Brooklyn's New Heights- Part 1

On an unusually cold night, Brooklyn encounters strange, ice-bound creatures after a mysterious amulet that has some interesting effects on the gargoyle... Enjoy!

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From the eaves of the clock tower atop the 23rd Precinct, a roar echoed across the cold night sky, as the gargoyles of the Manhattan Clan awoke from the stony slumber. The clan was missing their imposing and strong leader, Goliath, who had travelled with Elisa Maza to deal with Oberon's court, leaving the Manhattan Clan under the leadership of Brooklyn. He was the first to fully waken, followed by his clutch brothers, Broadway and Lexington. The brick-red gargoyle shivered, sweeping back his white mane. 

"Jeez… did we sleep for a while?" Brooklyn hugged himself, rubbing his arms. "Why is it so cold? Wasn't that global warming stuff supposed to fix this?"

"We're still a couple days out from Thanksgiving…" Lexington said, also shivering. "But it feels like January. Back in Scotland."

"Well, a good excuse to get something hot to eat and some hot chocolate, right?" Broadway said brightly. "Think of it this way— if it's this cold out, maybe there won't be that many bad guys out. Maybe we got an easy night ahead of us."

Brooklyn's beak shifted as he frowned. "Maybe. Well… sooner we finish our rounds, sooner we can get out of this cold."

As the three launched themselves into the night, Brooklyn found himself growing more and more uncomfortable with the cold. The snow started soon after, and it only got colder as the night wore on. His gut told him that there was something strange about the night, and then he saw it— an electric blue streak of light that dashed across a rooftop, and slipped out of sight.

"There! We got something!" Brooklyn shouted, leading the other two to the flat rooftop of a brownstone. As the three gargoyles landed, Broadway frowned.

"What're we looking for, Brooks?"

"There was something running across the rooftop— it glowed blue, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything normal." Brooklyn craned his neck, frowning softly as he spotted the last space he saw the strange anomaly. It was the brick wall of the building next to the brownstone, and it looked as if someone had thrown a big snowball against the brickwork.

"Hey, Brooklyn?" Lexington called, crouched down and studying something on the rooftop. "Look at this."

"What's up, Lex?" Brooklyn crouched down next to him, and frowned as he saw what looked like footprints, made from a slightly glowing, blue frost. "Ah, great…"

"Yeah, this is definitely magic," Lexington said. 

"So what do we think?" Broadway asked, his eye following the rest of the frost-tinged footsteps to the spot on the wall Brooklyn had inspected.

The red gargoyle shook his head. "I don't know yet, but I want us to get a visual on whatever this is." He looked between his two clan mates. "We should split up. Lex, I want you to go down south, focus on Times Square and Wall Street. Broadway, go north, cover Harlem and the Upper West Side. I'll take Central Park and the East Side. If you spot whatever this is, do not attack. I just want to know what we're up against. We'll meet up at the Clock Tower in two hours."

"Got it," Broadway said before taking off, Lexington giving Brooklyn a quick two-fingered salute as he took off into the night as well. Brooklyn studied the frost for a few more seconds, then shook his head, taking off for Central Park.

The snow only grew heavier as Brookly glided across the streets of Manhattan, rising up into flurries and practically blizzard-like conditions by the time he reached the outskirts of the park, forcing him on to the ground.

"Jeez… this is one heck of a storm," he muttered, pulling his wings around his shoulders to serve as an impromptu cloak to ward against the cold. "I hope the guys aren't having too much trouble…"

Shivering, he trudged into the quickly gathering snow, slipping between the trees and brushes heavily dusted in white, where the winds seemed to quiet a little. In the relative lull of the storm, he heard the sounds of a struggle. Brooklyn stuck close to the shadows, scanning the area around him until his eyes caught the same blue streaks he had seen on the rooftops back near the 23rd Precinct. They settled long enough for the gargoyle to get a good look at the creatures; small, impish beings, with needle-like teeth, horns, and nasty looking claws, seemingly made entirely out of ice.

"What the…?" 

Brooklyn narrowed his eyes, trailing them as they began scampering through the snow, joining others of their kind as they began shouting. "Thief! Thief! Give it back, give it back!"

The gargoyle gasped as he followed them to a clearing, with a jogging track and benches slowly getting buried under the shocking amount of snow falling on the ground. There were a dozen or so of the strange impish creatures, howling like the wind and leaping about, slashing at a cowering man in the snow, dressed in tattered clothes and covering his head.

"Thief! Give it back!"

Brooklyn grit his teeth and leapt into the fray, kicking one of the imps away as it tried to rake its claws across the man's back. "That's enough!" The gargoyle snarled, blocking an attack from another imp as he stood over the man. "This park and this city are under my protection!"

"Sneak-Thief! Gargoyle protect sneak thief!" the imps shrieked. One of them leaped again, striking at Brooklyn and delivering a stinging cut on his leg.

"Gah!" Brooklyn went down on one knee, hovering over the man. "Okay, you're probably on a really steep learning curve right now, but I'm one of the good guys— what do these guys want from you so badly?"

The man winced, hand shaking as he kept his head buried. "H-here! I-I found some weird thing and thought I could pawn it!" Brooklyn spotted a strange amulet in the man's hand, shaped like a monstrous, horned face.

"Give it here, I'll lead them away— you make a run for it when I lead them away." Brooklyn held out his clawed hand. He saw the man flinch, uncertain what to think of the larger, red monster looming over him. "Look pal, have nightmares about me later, but right now, I'm trying to save your tail— gimme. I'm your best ticket out of here."

The man nodded nervously, pressing the amulet into his hand. Clutching it tightly, Brooklyn leapt across the clearing and held the amulet up in the air. "Hey, ice freaks!" 

The monsters stopped in their tracks, staring at Brooklyn as he draped the amulet around his neck. "Come and get me."

"Thief! Thief!" They shrieked, and the pack of them howled into the wind, striking out for Brooklyn. The gargoyle winced at the scratches, but took off on a run. Adrenaline was surging in his veins as he leapt over a pond, looking for any high perch that could get him back in the air. He felt a strange feeling wash over him, an aggressive, pulsing feeling that made him feel… strong. He wanted to turn around and punch out all the little gremlins. It's what Goliath would do.

He snarled, hot breath showing in the icy cold air. He dug his feet in the snow, spinning on his heel as he curled back his arm, hearing the shrieking behind him, and timed his punch perfectly— his fist slammed into one of the gremlins, and reduced it to icy shards. Brooklyn was startled at that; then, he caught sight of his arm. It had grown; no, was growing. He saw lean, toned muscle begin to pulse and bulge. He pulled his arm closer and flexed, his eyes growing alongside his swollen bicep.

"What the…?" He used his other hand to squeeze at it, just to feel the hard muscle and make sure it was real. His eyes drifted down to the amulet, now glowing against his puffed-up chest. "Okay. I can see why the little devils want this back so badly…" He saw a half-dozen more blue streaks racing towards him, and he took off, slapping away branches as he ran into a crop of trees near the eastern edge of the park. His eyes glanced down at his body, his limbs tightening and beginning to surge. The amulet's power, whatever it was, coursed through his veins and fuelled his growth further and further; and soon, Brooklyn realized just how small these little ice fiends were. 

Again he stopped in his tracks, standing his ground as he watched them charging towards him. Gritting his teeth, he prepared to fight. The fiends were like wasps to him now, flying for him to scratch or bite, but Brooklyn's augmented body was growing more and more powerful, more solid and thicker that they did little more than sting. One hit was all he needed to shatter them, but they still had numbers.

Brooklyn grew larger, his arms surging and back flaring out like a second pair of wings. With a snarl, he plucked a tree out of the ground, using the trunk like an improvised club to smash the remaining attackers. The gargoyle huffed heavily, his chest heaving and hot breath steaming in the cold air. His beak fell open as he stared at the enormity of himself. His arms were like steel girders, with bulging biceps large as his head and slab-like triceps. His puffed up chest snagged the amulet between his bloated pecs, and his sprawling plateau of a back felt strong enough to move mountains. His legs were thick as the trunks around the park, and even the tendons along his wings surged thick and hefty.

Staring in amazement as he plucked at the amulet, he curled his arm, pumping his bloated bicep. "...I better get Lex to take a look at this…" he muttered.