Disclaimer: I do not own Jonny Quest or any works of H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos. I am making no money off of this and it is purely for fun and enjoyment.
The New Dynasty
Chapter 10
Race awoke to a burning pain in his arm and as he threw the covers off of him he discovered the wound where the creature had wrapped its slimly tentacle around his wrist was festering. The area was blotched with patches of dead skin surrounded by dark green circles that seemed to grow darker in color as it spread further out from the initial contact site. Race flexed his hand and found that his fingers moved stiffly, but with more flexing the burning sensation that had been moving through his hand and forearm began to subside. Race felt a small sense of dread as he realized that such a wound could become deadly serious since the source of the infection was a supposedly fictitious creature created in the mind of a horror writer.
Climbing out of bed, Race saw that the sun had already risen and quick glance at the alarm clock next to his bed told him it was just after seven AM. A quick glance around the room showed Doctor Quest was still asleep, but that Jonny was nowhere in sight. Race felt his pulse quicken and after verifying that the bathroom was unoccupied he made his way to the door that connected the their room to Jessie's room. Race knocked, but when there was no answer he tried to doorknob which was unlocked as Race had instructed Jessie to keep it in such a state in the event of an emergency. Stepping into his daughter's room Race found the room vacant and a flood of emotions ranging from anger to fear to all out panic coursed through the man's body.
Turning back to his own room he saw Dr. Quest was beginning to stir. "Benton," Race said in as flat a voice as he could muster, "We have a problem."
Dr. Quest sat up and was rubbing the last remnants of sleep from him eyes when his bodyguard's word hit him. "What's happened?"
"Jonny and Jessie are gone."
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Cold and tired, Jessie and Jonny wandered into the lobby of the main Intelligence One headquarters building. After what felt like an eternity, the two teens had ventured out of the drainage pipe they had hid in to avoid the deadly creature that stalked them from the Zin sisters' house. After seeing that no more threats awaited they quickly found their way to a friendlier neighborhood and caught a cab back to I-1.
"You know our dads are going to kill us, right?" Jonny said as he made his way past the security checkpoint with the temporary ID badges that Corbin had provided all of the family members.
"Yeah, I know. But at least we got some information." Jessie replied, trying to sound optimistic.
"Let's just hope they see it that way as well." Jonny grinned as they made their way into the elevator and rode to conveyance up.
As soon as the doors swished open the two friends were hit by a wave of chatter and activity. Jonny sighed outwardly, "Looks like our dads already know we're gone." He said as he stepped out and made his way to Corbin's office.
Once the two teens wandered into the area, a young woman, probably a secretary to the I-1 director saw the kids and immediately picked up the phone while at the same time pointing the kids to head into the office. Jessie and Jonny nodded in unison to the woman and pushed the office door open.
On the other side of the door they found Race and Dr. Quest in a total state of panic within Corbin's office. Race's face was flushed with anger as he was exchanging heated words with his superior, probably blaming the other man for the kids' ability to leave the building.
"Um…" Jonny said loud enough to get the attention of the three men in the room.
"Jonny! Jessie!" Dr. Quest exclaimed as he came over to the two teenagers. "Where in the world have you two been?"
"We went out to do some investigating." Jonny replied trying to stay as cryptic as possible till the men calmed down.
"Investigating?" Race fumed. "Of what? Why on earth would you two leave without telling anyone where you were going?"
"We didn't want to disturb anyone." Jessie replied half-heartedly but she knew her dad wouldn't buy it.
"You two kids are out of control!" Race hollered. "There are things out there trying to kill you and you leave without telling anyone. Not to mention I don't even know how you two were able to leave." Race added with a glance back at his boss, who had not said a word since the two teens entered his office.
"Race, please." Dr. Quest said, trying to restore some order. "What's important is they are back and safe." Dr. Quest gave the two kids a once over, possibly seeing for the first time the state of their clothes and the cuts and scrapes on their faces and hands. "What happened to you two? Where have you been?"
"Well," Jessie started. "We were able to find a rental property on the internet that happened to be owned by a man that also owned a grey van like the one that Mr. Corbin saw at the hospital. We went to check it out, figuring if it was just a false lead then it would be better to have not wasted anyone's time in following a false trail."
"Why didn't you call?" Race exclaimed.
Jessie just shrugged, not really having a good reason for not calling once they had discovered the house.
"And what did you find?" Race asked his daughter, anger still visible on his face.
"Well, it wasn't a false lead." Jessie said. "The Zin sisters were there as well as a group of men that looked similar to the ones at the hospital last night. They saw us and chased us."
For the first time Corbin spoke up, "Where was this house?"
Jessie gave the man the information and Corbin left the office immediately.
"What else happened?" Dr. Quest asked.
"Well, as the men chased us we had to hide in a drainage pipe because another creature appeared and chased us through a field."
"My god." Dr. Quest mumbled. "Was it the same one? Was it Cthulhu?"
Jonny shook his head and visibly shudder. "No, it was a different creature. Who knows how many of those things are out there!"
"All the more reason you two should have never left!" Race threw in.
"Dad…" Jessie started but her father cut her off.
"No, Jessie, this is serious business. You two cannot be running off and not telling someone. You two could have been hurt or captured or killed and none of us would even know! This behavior is too much, even for you two!"
Jonny felt himself being fed up with all the lecturing he and Jessie were receiving. "Race, we did what we thought was necessary." Jonny turned his attention towards his father. "Just like how you, dad, thought it was necessary to not tell me the truth about mom!"
"Jonny, that's not fair." Benton sighed, rubbing his hands over his face.
"Really, Dad? That's how you feel? Well, I think you're wrong and nothing you can say can make it better. The only thing now is to get those Zin sisters and make them pay for what they did!" Jonny spat out as he headed for the door, flinging it open and nearly running straight into Corbin as he was trying to walk back in. Jonny snorted as he moved back into the office, momentarily stopped in his path.
Corbin glanced at the boy, shook his head and walked back into his office. "I have people headed to that house now. But I'm a little worried that we may be too late."
"Why's that?" Race asked.
"Would you stick around if you knew your location was compromised?" Corbin asked the other man. "If they have left, hopefully we can find some evidence of where they went to at least."
"We headed there now?" Race asked, rubbing his wounded hand.
"We can." Corbin said, his eyes narrowing as he noticed the other man's attempts at hiding his hand.
"Well, let's get moving then." Jonny said.
As the group moved to leave, Corbin stopped Race, holding the man back as the others left the office until they were alone. "What's wrong with your hand?"
"Nothing. What are you talking about, Phil?"
"You keep rubbing your hand and wrist like something is wrong. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Phil, honestly." Race replied.
Corbin studied the man for a moment longer then nodded. "Alright, but if something happened you better tell me."
"Will do, boss." Race said with a smile.
After a short ride the group found themselves back at the house that Jessie and Jonny had visited in the early hours of the morning. Just as Corbin had feared it looked as if the Zins had left in a hurry. Various I-1 agents, as well as I-1 SWAT members mingled around the outside of the house, having already secured the area before the others had arrived.
Agent Roberts came up to the group as they exited the vehicle. "Whoever was here already left in a hurry." He reported. "But there are some strange things within the house and the backyard as well."
"You didn't happen to find a large, rather ominous looking book, did you?" Jessie asked.
The agent stared at the girl, somewhat caught off guard by the question. "Um, no, why?"
"Forget it." Corbin said, waving his hand dismissively. "Show us what you did find."
Agent Roberts led the group into the entryway of the house and once again the chill that was at the previous crime scene hit them immediately.
"Guess this is the right place." Race murmured as he shrugged his shoulders to protect against the cold.
"The house itself is pretty barren." Roberts said over his shoulder as he walked through the hallway. "Nothing significant really except the amount of garbage and the stench, it's hard to believe people actually lived here."
"Was there any evidence left behind?" Race asked the other agent.
"If you mean in regards to where they could have gone, not yet."
"What about the creatures?" Jessie asked.
"Excuse me?" Roberts said, as he stopped and turned back towards the group, looking at his boss for some sort of hint at what the girl had meant.
"Nevermind. Thanks, Roberts. We'll take it from here." Corbin said.
"Sir?"
"Go back to the office, Roberts." Corbin stated with a firmer voice. "Get back to searching for Jacob Sheppard and his possible whereabouts."
Roberts huffed, but did not argue with his superior. "Yes, Sir." He said as he moved back passed the group.
"And call me the moment you have some information." Corbin said to the man as he walked passed, placing a hand on the man's shoulder.
Roberts nodded. "Of course, Sir." And with that the group was alone in the house.
"Sorry." Jessie said. "I forgot that he wasn't there when the creatures appeared."
"Don't worry about it." Corbin said to the girl. "He's probably still mad that you showed him up on his language skills yesterday. Roberts is one of my best linguists."
Jessie smiled, "Well, he was wrong."
"I know." The man replied.
They found themselves in the kitchen and just as Roberts had said the room was filled with excessive amounts of trash. "I never would have though the Zins would be dirty people." Race said.
"Well, who knows who or what else was in this place." Jonny said.
Corbin kicked a pile of trash gently with his toe and jumped back as a decent size rat scurried out from the pile. He looked at the rest of the group and said, "I don't think the Zin sisters were living here. This must have been a place where they could perform whatever rituals they needed to summon those hellish creatures. They probably lived somewhere else in the city."
Dr. Quest stroked his beard as he took in the information. "That's possible. Agent Roberts mentioned the backyard as well. We should look back there."
"Good idea, Benton." Race said and led the group out the back door. A couple agents were finishing up their investigation in the yard, in the vicinity of a small shed in the back.
One of the men nodded to Corbin and the group and said, "You'd think this was a scene out of a bad horror movie or something. We left it as is for you to see, Sir, but as soon as you're done we will mark all the evidence." He kept moving in a hurried pace.
Race pulled the door of the small shed open and stepped inside. Race sucked in his breath as he took in the scene. "This must be the place." He said as the others crowded into the small shed as best they could.
The floor of the shed was just dirt, but a circle had been drawn into the dirt along with an inverted pentagram. A small worktable was tucked into the corner of the shed. Jonny ventured over towards it and found two photos on the table, one of the him, Hadji and their father and the other of Jessie and her mom and dad.
Jonny stared at the photo with disgust. "How in the world did those crazy bitches get a hold of these pictures?"
Corbin knelt down next to the circle and examined it more closely. "I'm imaging that during the ceremony this hole becomes some sort of pit that the creatures venture out of."
"That's insane, Phil." Race said.
"Anymore insane then everything else that has already happened?" Corbin asked, glancing back at the other man.
"Well…good point." Race said with a short grin.
"Look," Corbin said as he pointed at the inner edges of the circle. "That looks like the same green substance that was found at the scenes of the murders."
Jessie started thinking aloud, "So, the Zins get their hands on the Necronomican, figure out how to summon these creatures from whatever hell they came from, and set them upon their intended victims at will. What chance do we have to fight these things?"
"I bet Hadji would know what to do." Jonny said.
"But he's not here and I'd rather we kept him out of this." Benton said. "No point in adding another target for the Zins to hunt down."
The group continued to study the eerie shed in silence until the ringing of a cell phone broke through the air. Everyone jumped at the sudden noise as Corbin stood and retrieved the phone from his pocket.
"I thought you lost that." Race said to the other man.
"I'm the director of Intelligence One." Corbin said as he looked at the phone. "I get issued these things as if they were going out of style."
"Great use of the taxpayers' money." Race smirked.
Corbin gave the other man a chiding look, but replied, "You know it, boss."
Corbin stepped out of the shed to take the call, but stuck his head back in almost immediately. "They found Agent Holton."
"What?" Race said, "Where?"
"He was wandering in one of the parks, dazed and barely clothed. The local police have him at the hospital now so I'll be heading over there to meet him and his wife." He handed the keys of the sedan to Race. "I'll take one of the other vehicles, so just head back to the offices when you're done here."
"Got it." Race nodded as he took the keys and watched his boss head back to the front of the house. Once Corbin was out of sight he turned back to the others. "So, now what?"
Dr. Quest shook his head, "I don't see how we are going to find the Zins at this point. Hopefully, Corbin's people can locate them, but who knows. I think our best bet is finding Jacob Sheppard."
"If he's still alive." Race added.
"Oh, I believe he's alive," Benton said, "with every passing moment I believe more and more that he alive. The problem is determining what side he is on."
To Be Continued…
A/N: Yeah I know it's been a very long time since I updated, but life has been busy. This chapter is meant to be more of a reintroduction to the story, for both myself and whoever reads it. I just hope to get the rest knocked out soon. And for those that were hoping Hadji would be in a Cthulhu themed story…just wait…it's not over yet. ;-)