Justice League © Warner Bros. & DC Comics
Godzilla © Toho Inc., Warner Bros., and Legendary Pictures
A pickaxe struck into the rocky outcropping within the Andes Mountain as a group of five hikers were climbing onto the face of the mountains with their ropes latched onto a good enough ledge.
"We're almost at the sweet spot, guys… where the locals spoke of an undiscovered ancient city deep within the mountains!" The a rugged, bushy-bearded man in his early thirties wearing a red, white-striped heavy jacket with a cowboy hat on and the one with the pickaxe shouted to the rest of his peers down below him.
"I am not sure if that story is even legit, Thomas! The location sounds kind of shifty to me for even a lost city to establish, not to mention this terrain would have been a death sentence for the Incans!" A dirty-blonde haired woman with her blue snowcap on and her aqua green jacket named Charlotte Smith Kraven mentioned out to her husband.
"It probably wasn't originally meant to be this difficult because from what I could gather from the locals was that a tremendous rockslide buried an easier pathway to the city when a volcano almost erupted in proximity to the area long ago!" Thomas Kraven answered as he carefully kept climbing up the rock face.
"Did any of the city's inhabitants survive long enough to tell the tale?!" A younger man in his early twenties with black hair and of Mexican descent clad in his dark gray jacket, whose name was Nicholas Hernandez.
"Nope!" Thomas shouted back at him.
"Any descendants of those people left?!" Hernandez gripped onto a rock to steady his footing on a narrow ledge.
"Very few and if anything, most don't even remember much of the tale of Uquepito given to them by their ancestors!"
"And the ones that are even lucky to recall half of it passed onto others with the details becoming murkier over time!" Charlotte pushed herself up from another rock ledge with her upper body strength to pull it off.
"Hence the exaggeration!" The Mexican-blood man said, knowing how tales of lost cities from his culture were not unlike the Incans in that the legends often have taller than life aspects to them that made the cities mythical by nature.
"Yeah…for all anyone knows, Bigfoot might be out there somewhere eating some hot burritos, chillaxing while we're freezing our butts here!" Another hiker named Ferrell Johnson in his brown leather jacket joked, which briefly got a laugh out of everyone in the group that echoed throughout the mountain range.
The group continued on in spite of some minor accidents of slipping a foot her and there with the occasional falling-only-to-be-saved-by-the-rope moment. The winds would sometimes howl as they were so high up in the altitude of where they were climbing.
The fifth hiker, a Japanese-American, Keith Nishimura, called out to Thomas for clarity on their intended destination.
"How long till we get to the fabled entrance, Mr. Thomas?!" Keith shouted.
"I'd say we another a mile or so to reach the entry point! It should come in the form of a huge stone gate that alleged to be the secret entry point if the invaders or a natural disaster overwhelmed the easier one!"
"With this terrain, I must certainly give props to Uquepito for making the alleged secret entrance so damned difficult!" Charlotte grunted as she jumped onto another rock ledge.
"Careful, Charl! The last close call almost made my heart stop!" Nicholas warned her.
"Don't be such a worry wuss, Nick! I can handle this!"
"She's fine, man! Worry about your own footing!" Thomas urged the others to keep trekking up the cliff side until they reached the very cliff edge that wasn't steep and narrow. After Keith gives Ferrell the hand he needed to pull himself up due to the heavy bag of supplies and food he was carrying, the group walked on the ledge until they came into a wide clearing. There it was…the large stone gate that was intricately decorated with ancient Incan murals of serpents and built into the entrance of the cave itself.
"There it is, lady and gentlemen…the gateway to the lost city of Uquepito." Thomas said in awe with his eyes fixed onto the very gate. It was a lot grander than what the explorers had heard from stories passed down for generations among the native Peruvians with the design looking ancient, yet beautiful with gold and red stone making up the murals etched into the gate.
"Well, I'll be damned…" Ferrell muttered with his eyes nearly popping out of his sockets staring at the truth to the very legend of Uquepito.
"Thomas…you were right. You crazy bastard…we did it!" Charlotte ran up to Thomas hugging him with her husband hugging back at his wife with joy.
Nick was speaking something in his Mexican tongue when Keith passed by him to walk closer to the massive doors that loomed over the group.
"Incredible…" Keith said with his hand glossing over the murals etched onto the doors.
"How old do you think this gate is, Keith?" Thomas asked walking to him.
"I am not too sure…it is certainly has some features commonly found in the Incan ruins, but this language, I can't decipher it." Keith said with his brow furrowed in puzzlement.
"What do you mean?" Charlotte asked the Japanese-American, who was affluent in many languages, including Incan in his archaeological studies.
"The pictorial words here don't bear much resemblance to the pre-Incan, and Incan language." Keith scratched some specks of the material from the door and pulled out a radio-carbon dating scanner from his backpack. After scanning, he pointed out the results, "This gate seems to date about 5,000 years ago."
"That's pre-Incan times," Nicholas was startled at how old the gate was. "That's even before places like Machu Picchu even came into existence."
"Correct. Whoever these people that built this gate and probably Uquepito have been long before the people we know of as Incans came into being. Possibly these people were their predecessors and the language we're looking at here could be ancestral to the recorded writings of the Incan tongue." Keith explained, "However, this would require more research to be done."
"Shit…that's crazy, dude," Ferrell as he looked up at the gate doors leading him to ask an important question, "Still, now that we've kinda establish how old and crusty the place is, how do we get in?"
"Hmm…I don't see any obvious mechanisms to open these gates," Nick looked around and apart from some stone gateway and a pair of wooden poles with rope coiled around them, there was no switch for the group to open the gates.
Thomas then noticed something peculiar about the sun mural in the middle of the gate doors that was surrounded by the coils of a spiky serpent. "Let me try something here."
He pressed around the serpent until he pressed the very sun itself and it caved and pushed further into the doors. Next, the group heard what sounded like rotating mechanisms moving and rotating. The poles suddenly moved and the gate was slowly opening outward with the group slowly backing away from the moving doors. They were greeted with darkness.
"Nice thinking, Tom." Ferrell patted Thomas on the back with the bearded man smiling at him. It was interrupted, however, when Charlotte muttered rather fearfully, "Uh…guys?" She pointed to something in the darkness.
Or rather a pack of somethings. They furrowed their eyes just to look deep enough into the darkness to see eyes flashing back at the explorers. Next, they heard growling echoing from the cave.
"Wolves," Thomas brought out his Model 870 American Classic shotgun, which prompted Charlotte and the others to bring out their handguns and rifle.
The beasts snarled from the darkness before they rushed out, charging towards the group, who soon fired their firearms onto them. Thomas fired off his shotgun scoring a direct hit on the wolf that tried to pounce onto him, blasting it back with shot wounds all over it. Charlotte fired off her M & P M2.0 gun at another wolf, but the wolf sidestepped the shot and was about to bite her if it weren't for Thomas that blasted the beast to smithereens.
"Thanks, hon!" Charlotte continued firing at the wolves.
"You're welcome, but this ain't over yet!" Thomas fired another shot at the pack, but the wolves dodged that as well.
Keith was firing his GLOCK pistol at a wolf that was darting across from him until he felt something heavy push him down to the snow. He turned his head around to see another wolf had ambushed him on top of him when he could feel the full brunt of the wolf's hot musty breath up close. He quickly brought up his pickaxe for last-minute defense in the nick of time when the wolf bit down onto the axe instead of his throat. It gave enough time for him to shoot the animal right in the head, killing it right on the spot when he heard it yelp in shock before it went silent.
The wolf previously distracting him was about to maul him when it was shot in the side by Ferrell with his AR-15 rifle.
"You alright, Keith?!" Farrell went to help up the Japanese-American when they both heard Nick screaming. They turned around to see a bigger and grizzlier wolf jumping and throwing Nick harshly to the ground by the bite to his jacket's hood, almost ripping it off.
"Nick!" Everyone screamed as they saw their Mexican friend getting mauled by the alpha wolf with Hernandez screaming bloody murder when the beast bit his arm as he tried to desperately protect himself.
"Damnit! Get off of Nick you bloody bastard!" Thomas yelled charging at the alpha wolf while Keith and Farrell worked to provide cover for him by finishing off the remaining wolves that were driven by bloodlust to kill them.
Charlotte did a judo flip onto one of the last remaining members of the aggressive pack and shot four slugs right through the wolf's braincase.
Thomas managed to shove the wolf off of Nicholas Hernandez and shot several slugs into the beast's body. The alpha wolf snarled, limping towards Thomas before it finally fell dead with a pool of blood forming underneath the animal. The cowboy-wearing, bearded man breathed heavily with a cloud of hot air forming from his mouth due to the cold air before he turned his attention onto the downed Hernandez.
"Nick! Nick!" Thomas rushed to his Mexican buddy to see the damage. It was clear as day that Nick's arm was badly mangled with blood and flesh ravaged from the fangs of the alpha wolf. "Jesus Christ…your arm's shredded!"
"Maldito lobo…first time, I've encountered a pack of wild wolves instead of seeing the usual los domados in zoos," Nick said before he grunted agonizingly when he felt the pain shoot up from his shredded arm.
"Charlotte! Ferrell! Nick needs medical attention now!" Thomas shouted to his wife and friend.
"Right! Charl, quickly rummage through the middle section. The first aid kit should be in there," Ferrell faced his bigger bag to Charlotte, allowing her to grab the first aid kit out of the bag quickly. She immediately went to Nick's side where she inspected the wounds on his arm.
"Not good. The wolf sheared through his flesh and fractured some of the bone as well. We need to get him bandaged immediately for now to prevent it from getting worse." Charlotte brought out the alcohol bottle and little cloth as she turned to Nick, "Nick, you're going to need a wallet to bite through the pain. I need you do that for me."
"Anything to ensure that my arm doesn't f-effing hurts! Tom, grab my wallet, it's in my right pocket." The Mexican explorer requested to Thomas.
However, something went terribly wrong when the mountain suddenly shook.
"Avalanche!" Keith realized the calamity that was now threatening to swallow them whole.
"Aw shit! Okay, Keith! I need your help carrying Nick over! Everybody into the cave now!" Thomas ordered.
Nobody wasted any time scurrying their butts into the cave with Thomas and Keith managing to carry Nick onto their shoulders. They only had a minute before the avalanche fell on top of them, and somehow sensing the incoming snowpile, the gate started to close.
It was now only seconds and the group waited with abated breath for the doors to completely close. Everything turned dark when the doors closed, shielding them from the avalanche outside.
Sometime later…a campfire was lit after the hikers made a temporary campsite near the gate. Charlotte managed to make a bandage cast for Nick's damaged arm until they could find the nearest hospital for more medical treatment for him. For now, the group was resting eating some energy bars when Thomas looked further into the cave with some worry and curiosity on his face.
Charlotte was the first to ask her husband what he was planning, "Tom, are you thinking what I think you're going to do?"
"Me and Ferrell should look further just to make sure there are no wolves or something else waiting in the cave." Thomas stated.
"No, hon. I think you're better off if we all come with you together." Charlotte rejected.
"But if there's a bigger pack of those wolves waiting for us deeper in the tunnel and it is so dark that our torches only light five feet ahead of us, then what? We just barely managed to fend off that pack out there and we have only so much ammo left, sweetie." Thomas pointing out how much ammo they wasted on the wolf pack, which already left them less than half of what they had before. "If it is just me and Ferrell, then it at least gives you three the chance to have some ammo left to cover our backs."
"I understand but going out there into the dark tunnel with just the two of you is just as dangerous. What happens if any of you two are injured and we can't reach you in time?" Charlotte argued.
"Mi amigo…" Nick interjected to Thomas, "if something were to happen to you or Ferrell, then I fear we will not save you with the cave so vast and dark, so easy to get lost."
"Aw, come on, guys! We all got our walkie talkies. That's what they're good for in places like this. We can contact you by radio if me and Tom got into deep shit and need our butts to be rescued," Ferrell said trying to lighten up the situation. "Besides the only thing behind us is that gate over there. For sure, no animal is gonna ambush us from behind that."
"Keith?" Charlotte turned to the Japanese-American who had remained silent for some time, sitting on the opposite side of the campfire.
He then spoke up his thoughts on the matter, "While I agree with you Charlotte-san about the dangers facing Thomas-san and Ferrell-san awaiting them in the cave, but it makes sense that the two should scout ahead of us. After all, we can be assured that all we have behind is the gate and the dangers are just in front of us."
"Are you sure that Thomas' decision is right, Keith?" Nick said his doubts when the Oriental-blooded man shook his head.
"He has never let us down in the past. I am going to trust his decision and besides, it is the most logical to deal with the cards we have in front of us."
"Then it is settled…Charlotte, you continue to stay with Nick. Make sure he heals and gets enough rest." Charlotte reluctantly nodded, accepting his decision slowly.
"Nick, rest in the camp and drink some hot coco, you're going to need it. Keith, me and Ferrell are entrusting you to protect the camp until me and Ferrell will call for further notice. Understood?"
Keith deliberately nodded his head, trusting his leader and friend, "Will do, Thomas-san. I'll do my best to protect your wife and Nick with my life."
"You don't have to be so dramatic, Keith, but thank you," Thomas thanked Keith.
Ferrell went on a bit further, but not too far from the group as he lit up his torch. Charlotte went up to kiss her husband when she said, "I don't like this decision, but I love you. Just don't get hurt, okay, Tom?"
"I'll do my best. I won't leave you and the others for long. Love you, too, sweetheart." Thomas hugged her and the two stayed in that embrace for 30 seconds until he had to let go. Thomas lit up his own torch and he and Ferrell went on ahead with the two gradually disappearing into the darkness until they could no longer be seen.
Two hours later…
Thomas and Ferrell came across some ruined, ancient wood bridge that led to a more structured tunnel on the other side of an enormous cavern and spanned across an endless chasm that was lightened up by another hole in the cavern ceiling, bringing in sunlight.
Thomas turned on the walkie talkie with the signal being barely strong to make a call to Charlotte's walkie talkie as he spoke into the radio.
"Hi, Charlotte. How are you holding up?" Thomas asked.
"Holding as fine as I can be." Charlotte's voice sounded grainy with some static, but was otherwise, audible. "What about you?"
"Apart from the occasional bats swarming at us, I'm fine, and so is Ferrell here." Thomas answered.
"That's good to hear. Nick has rested and he's a little better with his arm about healing, albeit slowly."
"Thank God…What about Keith? How has he been holding up?"
"I am doing well and staying warm as best as I could, Thomas-san," Keith spoke up as well despite being fuzzier than Charlotte's.
"Glad to hear that, buddy. Hey, um…I think you should come down here. We found something and it cuing us that we might be getting closer to Uquepito."
"Are you sure that the path is safe? No surprises?" Charlotte asked, sounding cautious.
"As far as we're concerned, nothing like that." Thomas answered with some reassurance.
"Ok…me, Nick, and Keith will try to get to where you and Ferrell are. How far are you, guys?"
"About 4 miles from where you are," Thomas estimated the length of the cave they traveled through.
"Alright, we will do our best to reach you soon. See you there," Charlotte sounded.
"Thanks, see the rest of you later," Thomas ended the conversation before turning off his walkie-talkie for now.
"Hey, Tom. The bridge seems a bit flimsy and I think it can hold only one of us at the time," Ferrell pointed his rifle to the wooden bridge that had some of the planks missing.
"There's only one way to find out." Thomas decided to bravely take the risk as he ambled onto the bridge, gingerly walking as to ensure his footing was certain. He then slowly jumped onto the bridge and Ferrell snapped his eyes shut, expecting the bridge to snap from the sudden weight, but heard none.
He opened his eyes and Thomas was still standing with the bridge still intact. Both he and his best friend let out a relieved sigh that nothing happened.
"Well, it seems this bridge is sturdier than it appears even after thousands of years…" Thomas was stopped when he and Ferrell heard multiple sounds of wings flapping. Next, a swarm of bats suddenly overwhelmed Thomas. Caught off guard, he nearly fell, but barely kept his footing onto the bridge with thousands of bats flying past him, not against him. However, the abrupt appearance of Thomas was eclipsed by a terrifying bird-like screech echoing from the very chasm the bats flew from.
"What the hell?!" Ferrell asked, still grasping the suddenness of the bats, when he and Thomas then suddenly saw a creature that almost gave them quite the heart attack.
Flying towards them was a gigantic bird-like creature, but with cobalt blue scaly skin of its body, yellow eagle-like feet and talons, gray bat-like wings with a wingspan comparable to a small airplane, a vulture-like neck, and its crimson head having the golden beak of a stork and a two-foot long bony red crest with purple stripes.
It was no bat, but a pterosaur species none other than the Pteranodon that was supposed to be extinct, but now flying alive in front of their eyes.
Both men were speechless when the aerial living fossil flew so fast, dashing right past Thomas, heedless of the man as it was more interested in the bats than him. The wind current from the pterosaur's incredible velocity, however, was strong enough to push Ferrell back, overturn the bridge, and flipping Thomas right into the chasm below.
"AAAAHHHH!" Thomas screamed falling into the abyss below. Ferrell was blinded by the wind that he only heard Thomas's scream with his eyes widening in horror as he only realized what just happened.
"TOM!" Ferrell scrambled to the edge of the chasm, witnessing his friend fall into the dark abyss below the bridge. "TOM! Thomas!"
Thomas was tumbling and then sliding down a long, tunneled slope.
"Thomas!" Ferrell called out, but to obvious futility, which he then turned on his walkie talkie to try reaching him. "Thomas, speak to me, man! Are you alright?! Where are you?!"
The bearded man was frazzled and bruised from the tumbling fall with his cowboy hat still miraculously on his head at the end of the slippery slide. He then heard the static, but distinctive voice of Ferrell yelling his name on his walkie talkie.
He held it to his face and pressed on the button, speaking into the walkie-talkie, "Hey, Ferrell! I'm ok! Bruised and a little dizzy now, but I'm fine. Can you hear me?"
Then he heard Ferrell respond again in a rather panicky voice, "Damnit, Thomas! You scared me half to death!"
"Yeah, my bad. More importantly, are you okay, buddy?"
"More shocked than anything! What on earth that just flew by us?! I'm pretty sure that's no bat, or any bird I've ever seen!"
"No kidding, Ferrell. It must be one of those flying dinosaurs from those Jurassic Park movies."
"Are you pulling my leg on me?! I thought dinos went extinct when the asteroid fell on them eons ago!"
"Maybe it's the cold getting to us," Thomas half-joked while slowly hobbling back to his feet.
"I don't know about the cold, but that looked too real for us to be just seeing things! Anyway, where in God's name are you?"
"Don't know…I've fallen into some long hole. I can't tell for sure where exactly, but we better best keep going."
"I sure do hope you know what you're doing, man. This shit is starting to become insane and I don't know anymore what to expect in this forsaken cave."
"To be honest, I am not sure what to expect either." Thomas looked around for his torch with its flame went out during the fall. He got out his match and re-lit it again. He next found the shotgun lying next to him and made sure nothing else was lost in the tumble.
"Yeah, man, well…I better wait for the others, but Charl's gonna chew me out when she hears what happened to you. See ya soon, hopefully."
"Thanks. Godspeed to you as well," Thomas finished the conversation and turned off the radio.
He looked around and saw that he was facing a hole in a partial stone wall that led to something else outside. Curious, he cautiously walked towards the hole and walked through it.
"Holy moly…" Thomas' jaw nearly dropped at the sight before him. "Uquepito!"
Uquepito that he saw before him was not one, but several places put together starting with a middle-sized village comprised of thatched huts with a well in the middle. The village was situated on a small island surrounded by rivers that were harvested by the water mills that were powered by the ancient gears that were built into the stone brick walls. Surprisingly, they were still running well thanks to the hydro energy coming from the waterfalls feeding the rivers. It was quite fascinating and astonishing that the city was ancient and prehistoric, yet the technology was advanced.
He took off his jacket, feeling that with the air significantly warmer than in the cavernous tunnels, he didn't want to overheat himself, but folded it and stuffed it into his backpack.
"Incredible…" Thomas muttered as he had jumped down from the hill and walked through the ancient lost city long thought to be a myth. "To think there would have been a system to power something like Uquepito when it's many decades before the Romans developed it."
The greatest catch though were the rich colorful murals painted on the stone walls built into the cave walls.
Murals depicting the daily lives of an unknown ancient people and the society of this new mysterious civilization that had long predated pre-Incan times. There were also peculiar murals that showcased some familiar beasts that he could recognize, but also creatures that resemble prehistoric monsters from children books. And some of these creatures were depicted brawling each other while other murals showed warriors in epic confrontations against these beasts.
"Whoever these people were, they have quite the active imagination. Signs of a rich, strong culture that was thriving it seemed." Thomas said as he flashed his laser pointer onto the mysterious pictorials. He took note of one of the creatures depicted on the mural to heavily resemble a pterosaur, frighteningly reminiscent of the one he had encountered in the ravine not too long ago.
'Kinda makes me wonder if what I saw back there was not me hallucinating after all…' Thomas thought as he continued to examine each of the wall paintings.
"Huh?" His eyebrow perked up when he came across a particular mural that showed a bipedal dinosaur-like creature that was not only massive but had spines on its back and what seemed like fire coming out of the beast's mouth. "What in God's name is that?"
The next murals depicted that creature that was surrounded by smaller reptilian monsters in a jungle with the other showing presumably Uquepito under attack by the lumbering monster. Afterwards, another mural showed the spiked, bipedal dragon attacked by warriors on all sides. As Thomas moved his pointer, he caught sight of a mural showing that the warriors' attacks proved to be futile as the monster spit out fire killing the warriors. The final one showed the monster being subdued and imprisoned in a volcano surrounded by people in intricate colorful feathery robes, whom Thomas assumed might be the shamans that were praying not to the monster imprisoned in the volcano, but rather to a fiery serpent-like reptile with burning wings that was positioned above the monster.
"Freaky…Keith would definitely love this if he's here." The bearded hiker commented to himself. He looked around and saw a wooden gate that towered over the village. It was directly placed ahead of the city and separated by a fast-flowing river that had a small stone bridge between it and the city of Uquepito. The final mural also happened to be positioned above the gate. He walked over a short stone bridge to the gate and saw what looked like a pulley wheel built into a wooden pole situated close to the gate with rope attached from the pole to three mechanical gears behind the wooden door.
Thomas tried to operate the wheel with his gloved hands, grunting with much exertion until he ran out of breath when the wheel refused to budge. He noticed right away that there should have been three handles to operate the thing, but one was missing. He looked around and there he saw what looked like a stone club lying on the stone path.
"That'll probably have to do," Thomas smiled as he walked over to the spot to retrieve the club and use it as leverage for the wheel. After he plugged the club into the slot of the wheel, he managed to move the wheel, therefore getting the gate to slowly open as he wound the pulley wheel.
The gate stopped opening with a loud boom. Thomas was greeted with the hot, tropical humid air touching him. Beyond the gate, it was a long valley covered in a dense jungle fed by waterfalls coming from the mountains with the snowy caps of the Andes seen on the horizon. Thomas proceeded with his thirst of curiosity now stronger than before as Uquepito apparently extended beyond the cave with so many fascinating secrets to discover. He walked through the foliage, barely taking note of how the plants were more ancient and stranger than the flora he had seen in the Amazon rainforest, as his mind was elsewhere on the ruins that dotted the valley. The sweat was already forming from the pores of his skin as the heat and the humidity had already gripped him instead of the cold, frigid air of the mountains.
Then he heard loud, raucous squawks from above him, forcing him to look up into the air. Several miles up above the canopy was a flock of the same creature that he and Ferrell had encountered in the ravine by chance that were a hunting a larger swarm of bats. The Pteranodons were soaring above the jungle with each flock numbering about 12 members strong with each in frenzied velocities with predatory intent. Their sharp beaks made short work of the softer, smaller bodies and more fragile wings of the flying mammals. Thomas saw it difficulty making it out the pterosaurs from the swarm of bats, but things were so chaotic for the bats that it was enough for them to spread out to avoid the pterosaurs, giving him a better view of the reptiles. He noticed that some of the pterosaurs had smaller crests and their heads were entirely neon blue with their shorter crests dull green in comparison to the others' bright crimson, purple-striped, longer crests. It wasn't hard for Thomas to figure out that these Pteranodons were females with their color palette not as gaudy and extravagant compared to their male counterparts.
Pteranodons of both sexes were a swirling mass of brilliant colors as they divebombed and flew dynamically through the clouds of bats with sharp turns and mind-blowing maneuvers. The sight left him speechless for seconds, even though, to him it felt like hours. It was only the dashing Pteranodon and the gust of wind that followed the creature's flight path snapped him out of it. Although still a little bewildered and awed by the spectacle, he knew he had to push on. It wasn't wise for him to stay any longer than he should lest the Pteranodons spot him and switch their hunting objective to the sole man beneath their midst. Thus, he carefully trekked through the bush, using his machete to cut away any intrusive branch or umbrella-sized leaves away within proximity of him.
Several miles further, Thomas noticed that the tree line was becoming shallower with more light peeking through the jungle from the horizon ahead of him. He also heard the bellowing and guttural trumpeting of unusual beasts coming from the jungle's edge. Earlier, he had come across multiple large footprints of these beasts and followed them to the forest's edge. Thomas had to be cautious because whatever they were, they were out there, and he didn't know how they would react to his presence. Slowly he continued walking to the forest's edge until he was no longer in the dense foliage anymore with the light blinding his eyes. Thomas groaned mildly when he had to shield his eyes. Afterwards, he had reopened his eyes and put away his arms to be greeted that he was standing in the middle of a vast area of grassland with ferns that reached up to his waist. Foraging in this grassland were three species of herbivorous dinosaurs; the first of which had hoof-like feet, horse-like heads with duck-like beaks and red tubular crests, and a black striped body with brown scales. The second species were much more similar to a rhinoceros in terms of body built and shape, except for being much larger and had dark purple-grayish scales with rows of dorsal crocodile-like scutes lining their backs with the base of their tails covered in a thick coat of porcupine-like quills. Their huge heads were the most distinctive feature about them as they possessed large bony frills and their mouths had parrot-like beaks. These creatures were armed with a pair of meter-long horns on their brows and a singular, smaller nasal horn on their snouts, making them more threatening and more dangerous than the tubular-crested dinosaurs. The third and final species were the ones that stood out to him just because they were so gigantic compared to the other two. They were outlandish, too, with their small heads supported by extremely long, powerful necks that belonged to massive bodies sporting grayish-black scales, four elephantine, column-like limbs, and equally long whip-like tails. Each of those massive behemoths had a row of iguana-like spines lining their entire bodies dorsally from the base of their heads all the way to the tip of their tails.
Thomas was hit with all kinds of emotion all at once that he had fell onto his butt in the fern-covered grassland.
Once he had regained his voice, he could only mutter in whisper with his mouth nearly dry from his astonishment, "Well shoot me now, they're…dinosaurs!"
The Parasaurolophus were mostly grazing into the ferns with their heads down, chewing on the low-lying flowers and grasses. Some stood on their two hind legs and balanced by their tails to either get at the small trees that dotted the landscape, or act as sentries. They were fairly numerous with four herds having 30 members strong. Among them were the younger ones whose crests were not as well developed as the adults yet.
The horned dinosaurs, or Triceratops, were more so numerous as the grassland was dominated by multitude of herds of these tough-bodied beasts that numbered about 55 members, or so. Their beaks were shredding into the tougher ferns and cycads. Their horns were each about the size of a full-grown man and could easily impale through a car. Their frills acted like protective shields for their softer, more vulnerable necks. Some of the males among them were already sporting bright, startling yellow 'sunspots' on their frills as they seemed to be strutting off to impress the females with few of those male Triceratops coming to blows with their horns.
The long-necked dinosaurs, which were the Brontosauruses, tended to forage more closely to the edge of the grasslands bordering into the jungle adjacent of Thomas' position on his right. Their preferred food choices, which consisted of leaves and fruit, tended to be closer to the canopy level and sometimes on the higher end of the understory. Their lengthy necks enabled them to feed on those food sources on the tall trees, and sometimes browse the lower vegetation of the grassland with a longer reach.
'Uquepito…not only is it a lost civilization, but also a lost prehistoric world that only sci-fi writers ever dream about! How on earth did the dinos last this long when others died out elsewhere?' Thomas thought silently to himself as he carefully treaded through the ancient grassland, not wanting to walk into an incident with the giant reptiles.
Every now and then he would notice mostly the few male Triceratops that were displaying their bright colors to each other, probably to intimidate one and the other from locking horns onto one another. He only saw one fight that was far away from the herd closer to the edge of the grassland with a considerable number of females watching the spectacle.
Along the way, Thomas saw a flock of dinosaurs that closely resemble brightly colored ostriches complete with mostly black plumage from the necks to the dorsal side of the tails with a beige underside to them along with a red stripe coming mostly on the tail. Their heads and feet were the only parts of their bodies not covered by the feathers with the former having turkey vulture-like skin with a patch of blue on their beaks. Like their more avian counterparts, the Struthiomimus were traveling in two flocks, which each number about 25 animals, out from the edge of the jungle accompanied by a lone armored dinosaur that was like a living reptilian tank armed with a bony tail club. The Ankylosaurus's bumpy, earth brown scales and spikes on its body suited its cool, slow-paced demeanor as it seemed less concerned with being attacked than just finding the right spot to graze.
Thomas stayed within the plains while maintaining a respectable distance to the herds as much as possible. He didn't want to get too close to the herd where they might find him as a nuisance, but he couldn't get too close to the jungle's borders where a potential predator could ambush him. As long as he minded his own business, the dinosaurs would mind their own of feeding and protecting their kin. He was past the Parasaurolophus herd and approaching another herd of eleven dinosaurs, which were Stegosauruses with their infamously small heads, two alternating rows of kite-shaped, brightly orange dorsal plates, and their iconic tail thagomizers. He came across a large lake about the size of a football field in the middle of the clearing where the dark yellowish-green Stegosauruses were drinking the water and sharing the lake with several individuals of Triceratops, Struthiomimus, and two Brontosauruses. Some of the Parasaurolophus that were already at lake for a long time were leaving to rejoin their respective herds.
It was there that the cowboy hiker had spotted a large stone temple built into the wall of the valley with the entrance supported by four Aztec-styled dragon pillars and the stairs leading up to it were steep. It was situated on the other side of the dinosaurs' watering hole and about 300 feet away from it.
Thomas, with his curiosity spiked, carefully walked around the thirsty dinosaurs and came across a stone bridge that transitioned over a large river feeding into the lake. He kept his eye on the temple, paying no heed to the giant prehistoric crocodile, Deinosuchus resting in the water underneath the bridge. The pathway led him into an abandoned courtyard of the temple that has mostly broken down and covered with vines and tree roots coming from the giant trees anchoring into the foundations of the temple. The sounds of the dinosaurs' soft grunts, squawks, and roars echo behind him as the dinosaurs continue to pay little attention to the hiker other than the occasional glance. Thomas' mind was in overdrive as he examined the pillars and the architecture with hunger for knowledge driving him.
"I can't imagine why the natives would need to build their temple in the middle of the wilderness." Thomas commented as he deliberately slowed his pace walking up the stairways not only absorbing every detail of the temple, but also watching out for missing stairs that could trip him up, leading to a serious injury.
Entering the pre-Incan temple, he saw what looked like an altar with the overhead statue of the very same dinosaurian monster he had seen earlier in the walls of Uquepito. The interior, however, was peculiar because it turned out to be a volcanic chamber as the smell of sulfur bombarded his nose.
"Ugh! Smells like rotten eggs in here," Thomas pulled out his handkerchief to cover his nose from the awful smell.
Before he could get any closer to the chamber, he heard a thunderous, vicious roar that was different from that of the herbivorous dinosaurs outside the temple.
"It better not be what I think it is." Thomas said fearfully while sweating more buckets with his nerves all riled up. What he heard next only confirmed his worst fears.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" It was his wife's screams, she was in danger.
"Charlotte!" Thomas rushed out from the temple to find her and his friends.
As with Thomas' wife and her remaining comrades, who were now just Ferrell and Keith, they were floored with paralyzing fear upon seeing Nick, now dead and destroyed, caught within the boxy, heavy jaws of the most infamous predatory dinosaur known to man with teeth the size of bananas and two-clawed small forelimbs. The Tyrannosaurus rex, or T. rex, with orangish, brown pebbly scales, a tan underside, black stripes, red bony plating over its golden-brown eyes and nasal bridge lorded over the mortified group with Nick in its jaws through the bush within the jungle southeast of the temple. The beast then elevated its head to gulp down its victim down its throat before letting out an ear-deafening roar that echoed throughout the valley.
Ferrell almost couldn't breath face to face with the dinosaur until he caught sight of his rifle. That was when he acted onto his impulse to protect and hastily created a plan, though not well thought out. He tried to aim the gun at the eye of the T. rex, but his hastiness caused him to miss. However, it got the rex's attention when the beast growled irritably at him.
"Ferrell, what are you-?!" Keith Nishimura was in total disbelief of his friend's recklessness.
"Go! Get out of here while I hold this bastard off!" Ferrell continued to load a new magazine into his firearm and began unloading the ammo onto the T. rex.
"He's right! We have to run now!" Charlotte immediately sped off away from the danger zone.
Keith looked to where she had ran off and Ferrell, who was shooting his rifle at the encroaching dinosaur.
"Damnit…" Keith gritted his teeth as he, too, followed Charlotte's lead reluctantly as he mentally said his goodbyes to Ferrell.
As for the leather jacket clad hiker, he kept backing away from the T. rex, shooting relentlessly at the giant carnivorous reptile, albeit messily. He heard the dreadful click, which signified that his magazine was emptied. He dropped the empty magazine to go for another only much to his horror that he had none left when he looked into his pocket. Ferrell didn't have time to comprehend anything else when the T. rex swung its beefy neck and humongous five-foot long head and snout, slamming into him with the force of a speeding car.
The direct impact from the T. rex's skull sent Ferrell flying into a cycad with his back painfully cracking against its rough, spiky hide. His rifle was forever lost when the T. rex crushed it with the swing of its head. He had two ribs cracked already and his legs felt like jelly when he attempted to get back onto his feet. It was the last thing he could do when the monster's shadow fell onto him. Within seconds, the T. rex clamped onto the man's arm with Ferrell screaming bloody murder as the dinosaur lifted him up a good 20 feet into the air. With one chomp, Ferrell was separated from his arm when he fell to the ground with a bloody stub of his arm to show for his futility. The man teared up, screaming in horrible agony from the pain and the fact that he had lost his good arm.
His life was abruptly cut short when the T. rex's left foot smashed him into the ground with the beast's attention focused on the fleeing Charlotte and Keith. All was left of Ferrell was a bloody, flattened corpse smooshed within the Tyrannosaurus' footprint.
The remaining duo heard the thundering footfalls of the T. rex when they briefly turned their heads around to see a minute soon, the T. rex bulldozing out from the trees.
"Oh shit!" Charlotte panicked as she and Keith quickened their running pace as much as their legs could allow out into the open clearing with the Tyrannosaurus in hot pursuit after them. The herbivores freaked out seeing the T. rex burst out from the trees and went about scrambling chaotically to get away from the predator. Thomas's eyes widened when he witnessed what just happened at the tree line as he yelled out to them.
"Charlotte! Keith! I'm coming!" Thomas ran like a madman with his shotgun in hand.
"Thomas!" Charlotte screamed, both happy that her husband was still alive, but also terrified for him that he was not only running towards her, but also at the T. rex hunting them.
"To the temple!" Thomas now had to run and weave through panicked dinosaurs that were running all over the place and could accidentally crush him.
Both Charlotte and Keith yelped, almost getting run over by a Parasaurolophus that ran right in front of them. They were surrounded by terrified, fleeing dinosaurs that rumbled the fern grassland. The T. rex was no different as it, too, was surrounded by its fleeing prey items ranging from ostrich dinosaurs being the easiest to kill, but nearly impossible to catch, to the Triceratops that were the opposite of the Struthiomimus in that they were notoriously difficult to harm with their horns, bony frill, and quills protecting them. The apex theropod aggravatedly snapped its jaws at the passing Struthiomimus, making it squawk scared with its body reacting out of sheer fright when it nimbly strafed away from the monster. The T. rex almost got one of the recently arrived Pachycephalosaurus when it ran past it.
"Look out!" Charlotte pushed Keith out of the way of a panicking Stegosaurus stampeding through. "Stay focused, Keith! Stay with me!"
"No need to tell me that twice, Mrs. Kraven!" Keith picked himself up to his feet and he and Thomas' wife did their best to avoid being trampled by the dinosaurs around them. The T. rex hissed aggressively at the passing Triceratops until it spotted the two among the chaos. It continued pursuing them when it had a clearer path to them. However, the stalling of the T. rex gave Thomas enough time to reunite with Charlotte and Keith.
"Come on, it's too dangerous here! Into the temple!" Thomas led the others towards the temple with the T. rex soon catching up behind them.
"Thank God, you're alive, Tom!" Charlotte exclaimed, more than relieved after seeing her two friends gone forever.
"So am I for you, dearie! You, too, Keith!" Thomas acknowledged the Japanese-American with some relief as well when they were close to the temple's stairways.
They went into the interior to take refuge from the chaotic situation outside, which then enabled Thomas the two about Nick and Ferrell, whom he didn't see with them.
"Guys, Nick and Ferrell are not with you. Where are they?" Thomas asked taking some breaths to recover air like Charlotte and Keith were doing right now.
Keith's mood lowered considerably, recalling their grisly ends as he anxiously answered, "Thomas-san…t-they…"
"What is it, Keith? What happened to them?!"
"They…*sigh*,,,the T. rex has killed them." Keith finally said it. His traumatized expression only reinforced the fact as it now started to hammer onto Thomas.
The said bearded man was rendered speechless from hearing that his two of his high school friends were mauled by the dinosaur. He looked to Charlotte and asked painfully with some denial in his voice as if he didn't want to believe it.
"Charl, don't tell that Nick…and Ferrell…a-are…" Thomas stuttered in his delivery, but his voice died with his fears confirmed when he saw tears in her eyes with her head downcast. She answered almost numbly in her voice.
"It's true…they were butchered…" Charlotte spoke.
Thomas nearly felt his knees give up when the horrible reality weighed in like a bunch of bricks piling on top of him.
"Dear good Lord…" he mumbled weakly as he could hardly come to his senses to how costly this trip to find the missing Uquepito was in the end with his group now in grave danger when they got more than they bargained for.
The T. rex stomped into the temple entrance and roared, making the temple interior vibrate from the sheer high volume of the beast's roar. Charlotte screamed when she turned around seeing the dinosaur closing upon them with nowhere else to go other than the altar behind them. Next, they heard another roar and the group turned around to see, much to their astonishment, the lone Ankylosaurus that they had seen emerging from the jungle earlier was now trapped in the temple like them. It was scared and frantically acting on its fleeing instincts amidst the chaos when it escaped into the temple. The T. rex noticed the armored dinosaur as well and began threatening it with its jaws wide open and began hissing and snarling at it. However, with nowhere to flee, the Ankylosaurus instincts went from flight mode to fight mode within a flash. The living armored tank angrily growled, becoming defensively aggressive when it postured itself into a semi-crouching position with its body spikes facing the monster and its tail club primed to bludgeon the T. rex if it should venture too close to it. The theropod, seeing that its intimidation tactics failed, went on the offensive. Thomas, Charlotte, and Keith had to back away into the volcanic area where the pathway leading to the altar was.
"Oh…okay, we're in for one helluva dino fight. And we better back off now." Thomas said urgently.
"With our backs up against the wall, literally, I fear it may not be enough." Keith said worriedly.
The T. rex tried to chomp onto the Ankylosaurus' neck, but the armored dinosaur shifted, and the jaws instead impacted the main bodily armor with some of the carnivore's teeth being broken off as a result. The Ankylosaurus shoved back the T. rex, and the latter went to bite again, but was forced to back its snout away from the tail club being swung at its intended target. The tail club missed, and the T. rex quickly retaliated by headbutting the Ankylosaurus into its side, trying to trip the living tank up. The move caused the armored reptile to be dangerously close to the three spectators, which forced them to back up near to the altar and the statue. The T. rex bit down onto Ankylosaurus' head and the two struggled with the predator's bone-crushing teeth struggling to penetrate into the heavily armored head of the Ankylosaurus.
It was when the T. rex was shifting positions during its struggle to overpower its armored quarry that its wiggling tail struck out. Unfortunately, Thomas happened to be in striking distance of the offending appendage and it hit him like a baseball bat with an audible thud.
"NO!" Charlotte wailed before she and Keith were steamrolled by Thomas as they crashed into the altar. The Ankylosaurus managed to shake the T. rex off its neck before it lashed out with its tail club once again, this time landing a direct hit onto the carnivore's ribs, breaking three ribs and fracturing its right shoulder blade. The T. rex screeched as it tumbled from the hit. Charlotte and Keith screamed to their last breath before their lives ended when the T. rex's giant body crushed all three of the hikers and broke off upper part of the saurian statue from the altar.
The broken half of the statue fell into the volcanic pit and shattered apart along with gouging a hole into the surface that exposed the still boiling lava underneath it. The altar glowed an ominous pale greenish light with the temple now vibrating with seismic tremors all of the sudden. The two dinosaurs within felt the whole place shake with their fury replaced by confusion until they heard a much a deeper, more terrifying animalistic roar like thunder rumble through the temple that they became consumed with fear. The previously dormant volcano transformed into an active one as something was awoken from its millennia of slumber, causing the volcano to be stirred with new life infused into it. Lava burst out from the hardened floor, and the Ankylosaurus was the first to bolt for the temple's exit. The T. rex screeched in a frightened manner when it was startled by how close a fireball was to immolating it when it destroyed the altar completely and sink it into the recently emerged lava. Witnessing the hazard, the dinosaur hobbled to the temple's exit as best as it could with its injured ribs and limping right arm as the temple was falling apart around it.
The T. rex escaped out of the temple in the nick of time when it finally collapsed onto itself. 12 Pteranodons and 7 Quetzalcoatlus, which were azhdarchid pterosaurs with elongated beaks, long necks, and limbs more suitable for terrestrial predatory stalking on land than the Pteranodons, flying away from the previously dormant volcano turned active to join their brethren already spooked by the seismic quakes. The pterosaurs screeched when the volcano erupted with smoke and lava spewing out of the crater. The sight terrified the other dinosaurs, even the giant sauropods, forcing them to flee deeper into the jungle away from the volcano. The Deinosuchus was no different when the giant swam with its smaller kin to escape from the imminent threat. Only the T. rex stopped close to the edge of the grassland when a monstrous, trombone-like roar different from the explosive sound of the volcano came from within.
Abruptly, a green stream of pure energy burst out from the flank of the volcano, causing more lava and molten debris to be spewed outward onto the valley, destroying some of the ruins of Uquepito in the process. It streamed out dangerously through, blasting away the crust in a massive explosion until it disappeared. The horrified T. rex was greeted with the sight of a gigantic, dark greenish scaly hand slamming onto the blasted hole of the volcano's flank, which was followed by the emergence of the head of the awakened reptilian monster.
The monster then roared, announcing its presence to the world for the first time in eons with the volcano spewing out lava once again.
Warner Bros. Animation presents…
Gotham's Sewers
A lone policeman was running frantically with his uniform all mucked up and dirtied with grime and blood. His expression was that of terror and panic as he was fleeing for his life. Gunfire echoed throughout the dark, dank tunnels of the sewers followed by horrified, agonized screams of his fellow policemen followed by the guttural screeches and squawks of something far more primal and dangerous.
The surviving policeman, whose dark brown hair was matted with the blood of his now dead best friend and partner, stopped in the intersecting crossroads of the tunnels to catch his breath. A dreaded chill went up through his spines when he heard his fellow officers' screams intensified when the sounds of flesh being torn apart and reptilian snarls echoed loudly. The chills turned worst when the screams came to an abrupt stop. The man shivered with his teeth clattering nervously seemingly loudly in the dead silence of the sewers. He paranoidly looked around the tunnels and meekly spoke with his tone timid,
"Guys? Hoffman? Cade? John?!"
Silence was the only answer, and it only made the terror fermented within the pit of his stomach much worse to the point his stomach turned into knots.
A pair of glowing yellow eyes, which was followed with a hissing growl, appeared out from the darkness of the tunnel, glaring at the shivering scared policeman.
"Oh no…" the traumatized survivor's soul turned cold with growing horror upon seeing the menacing slit eyes. He heard more bird-like croaks and reptilian grunts, causing him to turn around to see more pairs of glowing slit eyes that weren't previously there in the other tunnels.
He was deeply paralyzed with horror, realizing that he was trapped with nowhere to escape. The lone policeman whimpered as he could barely hold himself together with so many 'evil' eyes slowly stalking him. By his primal instinct, he whipped out his pistol and screamed out like a madman with his sanity nearly lost,
"Stay back, you ugly sons of a-!"
He only managed to fire one shot that rang throughout the sewers but doing nothing apparently to the creatures hiding in the shadows. One ambushed him from behind before he even knew what had just happened. Before he knew it, it was over for him as his world turned black with the sound of his neck being snapped.
Outside the Gotham Subway, Commissioner James Gordon was directing the SWAT Team that had barricaded the entrance with their firearms aimed into the darkness below street level. Besides him were Harvey Bullock, and Renee Montoya. Surrounding them several feet away were citizens that were trying to see what on earth was going on as the situation developed with the police blocking them with yellow barricade gates.
"It's been two hours and there's still no word from Officer Liam," Renee shook her head as she got off from her walkie-talkie that came out with static when she tried contacting Liam earlier.
"I am not liking the sound of that," the white-haired, white-mustached elderly James Gordon narrowed his eyes into the darkness of the subway entrance. "Something must have happened to him and the others."
"Maybe they just found the survivors deeper within the sewage system where the radio signals can't reach us. I mean, this whole thing sounds so kooky for fifty citizens to be gone in two days straight and not a trace of them, except the wrecked train, to be found," Harvey tried to rationalize the situation, which wasn't his strongest suite, but given how out of the blue it was for an incident of this magnitude to appear, it was at least understandable to anyone in his shoes.
"I am not so sure, Harvey. If they had found them, at least Officer Liam would-," Gordon was stopped midway when he and the police force then heard footsteps clacking from the subway. The SWAT grunts primed their semi-automatic rifles and steeling their nerves for anything, hostile or otherwise. Harvey and Renee were also quick to shut up and whip out their pistols for a potential threat. It was tense with the footsteps growing closer and louder with each passing second and the Gotham Police force on edge.
Eyes widened when they saw the source of the frantic footsteps to be one of the victims, a young teenage girl with piercings on her ears and her long blonde hair dyed purple with her dark blue school uniform outfit shredded with blood over it, presumably from her wounds.
"It's one of the survivors!" Gordon pushed his way through the squad before stopping himself at the stairs.
"Help! Help me!" The girl ran with a hobble in her running as her left leg was bleeding horribly with a trail of blood behind her. She almost stumbled over one of the first stairs with stark panic in her teary eyes.
"Hang on, miss!" Gordon turned to his men and barked, "Secure the stairs! Make sure nothing else gets in and out until the girl is safe!"
"Yes, sir!" Renee complied. She and the SWAT grunts were about to go secure the stairs when some shadowy creature darted from the darkness of the subway station and bit onto the pink-haired girl's bloody leg. The girl slammed onto the stairs and her head turned around with a bloodcurdling shriek of unadulterated horror.
"F&#*! HELP! Oh my God!" The girl was clawing at the stairs with the creature overpowering her, dragging her down back into the subway.
"DAMNIT!" Harvey tried shooting at the creature, but nothing came of it with the silhouetted monster harshly pulling away and the girl quickly disappearing into the darkness.
"NO!" Gordon was horrified and stunned briefly before he rushed past the equally shocked Renee and the SWAT force up to Harvey and shouted, shaking him by the shoulders,
"God damnit, Harvey! You could have killed her! What were you thinking?!"
"Something freaking ambushed her and spooked the shit outta me! I had to do something!" Harvey complained.
Both turned around when they heard snarling, screaming, and the sound of flesh being ripped apart. Then the girl's screams abruptly ended , which unnerved the Gotham police despite having faced similar cases like this. Moreso with a guttural screech that sounded like an eagle grossly melded with an alligator, echoing from the darkness shortly afterwards.
"Dear Lord..." Renee whispered with sweat on her face. She gritted her teeth to keep her composure together.
"Shine the lights on and move in with extreme caution." Gordon said.
The flashlights mounted on the semiautomatic rifles turned on, penetrating through the darkness. The SWAT grunts were the first to move in with the captain of the squad and Renee taking the lead down the stairs. Gordon and Harvey were surrounded by the squad as they moved into the subway with them. Each step was like stepping into a landmine with the sound possibly alerting the creature to their presence. Reaching towards the end of the long stairways, the hot, suffocating humid air bombarded them immediately along with the disturbing scent of iron hitting their noses.
HISSSS!
"It's nearby!" One of the SWAT members pointed out with his hairs standing on ends straight from the creepy sound. It was followed by sounds of flesh being consumed and bestial growls.
The police and detectives aimed their flashlights all over the abandoned train station. As soon as they crossed past the now-shut off gates, their lights shined onto a ghastly morbid sight straight out from a horror flick.
It was a bear-sized, reptilian creature with the body having a slender, bird-like built to it. It had emerald green scales, mottled emerald green spots, and iguanian dorsal spines. The beast's neck was s-shaped like an eagle and its head was lizard-like with the snout stained in the girl's blood. The reptile's tail was swishing sideways slowly as the thing let out a threatening, low crow with the mouth baring its teeth when it slightly opened its maw. When it walked with its long arms and claws splayed out in a threatening manner, the sickle-clawed toes on its feet tapped the concrete floor. The sounds ominously resounding in the dark subway station.
"What the?" Gordon was taken aback by the ghastly appearance of the creature responsible for the girl's death.
"Holy crud…" Harvey's jaw threatened to fall off out of sudden shock with the Utahraptor continuing to snarl with its tail raised upwards in its threatening posture, which was made more eerie with eyes flashing back at the flashlights.
The Utahraptor's abrupt, swift turns of its head and neck along with the unnerving crowing forced the policemen to instinctively back away from the raptor dinosaur.
"Sir? What do we do? Do we shoot it?" The SWAT captain asked with barely restrained fear as the creature was increasingly becoming agitated with every second of light being flashed onto its face.
Gordon didn't listen to what he had just said, and everything was quickly turning dangerous with the Utahraptor glaring at the closest policeman to it. The policeman's breathing became more and more irregular when the predatory raptor deliberately stalked towards him. He cocked his gun and his aim was proven to be shaky with his hands quivering at the glowing eyes of the Utahraptor.
The Utahraptor emitted a bird-like croak out of surprise briefly upon hearing the sound and seeing the nozzle pointed at it. However, it didn't last long with the dinosaur's surprise quickly evaporated into renewed aggression.
The Utahraptor flashed its jaws wide open to let out a low-pitched screech that triggered the policeman to lose his cool in his moment of panic.
"No, hold your-!" Renee tried to physically stop the younger policeman, but it was too late.
He hastily fired his gun, and it went off with a bang. The reptilian predator hardly flinched from the bullet hitting it in the shoulder. All it had done was set off the Utahraptor into a murderous frenzy.
The dinosaur let out high-pitched banshee-like shriek before it pounced onto the terrified policeman. He yelled bloody murder with the dinosaur already piercing into his insides with its sharp foot talons and biting him right into his jugular. He died quickly with a choked gurgle and blood foaming from his mouth with the raptor ripping out his throat thanks to its sharp, dagger-like teeth.
The unprepared police force frantically scrambled to reform their line. The Utahraptor was already upon them and Gordon, by impulse, fired his pistol at the monster,
"SHOOT IT!"
The Utahraptor lunged at the Commissioner and everything turning black.
Superman X Godzilla: Beginning of the End