That next night Elisa brought Number Five to the northern edge of the island. Around nine was when Goliath and Brooklyn dropped in to scope things out. She'd asked them for assistance if it would be needed.

While she and Number Five waited at one side of the parking lot by the bridge the two gargoyles watched from a building above. "Why are we here right now again?"

"Elisa wanted us to come and help if it should be required."

"Makes sense but why would NOVA ask them to come alone? Is this a trap of some sort?"

"I do not believe that would happen. Elisa has told me that NOVA has no associations other then those with Xanatos." Goliath reassured him.

Brooklyn sighed and crouched on the edge of the roof, "If you say so" For a long twenty minutes nothing happened. But when tires screeching reached the gargoyle's ears; he sharpened his watch. Coming off the bridge that connected the Bronx and Manhattan were three blue trucks. All had the sign of the, "Quarrymen?! This was a set-up!"

"A reasonable suggestion, come," The two slinked down the side of the building into the shadows as some Quarrymen came from one of the trucks, including John Castaway, walked toward Elisa and Number Five.

"Ah, Detective Maza, so nice to see you again."

"What do you want, Castaway?" Elisa demanded angrily.

He paid no attention to her question, "I see you have a comptraption here."

"Number Five is no contraption. I'm returning him to NOVA and you can back off."

"How much is this N.5 worth, hm? Probably around, oh, twenty-five, thirty-thousand dollars."

"You aren't getting him, I'm returning him to NOVA." Elisa repeated, stepping in front of Number Five.

"Is that so?" One of the Quarrymen fired their gun and a bullet hit the ground before Elisa, nearly hitting her foot. Hidden in the shadows of the building, Goliath growled low and his eyes flashed white. Before he could even move to help Elisa, Number Five's laser, which was located behind his left shoulder, came forward and his own eyes lit up red.

"Number Five furious! Livid! Perturbed!"

"Is he protecting Elisa?" Brooklyn gasped in surprise.

Goliath answered despite his fury at Castaway. "It would appear so. He seems to have a mind capable of emotional response."

"Let's figure it out later," Climbing back up the wall of the building the two gargoyles took to the air and attacked from above. Within seconds bullets and lasers were shooting through the air. One struck Goliath's left wing and sent him into a sidespin. He crashed to the ground between Elisa, Number Five and the Quarrymen. "Goliath!"

"Brooklyn, stay back!"

The firing of more guns drowned the advice out. Goliath looked up just in time to see a tranquilizer dart hit his second in the shoulder, making him cry out in surprise at the sudden tiredness that swept over him.

Suddenly one of the three Quarrymen trucks exploded as Number Five's laser beam hit the engine compartment. The Quarrymen around looked shocked and then fired again. The robot let loose another laser that tore up the cement before Castaway and his men.

"You may have had the advantage this time, Goliath. But next time will be that robot's, as well as yours, last!" Castaway shouted as he got into one of the remaining trucks.

Number Five came up beside Goliath, setting his laser back. "Who were they?"

"Quarrymen, a stupid organization that wants to wipe our kind off the face of the planet." Brooklyn snorted angrily, forcing himself to stay conscious.

"Stupid. Foolish. Gullible. Doltish. Dumbbell. Lamebrain."

The gargoyle glared up at the robot, eyes narrowed. "Shut up."

He looked down at him. "Shut up? Silence. Hush. Sit on it. Can it."

"And if you ask me Castaway's the jerk of the world too. Just setting this up to bait some gargoyles. We're gonna have to see Xanatos and get some more info on NOVA robotics." Elisa added.

"Jerk of the world. Turkey. Idiot. Pain in the--"

"Don't go there."

Number Five stopped at the gargoyle's word and looked to Elisa. "Why did those humans attack and why are we here in the first place?"

"NOVA was supposed to be coming out to get you to give you a tune-up."

"Tune-up? Input."

"No, to take you apart, find out which screw is loose. The whole deal."

"Apart. Undone. Dismantle. Dissect. Disassemble."

Elisa sighed, "Right"

That's when another small attachment rose out of Number Five's head; he looked down at the ground. "Jump!"

Elisa and Goliath looked down and saw a grasshopper, a rare sight in New York except for in the park, hopping across the pavement. "Oh, look, it's a grasshopper."

"Grasshopper, orthopterus insect." The robot looked back down to the ground, and then went after the grasshopper. "Jump." In fact he started to actually jump after the bug.

"Okay, that's great," Elisa called after him, suppressing her laughter.

Number Five was obviously having too much fun to notice. He was already five feet away and still going.

"All right, you come back here, c'mon," When he didn't listen she called louder. "Hey!" He turned his head, but didn't notice that the grasshopper'd stopped. At the last jump his tracks crushed the bug. Elisa ran up beside him. "You cult, look what you did!"

"Error, grasshopper disassemble." Then he looked to Elisa. "Reassemble."

"Huh?"

"Reassemble." he repeated.

"I can't reassemble him, you squashed him; he's dead."

Number Five looked puzzled of that answer to his question. "Dead?"

"Right dead as a doornail."

"Reassemble, Elisa," he insisted, sounding somewhat desperate and confident. "Reassemble."

She put a hand on his right shoulder. "I know you don't understand, but when you're dead, you're dead, that's just the way things are; dead is forever"

Number Five considered this for a moment; he seemed confused, but he also seemed knowledgeable of that answer. "Squash dead disassemble dead disassemble! DEAD!!!" At that word he sped off across the lot.

"Hey, where're you going?"

"No disassemble!" he called out again. Then he got into a nearby truck.

"Hey! Get out of there!" Elisa ordered, coming up beside the truck. Number Five was already skimming through a car's manual. "Oh, great, if in fear, read. That should be his motto." Then the truck started. At the same time Elisa opened the back door of the truck and got in.

"No, don't start the truck! You don't know how to drive!" The advice wasn't needed. The truck started off and sped up after reaching the road. And it was obviously not being driven professionally.

"Great, just our luck to play the game Need for Speed with a hijacked truck and a robot behind the wheel."



* * * * *



"No! You turn left here!" Elisa ordered as the van hung a right.

Number Five was behind the wheel and wasn't exactly doing a great job on his first driving lesson. "Left?"

Elisa sighed, "Don't tell me you don't know your left from your right."

"Right. Proper. Correct. Accurate. Appropriate."

"No, turn the truck right. This way!"

"I see now," He turned the truck right, but barely avoided slamming into a pickup truck. Then their van swerved left and scaled a roadblock at an intersection. Swinging left again, the van picked up speed and dodged right as two motorcycles shot by.

Elisa rolled her eyes, "Sure, you do." Then she saw what was up ahead; a sign that said, Morison Pier Dock. "Oh, no, don't tell me you're gonna drive off the dock and into the bay. We'll be killed!"

Number Five considered that immediately. He looked at her, still driving, but unaware the van was heading for the water. "Disassemble?"

"Yeah, as in, disassemble all over the place!"

Number Five looked back ahead. "Disassemble? No!!!" He hit the brakes, but the van was showing many signs of slowing down quickly. However right at the edge of the dock the van came to an abrupt halt, it's front wheels hung over the edge and overlooked the water's surface, which was twenty feet below them. "Escape! Escape! Flee! Hide! Refuge!" he ordered while shaking Elisa's shoulder.

"What are you afraid of?" She grabbed his hand and removed it. "What's the matter with you?"

"NOVA Robotics. Disassemble. Dead! Disassemble Number Five! Dead"

"But you can't die, you're a machine."

The robot shook his head, "No."

"No, you're not a machine?" Elisa was baffled by this behavior.

"Yes!"

"Yes, you are, or yes, you're not?"

"Yes" he repeated, sounding the slightest bit frustrated.

"Yes, what?!" Elisa demanded impatiently.

"Yes, not,"

She sighed at that, "Talk about a malfunction."

"Not malfunction, Elisa." Number Five said. "Number Five is alive."

Elisa was just about to speak again when a muffled thud on the cabin of the van sounded. Then she heard a familiar young voice call down, "Elisa! We've got trouble headed our way!"

At the same time Number Five's antenna device came on-line and he looked around out the window as a truck with a large cabin back pulled up. Across its hood was the word, "NOVA?!?! Disassemble! Dead! Disassemble Number Five! Dead!!!"

"Girlie! Girlie, come quick, girlie, danger! C'mon."

Elisa watched in puzzlement as Number Five backed away from where the driver's seat had been into the back of the van. "No, no disassemble." He put a box over his head like a scared little kid trying to hide from an angry parent. "No disassemble Number Five!"

"Come on, you!"

Elisa peered out the window just in time to see some man with black hair and glasses exit the truck behind them and go around to its back. "What kinda planet is this guy from?"

The robot repeated his words again; his hands were clasped together and shaking with fear. "No No disassem-mble"

Elisa was puzzled at first of his actions then she thought that if he claimed to be alive that he could have feelings. In this case he was frightened. "Oh, Number Five, don't be scared, you just wait here and I'll be right back."

As she exited the van she saw that the man with the glasses she'd seen was bringing out another robot that looked mostly like Number Five, but had headgear over its lip lights and on its head, protecting all its wires and such. "Come on, Number One, c'mon, very good"

She stopped beside the truck's edge as the robot came down off the ramp. "Oh, geez, another one, how many of these guys have you got anyway?" She was starting to really believe there were more then just two robots.

"Oh, you are girl, right?" the man asked, he had an Indian accent as well.

"Yes, as far as I know." Elisa answered while the second robot rolled by. She tried to start a dialogue with it. "Hi. How are you doing? Your little brother's hiding in that truck."

"I have seen some strange, bizarre drivers, but you, you will be a hole in the cake."

"Me? Talk to your robot; he did the driving."

"Did you say the robot drove the truck?" another voice asked. Elisa looked into the truck and saw another man sitting at the driver's seat.

"Yeah, that's right, chum, that's exactly what I'm saying." Elisa told him as he came forward.

"You cannot hold your breath with that story, girl." the black haired man said.

"Hey, I was there, okay?"

"Are you sure you weren't doing any kind of steering or anything like that?" the second man asked.

The detective rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I like to drive off of docks."

"Well, there's no way that robot could've driven."

"Are you calling me a lair?" Elisa snapped, glaring at him.

"No, uh no, maybe you h-have amnesia."

A small silence went on, and then the man went back into the truck.

"Newton! We are wasting valuable time."

"Relax, Ben."

Elisa looked at the second robot, and then asked, "So, what are these guys used for anyway?"

"That is top secret."

"Yeah, I guessed as much." Another thud reached her ears and she looked back to see that Brooklyn was the one perched on the cab of the van, keeping an eye on Number Five, but still keeping himself out of sight of the other men.

He noticed her looking at him and nodded, flashing his eyes for a split second as a signal that said, "Keep talking to them. Everything's A OK over here."

"Hey, Doctor Love? I'd like to get that robot back now." Newton asked from the truck.

"He knows that, but he's scared." Elisa told him.

"It's a machine, it doesn't get scared, it doesn't get happy, it doesn't get sad, it just runs programs." He said the last line in unison with Ben.

"Yeah, well howda you explain that?" They all glanced at the beeping monitor on the dashboard of the truck. It read:

Number Five

Alive

Living

Continue

SURVIVE!



"You see? He scared that if you take him apart he's gonna die."

"Where'd you hear that?" Newton asked.

"Number Five told me, he'd tell you if you'd just talk to him."

"That's what I've been trying to do--"

"No, I mean with your mouth, watch," Elisa turned to the van and put her hands to her mouth to call out. "Number Five? Number Five, come on out."

The robot gazed out of the truck's door, one hand on the door's frame. "Is it cool?"

"It's okay, these guys aren't going to hurt you; they're your friends."

"N-No disassemble?" he asked nervously.

"No, no, they just wanna talk to you."

At the time Brooklyn was still perched in the shadows of the cabin of the van. Suddenly, the sounds of screeching car tires reached his ears. As he turned his head to look toward the entrance to the area, he saw a whole fleet of blue and white security trucks racing toward them from a far road. Guns were rigged up to most of them. On the hood of one of the jeeps was the word NOVA. The red gargoyle's face went to worry. "Uh, oh This is not good." He glanced down at the humans and yelled in a whisper, "Elisa Elisa!"

She hadn't heard him; she was too busy getting Number Five to come out of the van. "Come forward. Do you remember forward?"

"Forward" He came out of the van slowly, but not at his full height.

"I can't believe it's listening to her and not to us." Newton said, amazed.

"That's it, c'mon"

"I am standing here beside myself" Benjamin said, amazed as well.

"Okay, okay, now, you just tell them what you told me."

"N-Number Five, not just robot--Huh?"

Suddenly a high-pitched whistling sounded, then someone's voice over a bullhorn. "There it is! Move out!"

That's when the blue and white cars pulled up and soldiers spread out around the trucks and people, each soldier dropped to one knee and aimed a gun at Number Five. Ben pulled Elisa to the ground. "Down, girlie!"

"What're you nuts?!"

Number Five raised up and brought forward his laser. "Look out, he's gonna shoot!" someone yelled. Guns all around started going off, however none of the bullets were hitting the robot. Elisa threw her arms over her head and watched as Number Five fired his laser at some building. Debris was blown from its side and scared off about four soldiers, who immediately stopped firing. Then he turned left and fired at some of the cars, blowing one up completely and scattering even more soldiers.

"All right! Go for it!"

The gunfire increased and Elisa saw Number Five's right shoulder snap back as a bullet tore through it, sparks flew out of the hole. "Ah!" Another hit him in his chest door, then in his midsection, breaking the joint. His laser started to heat up again, but a bullet hit it and broke the opening, disabling its uses. "Ooohh!" More and more bullets were finding their marks on him. Another struck his right shoulder then one hit the left side of his neck, sending out even more sparks. "Elisa!"

She was about to spring to her feet and start telling them to stop firing when a chorus of screeching roars erupted from above. Everyone looked up just in time to spot six winged figures descending toward the pier, all with glowing white eyes.

Perfect timing, guys Elisa thought.

Goliath and Hudson landed between them and the guns, which immediately stopped. Lexington swooped down suddenly from behind the soldiers and knocked one from his post on one of the security cars. His two rookery brothers and Angela were quick to follow his attack example. Knowing it was an ambush, the cars, including the truck, backed away and sped off.

One by one the gargoyles came to land and check on Elisa and Number Five. Angela was the first to speak, "Are you all right, Elisa?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but Number Five isn't in exactly great shape." That's when the rest of the gargoyles who hadn't met the robot noticed and stared wide-eyed in surprise.

Wearily, the robot glanced up at them; his eyes could barely be seen since his 'eyelids' were covering them as if he were tired.

"Hey, a-are you okay?" Lexington asked.

Number Five looked down at the ground, then took his right arm and shook it with his left hand. It flopped around powerlessly. "The damage to the shoulder was extensive. Must reconnect power circuits,"

Lexington looked at Goliath with that look that clearly said, "Can I take a look?" Goliath nodded and the small gargoyle approached the robot. Then he stood up on two legs and inspected the ripped wires protruding from the bullet hole.

"How bad is it?" Broadway asked, feeling curious.

"Not too bad, but I need something to replace one wire with or we'll have to find him a spare arm." Lex reported, looking over his shoulder at the crowd.

"Here," Number Five showed Lexington a wire that he'd found on the ground. Taking it, he turned back to the robot and inserted the wire, twisting the ends around each side of the broken link.

"Now try moving it."

He did as told, but sparks flew from the hole and the wire snapped. "Ah!" Everyone winced at the look he had on his face.

"We'll uh, have to take him to the Eyrie Building to get fixed up then." Elisa proposed.

"Very well, Angela, you glide back to the castle and have Xanatos bring his helicopter to the Morison Pier."

As she took off Hudson spoke up, "Lad, what is this contra--"

Brooklyn cut in quickly before he could finish. "Oh, Hudson, I wouldn't say that word around Five here. It's upsetting to him."

Hudson looked down at the clan's second questionably, but he didn't comment.

"Elisa, who are all these gargoyles? I do not know their names yet, some of which I have not even met yet." Number Five said to change the subject.

"Well, you've already met me, Goliath, and Brooklyn. And the one who's with you right now is Lexington."

"But you can just call me Lex if you want."

"And that's Broadway and Hudson. There's another one of them back at the Eyrie Building. Their watchdog, Bronx. And the female gargoyle who was here is Angela."

Lexington whispered to Number Five, "Call Angela Angie, she likes that name."

"Lex, you're going to get yourself hurt with that wisecrack." Brooklyn warned him.

That's when the faint noise of a chopper's blades made themselves known and soon a red and black helicopter landed nearby. Moments later, Angela glided back down out of the sky. As she landed Xanatos spoke up, "I was informed that you needed the assistance of my helicopter?"

"Yes. NOVA comes and attacks. Number Five is injured. Goliath sends Angie to fetch Xanatos's chopper." Number Five explained.

Angela glared at the trio with a red tint to her eyes. "Why are you looking at us? Lex was the one who told him to say that."

When she glared at him he sputtered when he spoke, backing away, "I uh oh, I have to go back to the Eyrie and fix a computer. See ya!"

As he went to the edge of the dock and took off Number Five tilted his head. "Dubious" Then he looked to the others. "Hard to believe."

"It is when it comes to bad nicknames." Angela replied dryly.

"I'm sorry about saying that, Angela."

"No problem."

"Detective Maza, if you'll be so kind, will you help me move him to my chopper?" As Elisa led Number Five to the chopper the gargoyles all took off as well, heading for the Eyrie Building.



* * * * *



Once back at Castle Wyvern, Lexington was finally able to get some proper tools to fix Number Five's shoulder. He was soon fixing the robot with Goliath and Elisa watching in the Den. "Okay, now take oh, the green wire?"

"No, take receiving positron wire and twist it together with the blue neutron wire." Number Five corrected him. Lexington took his screwdriver and twisted a screw inside the metal and the two wires were reconnected.

"Okay, now we just have to reconnect one more?"

"Right, find yellow circuit and snip off frayed wire." Another small explosion of sparks came from his shoulder when Lex complied. At first he thought he'd broke the arm even more, but Number Five was able to flex his wrist and three fingers. "Ah, new as good."

Elisa smiled at that. "No, Number Five. It's as good as new."

"I see, but why is NOVA attacking Number Five?" he asked.

"That's a good question. They said they'd only come pick him up, not rip him apart with guns and lasers."

"They must have believed that he malfunctioned on them so they thought of him as dangerous to the public." Goliath suggested.

"That gives them the privilege to shoot at him?" Lex said dryly while sealing up the opening in Number Five's shoulder.

"NOVA try to disassemble Number Five for no reason?" the robot asked fearfully. At Elisa's solemn nod he said, "Then NOVA must not find Number Five. Number Five hide. Disappear. Vanish. Refuge."

"Hey that just gave me an idea!" Lex said excitedly, looking up from organizing his tools.

"What idea is that?" Goliath asked suspiciously.

"Let's take Number Five upstate to a place where NOVA can't find him. Maybe even go into Canada to escape them."

"There's no property up there we can use." Elisa pointed out.

"Xanatos could handle that. Then you, me, and Goliath could take'm upstate and out of the city."

"Right, and have those NOVA bozos be after you every inch of the way. And they're already linked to Xanatos by information and NOVA could have a tracker implanted somewhere in this guy."

"Brooklyn, we didn't ask for your help." Lex glared at his brother who was standing in the doorway. Then he sighed, "But you do have a point about the wave link tracker. Number Five, is there some kind of implant or attachment on you that allows NOVA to track your moments?"

"I'm not sure"

"Haven't you heard it?" They all listened and heard a faint bleeping noise. Number Five looked down and saw a green light lit box nailed to his side.

"Uh oh" He removed it and then broke it open, snapping some wires and disabling its tracking power.

"Since that's taken care of nextly we have to plan the route. Lex, that's where you come in, me and Lex will handle mapping the route upstate, the rest of you discuss what to do with Number Five once we get up there."

Goliath glared at his second-in-command. "That may be a well thought way of planning the moves to get north, but you're not in command at the moment," Then his glare became less noticeable, "But since you and Lexington have taken such an interest in helping Number Five you will be in charge of getting him up north. Elisa will accompany you two and the rest of us will keep an eye on NOVA to see if they try once again to follow and capture Number Five."

As the two younger gargoyles left the room, Number Five looked to Elisa, looking a little confused. "What's happening, Elisa?"

Elisa exchanged a glance with Goliath, then explained, "NOVA may know where you are right now and they're probably scowering the city searching for you. We're going to take you upstate, but away from Albany."

"But where Number Five go after you take Number Five up north?"

"Oh, right well"

"That won't be an issue." Owen, who'd suddenly appeared in the doorway, spoke up. "I have no doubt in my mind that Mr. Xanatos could assist your friend in living upstate."

"Explain yourself." Goliath ordered.

"I believe that Mr. Xanatos has a team of researchers upstate that would be willing to take care of Number Five. The matter of that is just getting him there. NOVA won't just stop after one attempt to reclaim him."

"That's it, we gotta get him there."

"On the contrary." Suddenly light appeared through the nearest window and Goliath was frozen in stone, as well as any other gargoyles.

"Goliath?" Number Five looked a little puzzled as he cautiously tapped on Goliath's stone arm with one finger.

"It's okay, Number Five, gargoyles turn to stone during the day. There's nothing to worry about right now. They'll come out of it at sunset."

"If you say so,"



To Be Continued