatar." Her tones become hushed. "I must get my hands on that stone!"

"Other than that, we suffered many casualties, but no fatalities. Everyone came back."

"And that's the important thing, isn't it?" Demona strokes your face again. "Get some rest."

You nod, turning out of the room and leaving. But you don't want to. You want to strangle the blue bitch.

You want your freedom.

You want your body back.

Ariana ... help me ...

You cannot do it physically, but you shed silent tears of desperation. For all of your strength, you cannot fight this.

You are Samson. You are a Gargoyle.

You are a fish in a bowl, seeing but not experiencing.

And it saddens you.

To Be Continued ...

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