I don't remember who own's X-Men Evolution, except it's probaby Marvel Entertainment.  Gargoyles is owned by Disney.  Suffice to say, I don't own most of what's in here.

C&C is definately appreciated as are title suggestions.


        Tia was walking down the dimly lit sidewalk with her boyfriend,
John.  Or she thought it was a dimly lit sidewalk.  The alcoholic haze
over her vision made everything darker, and the snow on the ground made
her steps all the more unsteady.  Suddenly the world spun, and she found
herself pressed against a brick wall.  Before she could protest, John
kissed her passionately on the lips.  She moaned, and melted into his
arms.  If this could just go on forever-.  Her thoughts were interrupted
by the sound of crumbling mortar and a cry of alarm above them.  A
second later, something landed in the darkness of the alley with a loud
thump and an 'Oof!'  The two teenagers clung to each other, staring
fearfully into the dark.
        "Let's get out of here!" whispered Tia.
        "No, they could be hurt," replied John, looking up at the top of
the old building which was a good thirty to forty feet up.  Releasing
himself from his girlfriend's grasp, he took a few tentative steps
forward.  "Hello?" he called into the darkness.  "Anyone there?"  A
rustling sound greeted them, as the watcher made its way to its feet.
Glowing red eyes flared at them from the dark, and a deep growl could be
heard.  John gulped and stepped back to Tia.  "M-maybe you're right."
Before they could leave, however, the watcher stepped out of the dark
into the light.  Tia's jaw dropped and she gripped her boyfriend in
terror, and John's expression mirrored her own.  "I-it's the monster,"
John whispered.  "It's the monster!" he cried.  "Tia, run!"  The two
teenagers flew from the alley as though the devil was on their tail.
        The monster raised its arm, trying to communicate, but the two
were gone before words could be spoken.  Sighing in disappointment, the
monster claws dug into the side of the wall and climbed to the top of
the building.  Catching the air with its wings, it flew up into the
night, alone.

        "If you'll just wait in here, Mr. Harrison, the Professor will
be with you in a few minutes."  The door to the study opened, and a
young man with red glasses and brown hair entered, followed by an older
man wearing a good quality suit.  The young man went to the desk and
pressed a button on an intercom panel inset into the desk.  "Professor,
Mr. Harrison is waiting for you in the study."
        "Thank you, Scott.  David, are you there?"
        David ran his fingers through his black hair, trying to forget
the amount of grey in it.  "Yes, I'm here."
        "Good.  I'll be there in about five minutes.  I'm just finishing
a lesson with my students."
        "Alright."
        Scott switched off the intercom.  "You want anything to eat or
drink?"
        "No, I'll be fine, thanks."
        "Okay."  Scott left the room, closing the door behind him.
        David took a look around the study.  It was paneled with dark
wood, and filled with old furniture and books.  Taking a book at random,
he sat on a couch on one wall and began to read.
        Almost exactly five minutes later, the door to the study opened,
and Professor Charles Xavier entered.  Despite being bound to a
wheelchair, the Professor managed to convey a dignity that matched his
title.  His bald head gleamed in the bright sunlit room, and, upon
seeing Dave, he grinned.
        "David!  It's good to see you, old friend!  How long has it
been?  Twelve, maybe thirteen years?"
        David stood, his grin matching his friend's.  "Thirteen at last
count."  Getting up, he took the outstretched hand.  Laughing he leaned
down and embraced Charles.  "God, it's good to see you!  How do you
manage to stay so thin in that chair?"
        Charles chuckled.  "By doing more physical work than you do," he
replied, looking pointedly at David's potbelly.
        "Well...yes," said David.  "To each his own, I suppose."
        Charles shook his head ruefully.  "Still the busy businessman.
You do run a multimillion-dollar corporation as I recall.  How's Vanessa?
And Patricia?  I've been meaning to call you about them, but I've never 
been able to find the time."
        David's smile turned a bit sickly, then faded.  Worry lines
etched themselves into his expression.  "I guess nobody told you."
David sat back down on the couch.  "Vanessa left me."
        Charles's eyebrows shot up.  "With Patricia?  When?"
        David sighed.  "Ten years ago.  She moved into California.  And
she took Patricia with her."
        "Why?"
        "I still don't know.  She won't talk to me.  She moved into a
cabin in the Rocky Mountains and doesn't take visitors."
        "Well, we knew she liked the outdoors, but it sounds like she's
taking it to extremes.  Have you tried to go see them?"
        "How?  I can't risk letting people know about Patricia.  I've
been helping the pro-mutant lobby for almost fifteen years.  I've taken
hits for my position, but I've managed to weather the storm.  If the
public knew I had a daughter that was a mutant..."
        "You would be finished."
        "Yes.  And how could I help them if that happened?"
        "So what do you want me to do?  You're taking a risk just coming
here."
        "I know.  But I'm concerned about Patricia.  She's been alone
with her mother all her life.  She's getting to the point where she
needs contact with others.  I'd like to bring her to the school."
        "And what does Vanessa think?"
        "I haven't talked to her.  Like I said, she's almost impossible.
To get a hold of, I mean."
        Charles smiled wryly.  "I see.  And you want me to go and talk
to her?"
        "Charles, you've known her for almost twenty years.  You
introduced us in college.  You were our best man.  You helped us after
Patricia's birth.  If she would listen to anyone, it would be you."
        Charles nodded slowly.  "Yes, I suppose she would.  All right,
David.  I'll go and see what I can do.  It would be good to see her and
Patricia again, too."
        David put one hand on Charles's shoulder and squeezed.  "Thank
you, Charles.  You don't know how much this means to me."
        "Oh, I think I do, old friend.  I think I do indeed."

        The monster peered at her prey through the thick foliage that
separated them.  Drawing deep slow breaths, it stepped nearer, nearer.
Eyes narrowed, the monster fought to keep her reptilian tail still,
trying to hide itself from its target.  A rumble started deep in its
throat, and, with an animalistic cry of triumph, the monster pounced.
        The rabbit bolted, dodging left and right, trying to evade the
grasping claws.  The monster took up the chase, barely managing to keep
up with the terrified animal.    Unfortunately, it tripped over a tree
root and fell headlong into the dirt.  The rabbit accelerated and
disappeared into the underbrush.
        Spitting dirt and leaves, Patricia got to her feet.  Her dark
blue-grey leathery skin was covered in loam and snow.  Her bat like
wings were folded against her back, and her tail twitched in agitation.
Brushing dirt and snow off of her light grey tee shirt and out of her
long black hair, she glared where the rabbit had disappeared.  "Stupid
rabbit," she muttered to herself.  Walking back to her ambush point, she
picked up a rope with four dead rabbits tied to it and slung it over her
shoulder.  "I guess only four rabbits'll have to do," she said.  She was
about to head home, when the sounds of people crashing through the
underbrush reached her ears.  Alarmed, she scrambled up the nearest
tree.  Unfortunately, it did not go high enough for her wings to catch
the wind.  She settled down in the tree and was absolutely motionless,
hoping whoever was out there would go away.

        "I'm tellin' ya Chuck, I heard something."  The young man
gripped his hunting rifle and quickly made his way down the hill through
the forest.
        His friend, Chuck, shook his head.  "It was probably a bear or
something.  We're not here to hunt bear, Danny.  Leave it be."  Keeping
his rifle shouldered, he followed his friend down the treacherous slope.
        "Well maybe you can tell me what kind of bear leaves tracks like
this?" Danny called.
        Chuck could not believe his eyes.  In the snow were deep four-
fingered claw marks along with some other three-toed impressions in the
dirt behind the first set.  Under a tree, he could see where a deep
furrow of earth and snow had been dug up, probably by something that had
been moving fairly quickly.  "What the hell-?"
        "Yeah, that's what I'm wondering.  Do you suppose it was
the...monster?"
        "What, the Monster of Mount Muldoon?  Are you kidding?  That's
just a story, like Bigfoot."
        "What about all the pictures?"
        "What pictures?  Most of them've been proven to be fakes.
Whatever made this, it wasn't the monster."
        Danny sighed with disappointment.  "Yeah, you're probably right.
Why 'Monster of Mount Muldoon' anyway?  The mountain's not called
Muldoon."  The pair began to walk back up the hill.
        "From what I heard, some guy from Hollywood made up the name and
it stuck..."

        Patricia watched as the two hunters walked up and over the top
of the hill.  Letting go of the breath she had been holding, she peered
through the snow-covered canopy, trying to see any sign of the hunters.
Failing, she relaxed.  That Danny sounded like a whiner, but Chuck
sounded nice enough, she thought to herself.  She guessed that they were
probably only a couple of years older than she was, maybe seventeen or
eighteen.  She was suddenly gripped by the desire to glide into the air
and spy on them.  Chuck seemed like a sensible person, she though.  He
would probably react well to meeting-.
        She stopped in mid thought, and leaned back against the trees
she was in.  What was she thinking?  She was a mutant, and they were
humans.  They would probably try to shoot her the moment she first made
an appearance.  She sighed and stood.  Jumping to a taller tree she
climbed to its top, where the winds were strong enough to take her
aloft.  Looking back to where the hunters had disappeared, she felt a
welling of loneliness deep inside her.  She would never get the chance
to meet 'normal' people.  Even her father had abandoned her.  All she
had was her mother and herself.  Sighing again, she jumped into the air.
Catching the wind with her wings, she climbed high into the air and
turned towards home.

        "Well, well, well, if it isn't Charles Xavier," said Vanessa
sardonically.  She glanced up at the other four people with him.  "Who
are your friends?"
        "Hello, Vanessa.  This is Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Logan and
Kurt Wagner.  I must say you're looking well."  She looked more than
well.  Her dark brown hair had been lightened by years in the sun, while
her skin had been darkened.  Her clothes could have been used in a
cowgirl magazine photo shoot, from her hat to her leather jacket, to her
dusty denim jeans.  The rifle slung over one shoulder also helped.
        "Living on your own tends keep you fit.  I'd invite you inside,
but I get the feeling you won't be staying long."  The cabin was large,
larger than Charles expected it to be.  Behind it was a two-story
building that was too small to be called a barn, but large enough not to
be called a shack.
        One of Charles's eyebrows shot up.  "Oh?  I'd have though we
would have a lot of catching up to do."
        "Not if you've been talking with David, we don't.  He's been
trying to get a hold of me lately, and I keep ignoring him.  I can
ignore you, too.  Or more than ignore."  Vanessa hefted the rifle in a
menacing manner.
        Immediately Logan, Scott, Kurt and Jean were on alert, glaring
intensely at the older woman.  Charles just shook his head.  "Vanessa,
you don't need to do something like that."
        As the two continued to trade words, Logan sniffed the air.
There was something out there, something he had never smelled before.
"Jean," he whispered.  "Something's out there."
        The young teenage redhead nodded.  Closing her eyes, she psi-
scanned the area.  It was not long before she picked out the mind spying
on them.  Sending out a light mental probe, she picked the name of the
watcher out of its mind.  She then shifted her attention to the
Professor.  [Charles,] she said telepathically, [Patricia is watching
us.]
        Charles glanced back at Jean.  Doing a quick scan, he confirmed
Jean's finding, and then held up one hand, stalling Vanessa in mid-word.
"Since the eventual topic of this discussion is, if we can finish with
the theatrics that is, your daughter, why doesn't she join us?"
        "What?" asked Vanessa, confused.
        "She's watching us," growled Logan.  "On our right, about..."
Logan took another whiff of the air, "I'd say about fifty feet away.
Smells like she's got some rabbits for you, too."
        Vanessa frowned.  "What do you want with my daughter, Charles?"
she asked.
        "Can we talk about it inside?"
        Vanessa stared at him for several moments.  "All right," she
said finally.  Vanessa looked beyond them, into the bushes.  "Patricia,
come on out!"
        Nothing.
        "Don't be afraid," called Charles.  "We won't hurt you."
        Still nothing.
        "Patricia..." called Vanessa again.  This time her voice held a
hint of a threat.
        Patricia stepped out of the bushes, looking warily at the group.
        "Cool!" exclaimed Kurt.  His dark eyes were bright with
excitement, and his German accent was thicker than usual.  "She looks
like a gargoyle from TV!"  Kurt vanished with a 'bamf' sound and a puff
of smoke, and reappeared beside Patricia.  Not quite touching her wings,
Kurt asked, "Do they really work?"
        Patricia cried out in alarm and dropped the rabbits she had been
carrying.  Quickly dancing out of the young mutant's reach, she growled
at him, her eyes turning a bright red.
        "Charles-" started Vanessa.
        "Kurt, please!" admonished Charles.
        Kurt grinned sheepishly.  "Sorry."  He vanished and reappeared
beside Logan.
        Picking up the rabbits, Patricia went to her mother's side, all
the time staring at Charles and his group.  "Mom, who are these people?
What do they want?"
        "Old friends, Patricia, and they want to talk.  Let's go
inside."

        Patricia watched in amazement as Charles floated through the
front door, held aloft by the power of Jean's mind.  Jean set him down
on a large couch in the living room.
        "Sorry about the stairs," said Vanessa.  "We don't get very many
people in wheelchairs up here."
        "That's all right," replied Charles.
        "Patricia, could you get us some chairs for the others?" asked
Vanessa.  Patricia yanked her attention away from Jean and got some
chairs.  Once they were all settled, Vanessa spoke.  "You've got a
talented bunch with you, Charles.  One who's got a sense of smell as
good as Patricia's, another who teleports, and a third who can move
stuff with her mind."  She looked over at Scott.  "What do you do?"
        "Uhh...I couldn't really demonstrate here," said Scott.  "I'd
probably damage something."
        Vanessa hmphed and turned back to Charles.  "So, what does David
want?"
        "He's concerned about Patricia."
        Vanessa snorted.  "Since when?  That idiot cares more about his
power and money than us."
        "I think he's more concerned about the good he can do with his
money and power.  His help over the years has been invaluable in
advancing mutant rights.  And according to him, he's been using his
money to look after the two of you as well."
        Vanessa glared at Charles.  "He has, but he hasn't been here for
me and definitely not for her," she said, pointing at Patricia, who was
sitting uncomfortably on a dining room chair.
        "As I recall, you left him."
        "He didn't even try!"
        "He's trying now."
        "It's a bit late."
        "It's never too late, and you know it.  Remember you and your
parents?"
        "That's not fair, Charles," she said through gritted teeth.
        "Yes, it is.  But this is all beside the point.  This isn't
about David; it's about Patricia.  David is concerned about his
daughter's social upbringing.  She's all alone with no one but you.  She
has to learn how to interact with other people."
        "So he wants to take her with him, is that it?"
        Charles shook his head.  "No.  I have a school for mutants in
Westchester, New York.  Scott, Jean and Kurt are students, and Logan is
one of my assistants.  He asked me to enrol her in the school.  There,
she'll have contact with others, at first other mutants.  Eventually,
she'll interact with humans at the local high school."
        Patricia held her breath.  The possibility of meeting others was
both electrifying and terrifying at the same time.  She could not decide
what would be worse, going or staying.
        "Look at her, Charles!" said Vanessa scathingly.  Patricia's
hopes were dashed to pieces.  "She'd be recognized as a mutant in an
instant.  Crowds would be howling for her blood."
        "Not necessarily.  Kurt?"
        "Ja, Professor?"
        "Could you deactivate your holo-projector?"
        "Okay."  Fiddling with some controls on a band on his wrist,
Kurt's human guise vanished to be replaced with a lithe elf with fine
dark blue fur and a barbed tail.  He waved his hand at Vanessa and
grinned.
        "Kurt uses a holo-projector I've designed to hide his true
appearance.  Patricia would get one of these as well.  We'd need to do
some work on it to extend the effect to include her wings and tail, but
I'm confident that eventually, she could have an active social life."
        "Please consider it, Mrs. Harrison," said Jean earnestly.
"She'd be with mutants who are her own age.  She'd be around people who
understand what she's going through, people who could help her deal with
everything that's happening to her."
        Vanessa's eyes narrowed dangerously.  "Are you saying I don't
understand, Miss Grey?  I was a teenager once, too.  I went through my
rebellious stage.  I'm surprised Patricia hasn't started yet."
Patricia's skin darkened as she blushed.
        "In a way, I don't think you do," replied Logan.  "You're also a
mother.  Now I ain't no father, but these kids here have given me a grey
hair or two.  When you're in that kind of a position it's hard sometimes
to think straight, especially when you're wrong and they're right.
You're tryin' to do your best, but it's because you care that you're
screwin' up.  Both Charles and I have done that a few times."  He turned
to Kurt, Scott and Jean.  "If you repeat any of that to the others..."
The trio nodded nervously.
        There was a long moment of silence as Vanessa digested what
Logan said.  Eventually, she shook her head.  "No.  I can't allow it,
Charles.  I'm not going to risk her life because her 'father', who
hasn't seen her in almost ten years, is suddenly concerned for her well
being."
        "You can't stay up here forever," said Charles.  "We spent a few
days in town.  They've managed to build up quite a tourist industry
around the 'Monster of Mount Muldoon.'  More and more people have seen
Patricia, it's just a matter of time before her existence becomes fact
instead of fiction.  You can't keep her secret indefinitely."
        "I could of those yahoos stayed of my land!" she retorted
angrily.  "You've seen the only picture of her, right?"
        "I was hard to miss," replied Scott.  "They had eight by ten
posters of it in virtually every store.  How did someone take a picture
of her while she was taking a bath at a pond?"
        "He snuck up on me," said Patricia quietly, her eyes downcast.
"He was downwind, and I couldn't smell him.  I heard him, though.  I
managed to throw a rock and knock him out.  I escaped, but unfortunately
he'd already taken the picture."
        "And what happens?" continued Vanessa.  "The guy was from
Hollywood on vacation.  A year later, they've got some cartoon called
'Gargoyles,' with creatures that look almost just like her on it.  If
the 'Monster' tourism was running before, it exploded when that
happened.  Now it's a constant fight to keep every nutball that wants to
get a look at the 'Monster of Mount Muldoon' from trespassing on *my*
land!"
        "You mean she *is* like a Gargoyle?" blurted Kurt, excited.
"Awesome!"  Charles glared at the young mutant, and Kurt subsided.
        "All the more reason for her to leave," said Jean.
        "Oh no!  You're not getting me into that argument.  It's
difficult, but I manage.  Aside from a few planned 'sightings' outside
our borders, Patricia doesn't leave my territory.  So there's no problem
there."
        The X-Men looked at each other, perplexed.  "That's not what we
heard," said Scott cautiously.  "There were rumours of Patricia being
spotted in town three days ago.  The people were practically in a
frenzy."
        "Impossible!" snorted Vanessa.  "She'd never do a stupid think
like that."  Patricia flinched, but Vanessa was focused on Scott and
missed it.  Charles, Jean and Logan did not.
        "Is this true?" asked Charles, turning to Patricia.  She licked
her lips nervously.  She tried to speak but no sound came out.
        Her mother frowned.  "You didn't go to Ridgecrest did you?"  No
answer.  "Did you?" she demanded a second time.  Vanessa tried to meet
her daughter's eyes, but Patricia looked away.  "You did!  Why?!  After
all the work we've gone through to keep you a secret-!"
        "I don't want to be a secret!" blurted Patricia.  She
immediately put her hands over her mouth, horrified at revealing her
hidden yearning.
        "What?" asked Vanessa stiffly.
        "I...I don't want to be a secret.  I'm...I'm lonely up here all
by myself.  I don't have any friends.  And all I ever see are trees and
mountains.  Until three days ago, I'd never seen Ridgecrest, and I've
lived within an hour's drive for almost all my life!  I didn't know what
a movie theatre looked like!  Mom...I...I want to go with them."  She
looked down at the ground.  "I'm sorry," she said miserably.
        Vanessa had turned pale during Patricia's confession.  Bowing
her head, she said "I though I would be enough for you."
        "Parent's are never enough, Vanessa," said Charles gently.
"We're social creatures.  We need contact with others.  If you stay
here, Patricia will continue to try to meet others, perhaps
disastrously.  Either that or go crazy.  You can't isolate the two of
you and stay sane."
        Vanessa chuckled, trying to find some humour in the situation,
but not really succeeding.  "I don't think were all that bad off."
        "You'd be surprised, Vanessa.  I can see the effects your
isolation has had on you."
        She looked at him.  "Oh?"
        "Well for starters, you were never this protective of Patricia.
It's almost an obsession.  When I arrived, you greeted me with cynicism
and suspicion.  Not the reaction I expected after I helped save
Patricia's life."  Patricia gasped in surprise, and he turned to her and
smiled.  "You all gave us quite a scare for the first few months you
were alive.  After you were born, we discovered you had malformed
kidneys.  We didn't know if you would survive or not"
        "Really?  What happened?"
        "We decided to trust in your body's ability to use ultraviolet
radiation to heal itself.  We removed your kidneys, put you on dialysis,
and put you under a UV lamp twenty-four hours a day.  You didn't like
it, but your body responded wonderfully.  In less than a week, you had
re-grown a new set of kidneys that were in perfect condition."
        "Wow."  Patricia was silent for a moment.  "I...I guess I should
say thanks."
        "Don't bother.  Seeing you alive and well is more than enough
for me."  Turning to Vanessa he stared at her intensely.  "Well."
        Vanessa was silent for several long moments.  Finally, she
pounded her fists on the chair she was sitting in.  "Dammit!  I don't
like it!  I don't want her to go."
        "I think the question you should be asking is, do you have a
choice?"
        Vanessa sighed.  "I guess not.  Patricia?"  She looked at her
only child.  "Pack our things, we're going to New York."
        "Yes!"  Patricia ran over to her mother and gave her a tight
hug, she ran upstairs.
        "I'll help you," said Jean, and she followed Patricia upstairs.
        Charles watched them go.  Putting one hand on Vanessa's shoulder
he said.  "You made the right choice."
        "Did I, Charles?" she asked.  "I hope so.  I really hope so."

The End So Far

Authors Note:  This is not going to be a steady work.  I am basically using this as a 'work-when-stuck' piece, meaning when I'm working on something like One War, Three Sisters and I get stuck, I'll turn to this so I stay in the habit of writing.  The primary focus is going to be Patricia, but I definately encourage sidestories.  Like any X-Men work, there are a multitude of characters each with their own history, personality, and problems.  If someone sees something cool and wants to run with it using Patricia as a secondary character, feel free.  I'd even be willing to help.  Just ask first so I can figure out my consulting fees.  (Just kidding!! ^_^)

Second, for those of you waiting for further updates to Never Again, I'm sorry but I will not long be continuing that series for quite some time.  I have determined that to do what I want to do, I must become a much better writer than I am right now.  One day, I will do this story, but only when my skills are up to the task of my vision.

Finally, for those of you waiting for the last few chapters of One War, Three Sisters, thank you all for being so patient.  I am *so* close to finishing that, but I've been focusing on it for over a year, and I've become burned out.  I'm taking a break and working on a couple of other pieces, but I *will* get this series finished eventually.  I've worked too bloody hard on it not to.  I just ask all of you to please be patient.

Thanks for any C&C in advance, and I hope you enjoyed the story.  ^_^

Adam

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