Serpent's Kiss
An Alternate Timeline Real Adventures of Jonny Quest fic
by Time Guardian

Chapter 11 - Resurrection

Dr. Benton Quest thought that when he would die, he would be surrounded by his family and friends, not by a pyramid, snakes, and evil of the worst kind.

After Race had pointed out the intruders that were sharing the space with them, he kept a wary eye on the snakes that were at their feet. It may have been the stress of the moment, but he couldn't recall what variety of poisonous snake they were, and in some small way he was thankful. He cast a look back over at Race, and saw that his friend was eyeing the chains that were binding them to the wall, trying to see any weakness in them or if the locks could be forced.

"How long have we been here?" he whispered.

It was Jessie that answered him. "About an hour I think. They secured us in here, and then Melana brought those snakes in here." She shuddered. "They are poisonous, aren't they?"

He reluctantly nodded. "We should not agitate them at any cost." Benton then asked the question he was dreading. "Jonny is still in there with them, isn't he?"

Race nodded sadly. "The twins had him lead a contingent of guards here and secure us. Listen to me though, I have seen this new serum in action, and according to one of the police from town, it does wear off." He then explained about his and Jonny's encounters with Felix and Miguel, and what Felix had told them.

Benton shook his head in wonder. "And I thought the greatest evil was laid to rest with Dr. Zin. His daughters have taken this one step further. The strength of their guards, and the move that Jonny made on me was incredible, but I truly wonder if we have the time to wait for that serum to wear off."

Jessie shook her head emphatically. "They were ready to start the process as soon as we were secured-"

--

Anya Zin worked the controls of the various machines of the small lab. Each had been designed by both her and Melana to monitor some aspect of this whole process. There were machines giving her father oxygen and still others cycling blood through his systems and cycling out waste. If this worked, the only thing to account for would be a possible loss of muscle tone, but Anya knew there was the possibility that with the immortal life would also come youth and strength as well. They would simply have to address any issues as they came up.

She turned to her sister. "Melana, do you have the snake serum ready?"

Melana was standing at the stone altar, but she shook her head and bent over a small motar and pestle. "The flowers have to be ground just right. I will be ready in a minute."

All of a sudden, beeping from one of the devices made Anya curse. Rushing over to the machine nearest her father, she discovered that it indicated that the oxygen levels in her father's blood were dropping rapidly.

That meant only one thing. As she flipped the nessecary switches to rectify the situation, she shouted. "This is the third time in as many weeks that this has happened. Father's body has started to deteriorate, we cannot wait much longer! I will need someone to stay at this machine to monitor it - we will have too much to do otherwise, even with Jonny's help."

The beeping finally ceased, and Melana turned back to her sister in annoyance. "Well then get Jonny to go with you to get his father then. We have waited long enough! I will have the serum ready by the time he gets here."

Anya shivered slightly. "But you let your pets loose in the lab."

"I am finishing the serum, which will take a delicate mixing process!" Melana countered with a smirk. "Just go already. What are you afraid of?"

Anya turned. Jonny had been standing at the entrance while she and Melana were making the final preparations.

With a sigh of resignation, she headed toward the entrance of the lab. "Come with me, Jonny. We are going to go visit your father."

--

Benton allowed his body to lean against the cool stone wall of the small room. He closed his eyes, trying to think of something or anything that could get them out of this mess, but there was nothing he could come up with at that point.

"Giving up already, Dr. Quest? That is so unlike you."

His eyes flew open, and saw that his son was standing above him, unlocking his chains. Anya was standing in the doorway. "We need your expertise after all, Dr. Quest. You will come with us."

"Free Jonny of the control serum first," he countered. "Then I will do what you want."

"Dr. Quest!" Jessie shouted.

Anya chuckled. "Apparently the good doctor doesn't realize the seriousness of the situation." From behind her back, she drew out a Glock pistol and pointed it at Jonny's head. "I could just remove the problem easy. I could kill your son, and the force of his body could set off Melana's little pets-"

"Enough!" Dr. Quest shouted. Jonny had just finished freeing him from the chains, and grabbed for his father's arm, yanking him rudely to his feet in the process. Amazingly, the snakes in the room kept their position. and soon Dr. Quest was dragged towards the door and out of the room.

As the group left, Jessie looked at the doorway. "Dad, what do we do now?"

Race Bannon was also looking at the same doorway. "I don't know Jess, I don't know."

--

Through pushing and prodding down the main stone hallway, Dr. Quest soon found himself back in the room where they started. Anya moved to the front of the stone altar where Melana was working, and Jonny prodded him into a standing position near Melana.

She turned around with vial in hand. "Welcome back, Doctor Quest. Anya needs you stationed by the blood oxygen machine up on the platform by our father. You will monitor the levels in our father and ensure that the proper oxygen level is maintained. Go."

Sliding the safety off, Anya cocked the hammer of the Glock pistol she had in her hand and pointed it in Jonny's direction. "And if our father deteriorates past the point of no return, your son will join him."

Benton lowered his voice until it was a mere growl. "Understand this: I will help you however I can to help bring your father back, but I swear if you harm my son, there will be nowhere you can hide from me on this Earth."

He then reluctantly walked over to the machine that they had indicated. From what he could tell in the initial glance and from what Melana had told him, it was some sort of machine to help keep oxygen levels in blood at a preset level. He imagined that one of the other machines must be cycling blood in and out of the man's body.

The controls looked detailed, but he tried to focusing, knowing that his son's life depended on his performance.

--

Race struggled with the chains that bound his wrists and couldn't break free. The lock that kept them together was nothing like he had ever seen. For all he knew, Zin could now be alive and on his way back to them to kill them.

"Dad, look out!"

He hadn't been paying much attention to the snakes around them, but Race realized too late that one had coiled dangerously close to left leg and was ready to move in for the kill.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, striking the snake directly in the head, and missing Race by only mere inches.

With some surprise, Race looked up to find Phil Corvin holding on tightly to the doorway, his gun in hand.

Race tensed in surprise. "I thought you were already dead."

Phil smiled wanly as he fired more shots, taking out the remaining snakes in turn before letting the gun he held fall out of his hand. "It takes more than a couple of vipers to get me down, or it may just be that I am too damn stubborn to go when I am called."

He made a move to come into the small room, but he stumbled. Falling to his hands and knees, Phil managed to advance over to where Race was chained. Race could tell that he was in bad shape. Phil's face and arms had mottled and red blistered skin, and his breathing was extremely labored. "I tell you to go get those Zin bitches, and you get yourself captured. Never been able to follow orders, have you Bannon?"

Race grinned weakly. "It's been my motto since the beginning."

Phil dragged a weak hand into his pocket before pulling out a long thin rod, and with some effort, managed to shift his weight over so that he could place it in Race's hands. "I dunno how good of a lock pick this might be, but it will have to do. Can't exactly get back to the helicopter you know."

And with that, Phil Corvin slumped to the ground in a motionless heap.

Jessie looked at him. "Dad-"

Race shook his head as he took one last look before maneuvering the makeshift lock pick around to start working on his chains. "He's stopped breathing, Jess. There's nothing more we can do now except get out of here."

--

Melana handed the completed vial to Anya, and smiled in triumph. "The snake serum is now complete, Just feed the vial contents through the seperate feeding tube we set up for father."

As her sister moved towards their father, Melana then turned to Jonny. "Watch your father and make sure he doesn't move from where we placed him."

Jonny acknowledged the order with a simple nod, and turned to watch his father exclusively.

Anya stepped up on the platform next to the tube containing her father, and with a flourish, lifted off the top half of the tube, leaving it to hang above her, which Dr. Quest realized it had to be suspended by some sort of tubes or wires.

She leaned forward, grabbing for a small empty IV that seemed to be attached to what looked like a feeding tube going straight into her father's neck.

Anya's cold calculating voice marked the occasion. "Introducing the snake serum to the feeding tube - now."

Dr. Quest watched in morbid fascination as Anya fed the pink tinted -serum from the vial into the makeshift feeding setup. For a few minutes, the mixture slid from the IV bag, down the long tube and into Dr. Zin's body.

Initially, nothing seemed to happen. He watched Zin with baited breath. Would this wild scheme actually work?

As he continued to monitor the machine as well as he could, beeping began to issue from the readouts, and red lights were flashing quickly in alarm. "This readout is showing plummeting blood/oxygen levels. How do I up the oxygen level?"

Melana watched in alarm as Zin's body began to convulse terribly. "Idiot! We must stop the seizures now! Second lever, top row, NOW!!"

Anya quickly holstered her pistol behind her back, and quickly fought to keep her father's body still. "Do it now, Dr. Quest!"

--

It took precious time, but Race finally heard a satisfying click, and moments later his chains fell away. He quickly rubbed his wrists to restore the blood flow, and then moved to free Jessie.

After she was free of the bonds, she stood up gratefully, avoiding a glance in the direction when Phil Corvin's body lay. "What do we do now, dad?"

What Race wanted to do was run straight into that lab, but what they needed was an ace in the hole. "Jessie, be careful, but check the other rooms in this place. Free any of the tourists and get yourself out of this pyramid. There's a crack in the wall at the other end of this stone hallway."

Worry creased her features. "But dad-"

Race put his hands on his daughter's shoulders. "Listen Jess, we are facing some big odds. Jonny's been doped up by that drug. From what I know of it, it will not wear off anytime soon, and if those twins have revived Zin, well, I need you to be free, just in case -"

Concerned by monitoring devices, he leaned close, and whispered a few words in his daughter's ear. Reluctantly Jessie broke away, then looked into his eyes. "Ok dad, but you better take care, and make sure Jonny and Dr. Quest get out of here safely."

Race nodded once. "Count on it. Now get going, and be careful."

Jessie nodded back, then headed off down the hallway in the direction of the cracked wall.

Race turned back to the task at hand. It had been at least an hour since Jonny had come for Dr. Quest, and he worried about what could be happening. He ran out of the room in the opposite direction.

--

Dr. Quest moved quickly to comply with the sisters' demands, flipping the switch that Melana had indicated. He turned back to the readouts on the machine and anxiously watched for a rise in Zin's blood oxygen levels.

Nothing. The readouts did not indicate a single percent of change. Moments later, Dr. Zin's body stopped its erratic pattern. A small part of him was relieved that an evil man's efforts to come back to life failed, and yet-

Melana's eyes widened with realization, and she began cursing in every language that she knew.

Tears ran unchecked down Anya's cheeks. After a few moments she stood from where she had been holding her father's body down only moment's before. Her eyes then fell upon Dr. Quest in cold fury. "You - You - You bastard, YOU KILLED HIM!"

--

Dr. Quest realized that he was out of time and remembered the threat that Anya had made. With a sinking feeling, he realized that he would not be able to reach either Jonny or Anya in time. He watched as in one cold fluid motion, Anya pulled out her Glock pistol and fired a single shot.

Jonny Quest, son of Dr. Benton Quest, spun from the force of the gunshot and fell to the ground.

"No, JONNY!!"

It was then that Dr. Quest heard the strangest sound in the air. He quickly whipped head back around to where Dr. Zin laid, and the sight he saw shocked him.

Dr. Zin's eyes were open, and he was gasping for air.

--

It just came out this way, and that is my only defense. My mind is twisted, what can I say? -tries to look innocent, hands back everything that was thrown at her before, then flees.-