Date: October 20, 2011
Location: The Basement, Queens
The City of New York, Lloyd had concluded, was built upon a slumbering beast.
He could feel it through the soles of his feet, a constant, thrumming that vibrated through the concrete foundation of his old apartment.The Muggles, No, the locals totally ignored it and called it some thing like "infrastructure." They called it "the subway."
To Lloyd Nipple, it was a ley line. A crude, artificial, screaming river of energy that flowed just a few feet beneath his floorboards.
"They trap lightning in copper veins," Lloyd murmured, kneeling on the cold floor. He held a piece of chalk in his hand, his eyes traced the path of the conduit pipe that ran along the ceiling of his basement. "They enslave the storm and use it to power... toasters."
It was an insult to the elements but it was an opportunity for a wizard.
The room was prepared and in the center of the floor, the "Gargoyle Egg" sat inside a circle of crushed charcoal. It looked innocuous, like a paperweight, but Lloyd could feel the hunger radiating from it. The dormant life inside was sensing the proximity of power.
Lloyd had spent the last two days stripping the insulation off the heavy-duty copper wire he had bought. He had wound it into a complex spiral, creating a makeshift Runic Inductor.
One end of the wire was wrapped around the egg. The other end dangled freely, waiting to be connected to the source.
Subject 42 was hiding under the bed. The Niffler had sensed the shift in Lloyd's aura, the manic focus of a researcher about to do something incredibly dangerous and had wisely decided to protect his stash of stolen quarters.
"Safety first," Lloyd whispered.
He picked up a pair of thick rubber gloves he had stolen from the janitor's closet upstairs. Rubber was an excellent insulator against mundane shock, though it did little against magical backlash.
He dragged his stepladder to the corner of the room where the main power junction for the building entered through the wall. It was a grey metal box, humming with an angry buzz.
Lloyd didn't have a screwdriver. He placed his hand on the metal cover.
"Alohomora."
The lock mechanism clicked, confused by the magical intrusion, and the door swung open.
Inside was a nest of thick black and red cables. To a layman, it was a breaker box,but to Lloyd, it was a dam holding back a flood.
"AC Current," Lloyd mused, recalling a physics textbook he had briefly skimmed at the library. "Alternating Current. It oscillates. Like the vibration of a tuning fork."
In magical theory, oscillation was good. It meant the energy was malleable.
He took the free end of his copper wire inductor, he didn't just twist it onto the cables as that would blow the fuse and likely set his hair on fire.
He had to filter it so he pulled a small jar from his pocket. It contained a mixture of salt and iron filings. He sprinkled the mixture over the copper wire, chanting softly.
"Purificus Elementum. Convertus Fulmen to Mana."
The salt hissed as it touched the wire, turning black. He was creating a metaphysical filter, scrubbing the "Muggle" taint from the electricity and forcing it to behave like raw elemental lightning.
He took a deep breath.
"Hungry?" he asked the egg across the room.
The stone rocked slightly in place. Thump.
"Good."
Lloyd jammed the copper leads into the main input terminals of the junction box.
A spark, blue and angry, snapped at his fingers but the rubber gloves held.
The reaction was instantaneous as the lights in the apartment didn't just flicker, they screamed. The bulb overhead exploded in a shower of glass. Darkness swallowed the room, save for the violent blue arc of energy pulsing through the copper wire.
The hum grew to a roar and Lloyd jumped off the ladder, backing away as the wire began to glow cherry-red. It was working.
The filter was holding, the raw electricity of the New York grid was spiraling down the wire, being twisted by the runes into pure, condensed magical energy.
He looked at the egg, the stone was no longer grey. It was drinking the light, the cracks on its surface began to glow a deep, molten gold. The vibration in the floor increased, syncing with the pulse of the egg.
Thump thump Thump thump
It sounded like a heart made of granite.
"More," Lloyd whispered, his eyes wide, reflecting the golden light. "Drink it all."
Upstairs, he heard a shout. "Hey! The TV went out!"
"Shut up," Lloyd hissed at the ceiling. "Science is happening."
The egg began to shake violently, the copper wire wrapped around it was melting, the heat becoming unbearable. The smell of burning rubber filled the small room.
The shell of the egg didn't crack like a chicken's egg. It groaned which sounded like a mountain shifting its weight.
Then, with a sound like a hammer striking an anvil, the shell shattered.
Lloyd shielded his eyes as a shockwave of force blew the chalk circle apart. The copper wire vaporized instantly, the connection severed.
Silence returned to the room, the only light came from the streetlamps outside filtering through the small, grime-encrusted window near the ceiling.
Lloyd coughed, waving away the smoke. "Lumos."
He didn't have his wand, so he couldn't cast it. He fumbled for a flashlight he kept on the desk and clicked it on.
He swept the beam across the floor. The egg was gone and in its place, sitting amidst a pile of stone shards, was a creature.
It was small, perhaps the size of a bulldog. But it was dense. It looked as if someone had carved a gargoyle out of slate and then breathed life into it.
Its skin was a mosaic of grey, rocky plates. It had broad shoulders, heavy forearms that dragged on the ground, and a short, stubby tail that ended in a heavy knob of bone.
It didn't have wings, not yet.
It turned its head slowly. Its eyes were not biological. They were two glowing pits of solid yellow light, lacking pupils or irises.
It stared at the flashlight beam, then traced the light back to Lloyd.
"Magnificent," Lloyd breathed.
"Taxonomy class never covered you."
The creature opened its mouth. There were no teeth, just ridges of stone that ground together with a sound like sandpaper.
Grrr-krrrr.
It took a step forward and the floorboard creaked under its weight as it was incredibly heavy for its size.
"Subject 42 is a thief," Lloyd told the creature calmly, keeping the light steady.
"You... you are a warlock."
The creature tilted its head as it sniffed the air. It ignored Lloyd and waddled over to the remains of the copper wire. It picked up a piece of the melted, slagged metal.
Crunch.....
It ate the copper like it was a potato chip.
> [System Alert]
> Hatching Successful.
> Species Identified: Asgardian Rock-Hound (Larval Stage).
> Name: [Pending]
> Diet: Lithovore/Metallovore (Eats stone and metal).
> Temperament: Stubborn.
> Passive Trait: [Stone Skin] - Immune to small arms fire and minor spells.
Lloyd read the blue window. "Asgardian? A Norse magical beast? Interesting. The Muggles here have legends of Thor. perhaps the old gods dropped a pet."
He watched the creature finish the copper and look around for more. It locked eyes on the Niffler's stash of quarters peeking out from under the bed.
"No," Lloyd said firmly.
The creature paused and looked at Lloyd. Its yellow eyes narrowed as it took a step toward the bed.
Lloyd didn't step back. He knew how to handle magical beasts. Fear was a signal to attack and hesitation was permission to disobey.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the iron crowbar he used to pry open crates.
He tossed the crowbar and it landed with a clang in front of the creature.
"Eat," Lloyd commanded. "That is yours but the coins are his."
The creature looked at the crowbar. It sniffed it. Iron, dense and heavy.
It looked back at Lloyd, acknowledging the offering as it picked up the crowbar with one hand, displaying shocking strength and bit the end off effortlessly.
It sat down on its haunches and began to chew contentedly.
Lloyd let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He sat down in his chair, the adrenaline crash hitting him hard.
"I need a name for you," Lloyd said, watching the creature decimate the tool. "Something solid. Something unmovable."
The creature burped. A small puff of grey dust came out of its mouth.
"Boulder? No, too generic." Lloyd tapped his chin. "You are dense, you eat metal, and you have a face only a mother could love."
He thought of the heavy, immovable objects in the Wizarding World. The foundations of Gringotts, the walls of Azkaban.
"Gibraltar," Lloyd decided. "We shall call you Gibraltar."
The creature didn't react. It just finished the crowbar and looked around for seconds.
Lloyd leaned back in the darkness.
The power was still out. He would have to explain that to the landlord tomorrow. Maybe he could blame it on rats chewing the wires.
"This world is strange," Lloyd whispered to his new companion. "They have lightning in the walls and monsters in the rocks. I think... I think I am going to like it here."
But first, he needed to buy a lot more scrap metal.
Authors Note:-
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