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"Staten the Obvious"

It was another lovely sunset over the city of New York, the day's shadows stretching out to cover the landscape as the sun slowly sank into the west, as it vanished behind the horizon, the crumbling of gravel could be heard far above the streets as the Gargoyles began to waken from their stone slumber. Brooklyn was already on the ledge of the parapet before Broadway had even finished scratching his large stomach and yawning.

"Hey, where are you going?" Lexington asked, the diminutive olive green gargoyle asked, looking at him.

Brooklyn sighed. "Look, you're probably gonna kill me for it but I'm gonna go check out Nightlyfe."

"Nightlyfe?" Goliath asked, the large-framed leader of the clan approached the trio.

"It's a new band we heard about last week." Broadway explained.

"Yeah, it's a cool band. A lot of eightys tunes and looks." Lex added. "But the curiosity is the lead singer and guitarist."

"What's so curious about the lad?" Hudson finally joining with Angela and Bronx both in tow. "I heard you boys listenin' to their music the other night, it doesn't seem all that out of the ordinary for the noiseboxes of the twentieth century."

"Well rumor has it that Staten's an actual gargoyle." Brooklyn said. "Everyone thinks he's just a human in a costume, but I'm not convinced it's too...convincing..."

Goliath let out a sigh of frustration, he knew that Brooklyn was hard to talk out of anything when he's put his mind to something. "Very well." He said. "Just be careful, I wouldn't want you exposing yourself to this Staten if you are incorrect."

"Don't worry." Brooklyn said as he dove off the tower. "I'm sure." His voice faded as he flew off, leaving Lex and Broadway to watch and wonder.

The city lights were almost blinding, as they were every night; Brooklyn glided through the city above the illumination, keeping himself out of sight of the ordinary passersby as the busy street bustled below him. Eventually he reached the Cat's Cradle Club, a rather popular hotspot for indy artists to show off their musical talents. Bands were usually booked weeks in advance, and Nightlyfe was one of their more popular returning groups. He spread his wings and came in for a soft landing on the roof. He wasn't even sure where to start looking for the band, so he figured he might as well slip into the rafters and wait for the show as he made his way to the skylight, a sound from the alley turned Brooklyn's attention toward it and he instead crept over to peer down into the narrow passageway that led to the parking lot at the back of it. Narrowing his eyes, he could see a van pulling up into the parking lot, parking a few hundred feet away from the door, curiously far when there were far better and closer spaces. He hummed to himself, rubbing his hand over his face as he crept closer to the edge for a look.

"Look, Stat. I don't know why you've always gotta be picked up after sunset. You miss a lot of potential practice time for the band."

"I don't need it bro." A voice answered the human from inside the van before a massive gargoyle emerged from the back. "I study the music, and I practice at night; I only practice at night."

"Look, Staten he's new." A blond girl approached the pair of them. "He doesn't know..."

"Hmm..."

The gargoyle looked spot on legitimate to Brooklyn; he was almost as muscled as Goliath, though probably a few inches shorter than him. He had no wings, but a dark blue complexion to his skin. He wore a pair of rounded dark purple shades over his eyes; a nice, albeit worn leather jacket with no shirt and a pair of blue jeans. His clawed feet stood free from any shoes and his tail had its own particular sway. If it was a costume, it must have cost him thousands of dollars to get put together. "He's got to be real..." Brooklyn said to himself.

"You see him?"

The sudden voice from behind Brooklyn made him shout in surprise and wheel around to see Broadway and Lexington standing there watching him. Broadway had a cocky grin on his face, which irritated the crimson gargoyle, who brushed his hair back with his hands, acting as if he didn't just have the life startled out of him. "What are you two doing here?"

"Goliath asked us to check on you." Lex explained. "He didn't want to risk you--"

"I know, I know. Exposing myself." Brooklyn replied with a groan. "Man, I've got to come up with a better phrase than that one. Look at that." He said, pointing as Staten and his three human friends approached the building. "I mean does that look like a costume to you guys?"

"Who knows?" Broadway said with a shrug.

"You know...now that I'm looking at him...I'm...not sure if he is a human..." Lex peered carefully. "Meaning he could just be another gargoyle like us!"

"That's exactly what I was thinking. So, I say maybe after the show we introduce ourselves to him and--"

"Hey! What the hell, Nick?"

The trio paused as they heard the female human below shouted, they all ran to the edge of the roof and peered down to see that the "new" band member was holding a gun directly towards Staten and the other two while three other thugs emerged from the shadows of the nearby alley. "An ambush." Brooklyn said, seething and forcing a growl down his throat to keep quiet.

"Look, it's nothing personal you guys." Nick said. "But with how popular Nightlyfe is, can you really blame a guy for trying?"

Staten sighed, his hands in the air. "And this is why we got such a long breaking in period." He scoffed. "What is it you want, man? Other than an ass-kicking that is?"

"Stat..." The female said in a hushed whisper, urging him to back down.

"Look, I don't know what that suit is made out of, freak. But I'm willing to bet it's not bulletproof." Nick cocked his gun and pointed it at him. "I hear you're pretty well off and I think I'm gonna take whatever you got in your pockets."

Staten backed toward a light post, his hands still in the air as the other three men approached them, also sporting weapons. "Oh, I been around for a good long time bro." He said. "I've had my share of fights and brawls, but I guess this'll be my first attempted mugging. Right? Alice? Jack?"

"Attempted?" Nick scoffed.

"Down!" Staten roared loudly as the two humans next to him both ducked at the same time. Staten grabbed the metal pole of the lamppost and with a loud roar, he snapped the metal off at the base and swung it like a long staff. Too fast for Nick, who was knocked back, dropping his gun. Alice and Jack jumped on Nick as Staten threw the pole down and threw himself at the other three men.

He grabbed two of them as he tackled and lifted them effortlessly into the air before sending them into a collision with the brick wall a few feet back behind them. He grabbed one of them, who had drawn a knife and slashed Staten clear across his forearm, making him roar in pain but he didn't drop him. The thug saw the thick oozing blood pouring from Staten's wound and gasped loudly. "He--He--it's REAL!" He shouted in panic as Staten raised a fist to punch him flat.

"Hold it!" He turned his gaze to the other two who had drawn a pair of guns just as Brooklyn, Lex and Broadway came crashing down from the roof above, stomping them into the ground.

Staten looked at the thug in his hand and instead of slugging him instead slammed him hard into the wall, knocking him out cold as the trio finished off the other two men, leaving them out cold as well. They looked up to see that Staten had already started walking toward Nick, who was being held down by his other two bandmates, he gestured for them to let him up. "So, Nick...what now?" He asked growling as he approached the man, the trio convening next to the two humans as they watched Nick suddenly throw a punch at the much larger Staten, who deftly caught his fist in the palm of his hand and then Nick swung his other fist, completely blindsiding the gargoyle as it cracked hard across his face, shattering his glasses, revealing a pair of dark blue eyes underneath but not even a bloody nose from the punch. He clenched his hand tight over the human's trapped fist and tightened down, probably breaking a bone in the process and making Nick howl out in pain.

"Oooh...that's a bad move." Alice whispered to the trio who watched as Staten stood upright, his eyes glowing white in anger now as he hoisted the man half a foot off the ground, dangling him in front of him like a toy.

Staten took the sunglasses off his face and stared at them. "Those were three hundred dollar shades, you punk." He growled and slipped them into the pocket of his jacket before glowering at the man in his hand. "I'm gonna have to take it out of your pay bro." He watched the man writhe as he reached his claw closer and closer to his face, as if threatening to scratch it off, but came short. "Yo. Nick." he said. "You're fired." He finished the sentence by flicking the human in the face with his finger, the force of which knocked his head backwards a moment, then he flicked again, watching the human's unconscious body become a dead weight in his hand before promptly dropping it and dusting his hands off. "Gotta hate those terminations, they're always rough." He said looking at the trio. "And you three... the real articles! I didn't know there were any Gargs in Manhattan outside the rumors!"

"Ri-right there are seven of us." Broadway answered, getting alarmed looks from Brooklyn and Lex.

Staten smirked noticing the looks. "Don't worry your secret's safe with us. These two have been by my side for what now... seven years? That's Alice, our bass player and Jack our drummer." He gestured to them. "And I'm Staten."

"Big fan." Brooklyn said with a smile, reaching up and shaking Staten's hand. "Name's Brooklyn, the little guy is Lexington and the big guy is Broadway."

"Nice names." Staten said, almost sounding cheeky as he did. "Guess it's not so strange being named after a place. My adoptive parents found me...er...well my egg floating off the coast of Staten Island and that was the name they gave me."

"Staten, your arm!" Alice said in concern as she observed the wound from the thug's knife dripping blood over his hand.

It wasn't until then he'd really noticed how much damage the knife had caused, but still he looked at it casually. "I'll be alright, come sunup this'll be a thing of the past."

Jack took the gargoyle's arm gently and began to wrap it with some fabric. "Not unless you die of blood loss first, man." He said. "You sure you want to go on? We don't have our keyboard now that he's..." He sniffed the air. "Un--conscious, and I think he probably wet himself a little."

"A little?" Staten frowned. "I guess I gotta work on my intimidation a little more." He looked at the trio. "And how about you three? Wanna come in for a little backstage view?"

"Are you serious?"

"I'm in!"

"Count me in!"

Brooklyn, Lex and Broadway all spoke at the same time excitedly, making Staten laugh. "Great!" He exclaimed. It'll be good to give you a show, and maybe you can catch me up on your stories after?"

Brooklyn smiled. "I would love that."

THE END