The Story of Wailing Crusader Gargoyle

The night was not going well for our hero. Danny desperately tried to shake off the dizziness, to gather his energy and spring back into the fray, but he could feel his numb fingers slipping from the edge of the building as the light rain tickled his face.

Funny the thoughts that can dart through the mind of even the most focused hero at times like this: everything from wondering if anything like this ever happens to Daredevil, to realizing that a meeting with the pavement hundreds of feet below could guarantee that he would never be available as a playable character. With that disturbing thought, Danny’s fingers suddenly gave out, even as he heard his assailants rushing toward the edge of the building, presumably to provide any aid possible to make certain that he was not late for his appointment with the concrete.

***

“What do you think, Bullseye? Will he hit that stone gargoyle and bounce a little or will this be a one-stop ride?” Klaw grinned as he addressed his deadly accomplice.

Iron Fist had never seen it coming. Bait the noble hero with a few Hand ninjas engaged in some midnight skullduggery, and then spring the trap. The trio of ne’er-do-wells and their retinue of cloth-muffled henchmen were understandably pleased with themselves.

“I hope he bounces,” Abomination chortled thickly. “I like it when they bounce.”

A few of the sinister ninjas suppressed chuckles as their leader spoke. “Looks like he’ll miss,” Bullseye pronounced as he peered into the misty night. “The angle is all wrong for a hit. He’d have to bank quite a bit… wait a sec, what?” The keen-eyed assassin blinked rapidly and shook his head.

***

Even with the pavement plummeting upward to greet him, even with a symphony of pain blaring in his skull, Iron Fist could sense the benevolent presence. It was so close, if only he could twist… just… so! One arm caught the sculpted stone, and instead of the expected explosion of pain in his shoulder, he felt warmth and balance return to his aching muscles. His dulled senses suddenly sharpened, and he could hear a whistling in the air even as he instinctively flipped to a nearby ledge, narrowly evading a shower of deadly blades from above.

***

“Unbelievable! He was three sheets to the wind before you knocked him over the edge, and now he’s actually dodging?” Bullseye snapped at Abomination, who had gotten a little carried away in the one-sided ambush.

“Perhaps my admittedly less precise methods will suffice,” Klaw boasted as he leveled his sonic blaster over the side of the building. “It is a bit dark.”

“I don’t miss!” Bullseye spat, even as a ball of reddish light emerged from nowhere and quickly came into focus for his keen eyes. Wait, not a ball, a fist…

***

“Fascinating,” Stephen Strange murmured as the sorcerer poured the freshly brewed tea into Danny’s waiting cup. “You believe that the gargoyle was the source of the rejuvenation?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Danny returned as he gratefully sipped the refreshing brew. “but I can hardly believe what I accomplished in the few short minutes following my contact with the carving. It was as if I could have dodged the raindrops, had I wished to.”

“A devastating setback for the Lethal Legion, to be sure,” Strange chuckled, pleased with his friend’s exploits. Continuing his line of questioning, he asked: “And Bullseye swore that it moved?”

“Yes, he claimed that it ‘shifted’ to intercept me. At first, I ignored him; I did hit him pretty hard,” Iron Fist smiled, recalling the uncharacteristically bewildered expression that had plagued the assassin’s features both before and after his time unconscious. “But it wasn’t there when I returned just a few hours later,” the hero concluded.

“Fascinating,” the master mage repeated as he inhaled the fragrant steam from his cup. “It seems that a powerful new presence has joined us in Super Hero City. Though my suspicion is that this presence is, in fact, ancient.”

Even as the pair of friends finished their tea and conversation, events that would have surely interested them were transpiring across town.

***

Don’t remember seeing this one before, Peter realized as he released his webline and flipped toward a nearby gargoyle. “Hey Gobbies! Can I call you Gobbies? What say we finish this up and get out of the rain?” he quipped, hoping that he sounded confident as the unlikely team of goblin-powered foes tore after him. Truth is, this isn’t going too well, the web-slinger admitted to himself as, nursing his wounded arm, his feet lightly clung to the wet stone.

As water streamed down its aged features, the gargoyle beneath the web-patterned boots seemed to grin even more than usual…