A TANGLED WEB Part 8: Endgame
Chapter 15
by Charlie Nelson a.k.a. Ordinaryguy2
The main crossovers in this chapter include: Alien (1979); Ben 10(2005-2008); Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000-2001); Conan the Barbarian (1982); The Dead Zone (2002-2007); Doctor Who (1987-1989); Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985); Earth 2 (1994-1995); Eureka (2006-present); Farscape (1999-2003); He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe (1983-1985); The Invasion (1996); Jonny Quest (1964-1965); Kyle XY (2006-2009); Land of the Lost (1974-1976); Lost (2004-2010); Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003); Rocky and His Friends 'Peabody's Improbable History' (1959-1964); The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994-1998); Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975); Star Trek (1967); Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
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It was a glum group that moved through the dark tunnels of the Sleestak. Hank, the ranger of the group, with his energy bow drawn, led the way with Sigmund, the sea-monster, who could sense things further away in the dark. Behind them came Jack and Will Marshall followed by the two kids, True and Uly. Bobby, a boy given the title of 'Barbarian', walked behind them ready to swing his magic club at any shadow that moved, and once almost swung at a bat that flew away from them. Ace followed with her croquet mallet out resting on her shoulder and the Romulan phaser in her other hand. Diana, the acrobat in a fur bikini, came last with the female Romulan, Sela, at her side.
Hank tried to leave those behind that didn't have any weapons to fight with, but Jack and Will insisted, while also pointing out that they knew the surprises of the Land of the Lost better than he did.
True pointed out that Uly could travel through the ground to get away, and possibly bring two or more people with him. And that it was probably just as dangerous for True to be left waiting alone in the tunnels as it was for her to come along. It was poor logic, but they were stymied for time and lack of help.
As for Sigmund, the short, ball-like mass of sentient sea vegetation proved to be the most valuable member of the group as he could track the xenomorphs by the acidic trail that they left that only he seemed to sense. Sela's tricorder could barely pick up anything, so Sigmund was their tracker out of necessity.
"We're getting close," commented Sigmund in a whisper.
Hank could tell that Sigmund was getting nervous as his tendrils were shaking more than ever. "Okay, can you detect any of those creatures around here?"
"I-I'm not sure." His body slowly turned in a complete circle, but did not add anything to what he had already said.
"The wall's texture is changing," pointed out Jack. As they advanced, they all noticed a white substance overlaying the walls and taking up more space.
"Reminds me of a hornets' nest," Will commented, picking at it with a finger. "Just oozier."
"Yeah," Bobby glowered. "Well, these things ain't hornets, but if they come out, I'll squash them!"
True reached out and grabbed the younger boy's shoulder. "Just remember what the splatter can do to all of us."
"Oh. Oh yeah. Acid for blood." Bobby began rethinking his attack strategies.
They came to a place where the tunnel branched off in three different directions.
"Which way?" Diana asked Sigmund.
The short sea creature trembled and almost went into a fetal position. "I-I-I'm not sure. They've been all over this area. I can't tell in which direction they carried off people."
"We're not breaking up into groups, are we?" asked Ace, the hardheaded young woman suddenly looking frightened. "I mean, strength is in numbers. We should stay together."
Sela slowly moved her tricorder back and forth. Something was interfering with her signal, but something was definitely alive up ahead. She'd taken a reading on the resin on the wall, but nothing like it was recorded in the Romulan data base. Whatever it was could prove useful to the Romulan Empire when she returned. She had already managed to take a few small samples. "I have life signs," she spoke. "Some of them are Human," she was finally able to determine.
"Lead the way," Hank said.
Sela went down the left tunnel; her tricorder in her left hand while her phaser was in her right.
The white pitch material lining the walls was thicker than earlier and contained more moisture.
"What is this stuff?" whispered True, fear evident in her voice.
Sela looked annoyed, but noticed the question in the others' eyes, too. "It's a type of resin used to produce hive-like homes. From scanning its molecular structure, it appears to have been made by mixing the creatures' acidic saliva with other material."
"Are you saying that all this stuff was made by their spit?" exclaimed Bobby. He didn't know whether to be impressed or horrified. "This place is the inside of a giant spitball!" Only Uly was impressed with that statement, so Bobby put himself back in warrior mode and tried to look formidable.
"There's a small cavern ahead," Sela mentioned in a low tone.
As they stepped into the cavern, small glowing crystals lined the ceiling and shed dim light on the setting. Sounds of the resin softly crunching under their feet and their breathing were the only things they could hear.
Sela was becoming more frustrated with the results from her tricorder. "This stuff is acting like an insulator and absorbing some of my signal. But I know for sure that the Humans are up here. They're alive but their life signs are low."
"Then let's go get them!" insisted Will Marshall, who was eager to rescue his sister.
Hank stepped in front of him. "We'll go first. You don't have any weapons, so you and your dad-"
"He's my uncle."
"Ok, uncle, then. Those without weapons will assist or carry whoever we find. This is a sneak in and grab arrangement. Any fighting will probably bring in the rest of these things, and we don't know how many of them there are. We are trying to avoid fighting if at all possible. And, please, everyone, remember what those creatures' blood does."
"This is when Eric's shield would have really come in handy," Diana said, glaring at Sela, who had insisted that Eric go with her team while the Romulan came on this one.
"Actually, I think we have a few tricks that might help out," said Will's uncle. He held up a small bag and shook it slightly.
"Hey, yeah!" Will grinned. "The crystals!"
Hank shook his head, indicating that this was neither the time nor the place for this kind of discussion. They proceeded forward.
Ace poked at the resin on the walls with her croquet bat. "It's almost like there are faces in here." Part of the resin moved and a Sleestak head fell forward through the stringy paper-like stuff.
True almost screamed but Uly had a hand over her mouth before she could.
"It's dead," pointed out Sela, studying the Sleestak with her tricorder.
"What-what happened to it?" asked Diana. "Did it suffocate in there?"
The Romulan studied the reading from her tricorder as well as visually assessing the corpse with her eyes. "Something did strangle it, but that was not what killed it." She changed the setting on her phaser and burned away some of the resin holding the Sleestak carcass in place. The chest area of the Sleestak was cleared revealing a gaping hole there.
"What happened?" asked Uly, who had been staring at the readings on the tricorder in Sela's hands. She couldn't look at the dead reptilian humanoid without gagging.
"Looks like something tore into him," said Bobby, who was trying not to turn green.
"More like something tore out of him," informed Sela.
They continued on into the cavern, keeping their eyes peeled.
True pointed out toward the middle of the small cavern. "What are those? Some type of plant: a bulb for a flower?" She was pointing at the middle of the cave where there were dozens of large tulip-like bulbs a little smaller than a basketball spaced throughout the area.
"You're going to tell us those are eggs, right?" said Ace, hoping she was wrong. I so should have gone with the Professor, she thought.
Sela consulted her tricorder, annoyed at the undisciplined responses of all these youths. "There is something alive in them. There structure is different than those that attacked us earlier. I can't get a more conclusive reading than that."
"In other words, let's avoid the large tulip bulb things," summed up Jack Marshall.
"Look!" True said in a loud whisper. She pointed to figures buried in the alien resin that were now visible. All with their chest burst open.
Bobby and Uly hurried forward before anyone could stop them.
"Whoa, this guy has two heads!" exclaimed Bobby. "And both are really ugly!"
"And here's one that has spikes coming out of his body, even his head!" said Uly.
"This guy is like the bigger brother of the Creature from the Black Lagoon," Bobby said of another one of the bodies.
"And this guy has a really long tail," Uly pointed out.
"Sounds familiar, doesn't it?" commented Jack, from behind them.
"What do you mean?" asked Sigmund, who had come up with the others.
"Those creatures that attacked us and took Holly and the others away; they were all unique in some way. One was aquatic, one had spikes, one had a long tail and-"
"-one had two heads." Diana shivered. "You're suggesting that those things that attacked us came out of the chests of these corpses, right?"
"It looks that way," he said. "Borrowing genetic traits along the way."
"Then why would they take Sheila and the others?" asked Bobby.
Jack was silent as the horrific answer slowly came to him. Fortunately for him it was Sela that provided the answered for the others. "To incubate eggs in a host body."
They all paled and went still, including Sigmund. Then they heard a soft mewling sound.
"That's Uni!"
Bobby ran down the wall of white resin before anyone could do anything but follow. He stopped at a place in the wall and began pulling at the white sticky stuff with his hands. "It's Uni! She's wrapped up in here! The others are here, too!"
Sela immediately stood guard as the others worked on freeing those trapped in the resin. They were all there: Uni the small unicorn, Sheila, Presto, Holly, Chiana, and Khan. Even the Sleestak bowman was there.
Hank pulled the moist warm white resin off Sheila who stood up groggily.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
She groaned weakly but managed to pull him forward and surprise him with a gentle kiss. "I knew you'd come and rescue us," she said in a raspy voice.
"Ah." Hank was taken off guard. This was not the place he had expected their first kiss to take place. He glanced around and noted that only a wide-eyed Bobby had seen what had transpired.
"Holly! Are you alright? What happened?" Will worked frantically to get the resin off his sister. Their uncle, Jack, was freeing the Sleestak next to her. "Jack, she isn't saying anything!"
"Give her a moment to breathe," was his uncle's response. "The resin might produce an anesthetic response so try and clean off your hands with whatever you can as soon as possible."
Chiana was pulled out with the aid of True and Uly. Diana worked on getting Presto out while Sigmund tried using his tentacles to free Khan Noonien Singh. The seaweed creature had freed some of the resin, which roused Khan. Khan rallied his remaining strength and forced himself through his resin bonds.
He looked around like a madman. Sighting what he wanted, he tackled Ace and pulled away the phaser rifle she had slung over her shoulder.
"Khan!" shouted Sela. "They're on our side!"
He ignored her and charged past everyone, opening fire with the phaser on the large tulip bulb-like eggs.
"What's he doing?" Bobby said, scratching his head, and then stopping once he noticed the resin still sticking to his fingers.
Chiana wiped her face clear of the gunk. "He's killing them. I hope he kills them all."
"What happened?" asked True.
A look of horror crossed Sheila's face. "I remember! Oh God! I remember!" She grabbed her chest. "I'm dead! I'm as good as dead!"
Hank held onto her. "What? What happened here?"
A deafening, alien screech filled the small cavern. Some of the bulbs that hadn't been destroyed yet flowered open and small crab-like creatures with long spindly legs and a long tail scuttled out with surprising speed.
"Hank! Kill them! Kill them or you're dead, too!" cried Sheila.
Sela caught on first and fired on the crab-like things quickly scuttling toward them and killed two outright while the other scattered. "Those things must do the incubating inside people and then burst out."
"Close," Presto said, from where he sat on the ground. "They put the embryo inside us to incubate." He lifted up a hand-sized dead crab creature up from next to him. "Then they fall off and die."
Sigmund placed a tentacle on Presto's shoulder. "I think I can sense the embryo inside of him. It's growing and will soon come out."
Hank was firing for all he was worth at the egg things with his energy bow when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. "The adults are back!" He shot at one that was covered in spikes, but it turned and darted to the side, but the arrow did strike another xenomorph behind it.
An incredibly long tail lanced out from the darkness and struck Khan in the leg with the barb at the end. "Aaargh!" Khan twisted away and the barb broke off leaving it imbedded in his thigh. He tried to draw a bead on his attacker, but it disappeared back into the shadows.
Chiana hurried over and helped Khan to his feet. She was about to turn him around and walk him over to the others when one of the beefier xenomorphs dropped from the ceiling landing on top of them.
Sela almost fired at the xenomorph on top of Khan and Chiana, when Diana leapt in the way. "No! The acid blood will spill all over them!"
The alien creature sniffed at the two people underneath it, while it's mandibles twitched just inches from them. Khan wanted to kill it even if it meant his death, but Chiana restrained him. "It smells the embryos inside us," she said in a quiet tone. "It won't kill us if it can help it. But that won't stop it from maiming us so that we can't fight them."
"Tell me something I don't already know, alien!" he spat.
While everyone hesitated, Bobby moved. The xenomorph lashed out with its tail, but Bobby was ready for it and smashed it away with his magic club. Unprepared for such a powerful blow, the xenomorph reared up just in time to be struck in the face with the club which crushed its skull while also lifted it up and away over twenty feet where it slammed into a stalagmite, which quickly dissolved away. A crab-like thing jumped at Bobby, and he automatically smashed it, too. "I'm glad this club is magical, or I don't think it would last long against these things," he murmured to himself as he noted that his club didn't disintegrate like the rock floor. "Watch where you step, everybody! Some of the floor is sizzling!"
"There are more coming!" shouted Holly. They are moved back hoping that by forming a circle that they could keep the savage creatures at bay.
"Ready, Will?"
"Ready, Jack!"
Both men held a blue and a green crystal in each hand. They waited, while Sela, Khan and Hank shot any crab-scurriers and adult xenomorphs. Then, at the last moment when two of the large crab-clawed xenomophs were almost upon them, Will and Jack brought the crystals together, and the attackers were rebuffed by a force field.
The xenomorphs went into a frenzy battering themselves against the invisible barrier.
"On my mark we'll let it down and you can shoot them," Jack called back, hoping someone with long-range weapons had heard him.
They had and were aiming at their targets. When Jack shouted "Now!" he and Will separated the crystals and dove to the side even as the others fired their weapons, effectively killing those monsters that were closest.
There was another surge at them from the creatures and Will and Jack erected the force field again just in time.
"Oh, they didn't like that," said Ace. "We should do it again."
"We're going to have to do something," said Will. "These force fields have a very short life span."
"Of course our luck couldn't hold out," muttered Ace.
"I could start shuttling people away," said Uly, unsure if that was really what he should do.
Bobby brightened up. "That's right. He's got a power that lets him travel through the ground like it was air."
Hank took Uly by the arm. "Can you get us all out of here?"
"Um, well, a few at a time." The boy glanced at the others feeling unsure about himself.
"And you can find a safe place and come back here?"
"Well, you see, I'm still working on backtracking. I can figure out the whole which way is up and down by the pull of gravity. And I can usually keep my bearings by feeling a planetary magnetic pole, but this place doesn't have one. I'll probably get lost. Though I can usually find open spaces."
A noise from where they had entered the cavern interrupted everything. A man wearing a loincloth and brandishing a sword charged forward with a mighty roar. A man in a white and green space suit followed. Behind them others of their group speculated what to do.
One of the others was a young teenage girl who wore a hat. One of the crab-like things launched itself at her and planted itself on her face with its long tail wrapped tightly around her neck. The girl struggled for a second and then melted into a large glob of liquid silver. The liquid glob twisted away from the confused face-hugging creature and reformed into the same girl form a few feet away. The crab creature launched at her again, but this time it was caught in mid-flight by the hands of someone just as fast.
Kyle held the crab thing in both hands and studied it. "I'm not sure what it is, but it seemed to want to be on your head. Shall I hold on to it?"
"Ye-Yeah, sure. Just don't let it loose again," Alex Mack said, backing away, adjusting her hat and wiping her face profusely despite there being nothing on it.
Another of the face-huggers launched itself at another member of her group. "Cassie!" Alex cried. She pointed her finger and managed to grab small crab creature with her telekinesis. Then she bashed it against a rock where it sizzled.
"Thanks!" said Cassie.
"Look! Their bodily fluids are like a super acid!"
Kyle noted this reaction and threw the small monster he was holding against a nearby wall with incredible force where it splattered.
Conan charged forward meeting one of the dark demons directly and cut its head off with a swing of his long sword. Movement to his side caught his notice and he used his blade to bat away one of the crab creatures that had flung itself at his head. It was then he noticed that his sword was beginning to dissolve. Scowling, he thrust what remained of the blade into the abdomen of another attacking creature and pinned it, at least until the sword finished dissolving, to the side of the cave wall like a bug specimen. "Crom take you, demon!"
"Get down!" said the green and white armored figure behind the barbarian. Buzz Lightyear used his wrist blasters to blast more of the oncoming xenomorphs. "Here use this," he said, tossing Conan a hilt. "It's a vibro-sword. You tighten your grip on the hilt and it will produce a blade. The blade is made out of sound so as long as you don't get any acidic blood on the hilt it should serve you well."
Conan nodded, accepting what he considered to be a magic blade and slashed another off to his right. He may despise magic, but it could be helpful when dealing with demons. A few drops of the xenomorph blood touched his shoulder but he wiped it off before it burned too bad and moved to face another demon of the dark.
Buzz raised his wrists to fire again, but something slammed into his clear, collapsible visor. The face-hugger tried repeatedly to jam its tubular proboscis toward Buzz's mouth, but the visor kept it out, plus his suit kept its tail from being able to choke him. Getting his hands on some of the legs, Buzz managed to pull it off though it left faint scratches on his visor. It struggled in his fingers wanting to bite him if nothing else. It spit up something on his left wrist and his suit began to sizzle. "Yow!" he yelled and threw the beastie away. He quickly loosened the armor off his arm and tossed it down.
He turned and fired with his other wrist blaster on another xenomorph as it attacked. "These things may actually be a challenge."
Behind him the rest of his team were shaking off their shock.
"Have you got a morph form to fight these things?" asked Ben Tennyson.
The black girl raised an eyebrow. "Probably one better than yours." She eyed him. "If that was a challenge, that is?"
"Girls first," he said, trying to sound polite and challenging at the same time.
Cassie concentrated as her neck stretched upwards to seven feet and her body took on a darkish green color. Her mouth formed into a sharp beak, but she retained her teeth. Her knees bent backwards while her legs lengthened, and she grew a spiky tail. Blades appeared on her wrists, arms, knees, and forehead. She stretched and charged forward.
"Hey! I thought you could just do Earth animals!" accused Ben. "What is that anyway?"
A small, white dog with black-rimmed glasses and a bowtie stood upright next to him. "Unless I'm mistaken, that's a Hork-Bajir. Despite their appearances they are usually quite peaceful."
Ben shrugged. "I guess you'd know, Mr. Peabody. But right now I know it is time for me to get into the action." He reached down and activated the Omnitrix on his left wrist. The change happened in seconds as Ben became a tall light-green crystal humanoid. "Ah, man. I wanted to become Fourarms or Wildmutt. Oh well, Diamondhead is pretty good for this type of fighting." He rushed forward, catching a face-hugger with one of his hands and encased it in crystal before dashing it against the skull of a xenomorph about to attack Buzz Lightyear from behind.
One of the alien beasts landed on his head and he batted at it, finally pulling it off with one hand and then bashing it with the other. "Yow! It burns!" He looked down at his hands, which were dissolving. "Oh, now that's not nice." He concentrated and the dissolved crystal began to be replaced by fresh crystal. "Alright, you nightmares, let's see you try that again!" An alien with an incredibly long tail wrapped it round and round Ben, pinning his arms to his chest, and then five beasts jumped on top of him from the shadows, biting into his crystal form.
Ben flailed about and his Ominitrix device flared its emergency signal. Ben began to change again. This time his form was not bothered by the biting, clawing, stabbing monsters. His form had become one of living fire with a humanoid shape. "Yeah! Heatblast is the perfect alien form to go against these things!" He flared up his powers and all the aliens on him dropped dead, including one from the ceiling that had had the extremely long tail.
Ben! These things have highly corrosive blood! shouted Cassie in his mind.
"Tell me something I don't know! Hey! You're telepathic, too?"
Just when I'm in another shape, she thought him. And I had to change mine, too, by the way. I'm now the polar bear. The way their blood is eating at me, I'll probably take on my elephant shape next.
He sent a blast of fire at some of the xenomorphs coming up behind the polar bear mauling one of their brood. Her white coat of fur was covered with red blood, which Ben knew must have been hers. "Be careful. I've got your back. Leave the more dangerous stuff to me for now!"
Just then a large splash from the small cave pool hit him. He only had a moment to flare up before the water hit him, but it was just enough to save him from being totally smothered. Then he watched as a large aquatic alien jumped out of the pool and Ben knew he had a fight on his hands.
As the battle raged on, the rest of the group gathered around Mr. Peabody.
"You don't expect all of us to go out there, do you?" Hurley asked the unusual canine. His look of terror was shared on everybody's faces.
"No, of course not. We wouldn't survive. Well, you most likely would with that jinx on you. As I understand it, it attracts troubles near you, but doesn't let harm befall you."
"Wait! I thought that witch doctor fellow we bumped into, Dr. Bombay I think his name was, he said this lei he gave me would block it." Hurley carefully touched the delicate Polynesian garland of flowers around his neck.
Mr. Peabody sighed. Personally, he believed it was all in Hurley's head, but since coming here he had seen a number of things that he couldn't explain just yet. Plus, Mr. Peabody found it hard to assure him that things like that just were not so when Hurley believed that dogs shouldn't be able to talk, when Mr. Peabody was himself a talking dog. And a very intelligent one at that. "Just stay here with me and you should be fine."
"Man, I hope I'm just imagining all this and I'm really back in the institution." The large man was sweating and looking around for something or someone to save them.
Hadji Quest-Singh twisted in the air and caught one of the crab thingies before it could attach itself to Hurley. He struggled with it, but it couldn't break away.
Hurley stared at the quivering creature that would have led to his death if it had got to him. "Whoa. Thanks, dude."
The Indian teenager eyed it curiously even as its tail constricted painfully around his arm. "Perhaps these things are merely defending their nest. If we leave, then they may stop attacking us."
"Maybe so, Hadji" said the pirate captain, Jack Sparrow, who had been protecting their rear. "But I don't think they are going to just give us that option." He turned and fired one of his pistols at one of the alien monsters rushing toward them from behind them. The lead slug penetrated the young xenomorph's braincase and it fell dead, sliding across the floor, leaving an acidic trench forming in its wake.
"Oh God! We're surrounded!" cried Hurley.
"No, I think it was a latecomer," expressed Jim Taggart who had just come out of the shadows, having stopped back further in the tunnel to urinate. "What are these creatures?"
"Unknown," said Mr. Peabody. "But judging from the bodies trapped in the resin with the chest cavities broken open, I would guess that these creatures," he tapped the creature struggling in Hadji's grasp with a cane, "either crawl down the throats of their intended victims or else they plant an embryo for these larger creatures in the host's stomach region. Whether by means of puncturing the intended host to insert an embryo, or implanting it down the throat or up thru the… um, back entrance."
"Please tell me you are kidding," Hurley whispered hoarsely.
"He's not kidding," said Johnny Smith, having stayed back to make sure Taggert didn't attacked while he did his business, he was also taking it the alien environment. "You have a good hold on that?" he asked Hadji. Hadji nodded. "I want to try something."
"Well, be quick about it, mate," said Jack Sparrow. He had already had to use one of his throwing knives to kill another of the smaller attacking monsters. Now he was feverishly trying to reload his pistol. "We could be called upon to die at any moment."
Johnny grabbed onto the face-hugger's tail and closed his eyes. His head jerked to the left and then to the right as his psychic abilities tried to understand what he was in contact with. Finally, he fell back almost into a faint and Kyle caught him.
"Johnny?" Kyle said.
"It… it was all so alien. There's a mother figure here somewhere. The mother of all these things," Johnny said, gasping at the alien images in his head.
Jim Taggart nodded. "That fits into my theories." He saw some confusion. "I'm a cryptozoologist as well as an animal containment specialist."
Alex blinked. "You're a dog catcher?"
Mr. Peabody raised an eyebrow in Taggart's direction, waiting for his response.
Taggart sighed. "Where I work, the animals are smarter and more dangerous than you could imagine."
Jack Sparrow shot another oncoming adult xenomorph, only this time it was not a killing blow. Alex Mack had to raise a hand and forced it back with an electrical charge, then lifted a large boulder telekinetically and dropped it on top of the stunned beast effectively killing it.
Taggart shrugged. "Ok, maybe you can imagine. But I can tell you this much, in my opinion, those things will try to kill us even if we do try to leave."
"I agree," said Johnny Smith.
Hurley groaned. "Great, we can agree that these things are going to do their best to kill us. Can we agree to do something to save ourselves?"
Mr. Peabody scratched his chin. "Hmm, I think we would dramatically increase our chances of getting out of here if we had those other people with us. Alex, do you think you can flow over there and ask them to come over here?"
"On my way, chief!"
Alex Mack's features melted into quicksilver. Then the ball of liquid silver turned and pour down the slight incline and on toward the other group. Swiftly, the silver like liquid moved stealthfully across the distance, encountering no resistance.
As she took form again, she had a yellow energy arrow pointed directly at her face. "Er? I come in peace?"
The blond bowman hesitated, but a call over his shoulder drew his attention. "Hank? Something's happening to Uni!"
The small unicorn was shaking on its feet; wisps of resin stuck to her orange mane.
"We have to help her!"
"She's going to die," said Presto in a quiet voice. "We all are."
"Don't say that!" Will Marshall stood defiantly over Presto. "If that's your choice, then just crawl back into that white stuff they cocooned you in and wait for it to happen! As for the rest of us, we are going to save Holly and the others!"
"He's right though," said Khan. He had allowed Ace to have the phaser back as the pain in his gut was starting to match that in his leg. "These things inside us are going to kill us. And only a miracle can save us."
Sheila looked up from where she had been sobbing on her brother's shoulder. "Or magic!"
"Oh no," groaned Presto, already guessing what was about to be suggested.
"You gotta do it, Presto!" begged Bobby. "That last spell you did was amazing!"
"I was hypnotized by Enik! And he isn't even here!" protested Presto. "I can't do anything like that again!"
"Wait!" Khan raised a hand. "If the boy is hypnotized, he could possibly save us?"
Hank nodded. "He's right. You were able to use your magic hat with more control when you were hypnotized," he acknowledged. Then he turned to fire more energy arrows at more of the creatures trying to attack them.
Khan reached over and snagged Presto's green cloak and pulled him over. "You will look at me, boy. And you will concentrate. I can have you hypnotized before you know it." He stared into Presto's eyes and held them. Then after a few moments he snapped his fingers and Presto's head went slack. "Listen to me, my redheaded friend. You will become what your friends expect of you, and you will use that ability to save us. Now do it! Do it now!"
Presto's head snapped up, a sure grin on his face, and he grabbed his magician's hat off his head. Waving his fingers over the opening, he spoke in a surprisingly sure tone. "Magic hat! It's time to go to bat! Inside us is an ugly alien life, now take it out and send it back before there is any more strife!"
Seven balls of light popped out of Presto's hat and floated to those inflicted with the embryos. Bobby held out Uni as one of the balls of light went down and into the little unicorn. Will leaned up his weakened sister as one of the glowing globes descended towards her. The Sleestak bowman hesitated, uncertain of what to do, stood still and let the magic balls do their work. So did the others. Even Presto, stood there like the Statue of Liberty only not only was the hat he was holding high glowing, so was his abdomen. The balls of light lit bright and stayed glowing for almost a minute before they all rose up and floated above the group.
"Is that the monster babies in there?" asked Alex Mack.
The little fiendish creatures where not fully grown, but they could see that one was paler that the others, another had a small horn on its forehead, and another one had large crab claws for hands. They twisted and turned in their mystical confinement, but there was no escape. Suddenly all seven globes flew to the far side of the cave and there was a sudden burst of light as they slammed into the ovipositor of a fifteen-foot xenomorph that had been hidden in the quiet darkness.
"I think we found momma," Diana said in awe.
Alex Mack nodded. "Which brings me back to the reason I came over here. If you guys can get your group over to my friends over there, we have a way out."
"It's gone!" Holly stood up. She still felt weak as the embryo had sucked up a lot of her body's nutrients. She hugged her brother and uncle. Then she saw Sela. "You came! Thank you so much!"
Sela blushed, but turned to fire on another xenomorph to hide her embarrassment. "We still have to get out of here. You can thank me then."
Chiana, feeling much better now that she had a possibility of surviving, looked over to where the potential exit was. "Now we just have to figure out how to get safely from here to there."
"Have no fear!" said Presto. "I merely have to-"
A face-hugging alien leaped out of the shadows and was on Presto's face before anyone could stop it.
True screamed even as Chiana tried ripping it off Presto's head.
"It's going to put another one of those things in him," cried Sheila.
Alex came over to Presto. "Move over but keep a tight hold of that thing," she told Chiana. Then she took both of Presto's hands into hers.
Alex's features melted into liquid silver as she once more became a ball. Still attached to Presto, his features also began taking on a silvery color as he seemed to melt into Alex's ball, minus the crab creature that had been on his face.
Chiana jerked the face-hugger away keeping it tight in her grip and stepped back a number of steps. "Was that supposed to happen?"
The ball of silver moved just a little and then took on shape again; two shapes appeared. Alex stood there just in back of Presto to keep him from losing his balance.
"What-What just happened?" asked a startled Presto, as he adjusted the glasses on his nose. The hypnotic trance was definitely over.
Diana gave him a hug and had a few tears in her eye. "It's quite a story and I'll tell you later."
A horrific alien screech drew everyone's attention to across the cavern.
Alex glanced around. But the darkness was everywhere again. "Where's Ben? He was the fiery guy who was burning all the things while giving off a lot of light."
Sela looked around. Her night vision was better than most thanks to her genetic heritage. "Something must have happened to him while Presto was doing his magic act."
Another screech filled the cavern and the children cowered.
Hank sent over one of his glowing arrows over which exploded and sent sparks of light everywhere, which revealed the Queen xenomorph thrashing and twisting as she tried to bite at her own swollen abdomen.
"That's got to be the mother of these things. But what is she doing?" Uly asked. "Hey! Where's Sigmund going?"
The sentient sea plant creature was heading down the slope and entered the pond of the cave before anyone could ask him what he was doing.
"A coward," said Khan. "He couldn't take the strain of fighting."
Hank sent out another energy arrow to flare up on the far side of the cavern. The mother alien could be seen biting into her enormous egg-swollen of her lower torso. A second set of mandibles came out of the queen mother's mouth, bit into her egg sac and tore something out.
"It's the embryo creatures that were in us!" shouted Sheila. "When Presto took them out of us, he sent the little monsters back into their mother!"
"I did?" exclaimed Presto, still trying to catch up.
Jack Marshall brought out a pair of binoculars out. "Okay, shoot another one over there, just a little higher though. I don't want to be blinded." Hank followed through with the request, firing another flare shot and Jack told them what he saw. "The babies are tearing her apart trying to get out. They're destroying a lot of the eggs in her, too."
"Good," said Khan. "Maybe they'll kill each other, too."
Ace lifted up a canister from her pack. "If not, then maybe this'll finish them off."
Khan eyed it with speculation. "What is it?"
She smiled. "I call it Nitro-9. A little something I whipped up that could really bring the roof down on this place."
"An explosive device," commented Sela. "That should kill off the rest of these things."
"Well, can we leave now then, right?" Alex Mack said. The xenomorphs were not attacking anymore. Instead, they hurried to the Queen to try to protect her, but they didn't know from what since the threat was inside of her.
"Now would be an excellent time to lead," said Jack.
"Right," said Ace. She set a timer on her Nitro-9 canister and placed it down.
Alex led the way while Jack helped Khan with walking. They led their way across the cavern toward Alex's friends. Midway there they encountered a limping buffalo, a space man with holes melted in parts of his suit, and an almost naked barbarian holding a thin length of stalagmite for a weapon.
"Cassie?" asked Alex, assuming the buffalo had to be her shape changing friend.
I can't find Ben, thought Cassie frantically.
"Look!" cried Holly. "It's Sigmund! He's dragging one of those things from the water!"
He's dragging Ben from the water! I can sense Ben's thoughts from the creature being dragged up, Cassie thought to everyone. Ben must have gained the DNA of these creatures' shape in his Omnitrix while he was fighting with them.
Will started going over to Sigmund. "I don't know what am Omnitrix is, but I think Sigmund somehow knew Ben was down there. Stunned by the look of him."
The xenomorph fell onto the ground and quickly changed shape into the youthful form of Ben Tennyson. He coughed and rolled on his side. He looked up at all the faces around him. Slowly and with great effort, he started to talk. "When that aquatic monster knocked me in the pond, my Omnitrix switched me to my Ripjaws persona. We fought underwater but even that thing wasn't prepared for something that was part alligator, part eel and part leech. And then when it finally thought it had me, my Omnitrix had gotten its DNA and turned me into a version of it. I managed to kill it but not before getting injured and stuck down there. I probably would have drowned if this fellow hadn't come along."
Sigmund collapsed before anyone could congratulate him, raising cries of surprise.
"What's wrong with Sigmund?" cried Holly.
Sela scanned Sigmund but was not surprised by the results. "He's dying."
"What? Why?"
"Because he went in that pool. There must be a large amount of that acidic blood spilt in it from that boy's fight with that aquatic creature. Most likely Sigmund had to swim into the most concentrated area of that pool to pull the boy out. Doing so poisoned him."
Holly moved to go to Sigmund, but Jack held her back. "He's slowly being dissolved alive. If you touch him, you'll be burned."
"I can't even touch him?" She knew it was true. She went over and knelt by the dying sea monster. "Sigmund?"
"Ah, it-it doesn't hurt much," Sigmund weakly said. His color was turning brown before their eyes. "I think that was the bravest thing of my life. I got to be a hero." He sighed and was gone; his body deflating as life left its shell.
"It-it really was brave," Holly said. "And I don't think anyone else could have done it."
"I could use my magic," began Presto.
Jack Sparrow shook his head. "It's not a safe thing to use magic to bring back the dead. Trust me on that." The pirate then took a sip from his hip flask.
"We need to go!" urged Conan.
"I'll say!" said Ace. "The timer on the bomb is already clicking away the seconds." That roused them.
"But what about Sigmund?" Holly asked.
"It'll be a fitting burial," said Jack.
"I guess," she conceded. "Though I think he would have preferred the lagoon."
They hurried to join Mr. Peabody and the others when a large alien covered in spikes leaped down. Conan ducked as it swiped at him, then, using the long, thin stalagmite he was carrying as a spear, he thrust it straight into the xenomorph's mouth and it came out the other side of its head, killing it.
Kyle, Johnny, Jim, Hadji and Hurley hurried forward to help the weaker travelers. Conan carried Chiana who was somewhat enjoying the experience. Ben, Cassie, Holly, Uni and Khan all needed help with hurrying while others managed to keep up.
"Follow me," Mr. Peabody said to a number of amazed people who had never seen a talking dog before. But no one was ready to ask questions just them. There was a bomb about to go off and the xenomorph queen was still shrieking. They needed to get out of there.
As they cleared the tunnel opening, Mr. Peabody had them all move off to one side. A few moments later a large explosion underground could be felt, and dust and smoke flew out of the tunnel like a cannon.
As they caught their breaths and began giving first aid to those that needed it, Diana, Jack Marshall and Mr. Peabody were sharing their circumstances on how they had arrived there. "Cybernetic hive enslavement, you say?" pondered Mr. Peabody. "I wish we could help but I've gathered this group, plus a few I didn't really need, to rescue my pet boy, Sherman. He's being held captive by an evil genius by the name of Dr. Emilio Lizardo and an evil military mastermind named Warlord Shank. I've promised to get everyone back to their perspective homes with the use of my WABAC machine through which I regularly travel through time and space." He scratched his chin. "Still, if we do succeed in a fair amount of time, perhaps I can convince the others to come help you in your quest to conquer these cyborgs."
"That sounds great," said Diana. "Meanwhile, we'll go and find Eric and the others and try and see what we can do."
"Thank you, Mr. Peabody," Jack Marshall said as he awkwardly shook the dog's hand. "Hey, Khan! Sela!"
Both Sela and Khan looked up from where they had been quietly conversing while Sela applied medical treatments to his leg. They spoke a few more quick whispers while Jack headed toward them.
"Dudes!" yelled Hurley, as he quickly backed toward the tunnel. "Dinosaur!"
"Oh no," spoke Holly. "It's Grumpy!"
Grumpy the Tyrannosaur was indeed heading their way. Possible attracted by the recent commotion and hoping to find something wounded to eat. Everyone started toward the tunnels.
"Stop!" shouted Hadji. He didn't have to explain himself as everyone could see the battered form of the young xenomorph queen stepping out into the sunlight.
"My God!" exclaimed Jim Taggart. "She must have torn off her own ovipositor to come after us before the explosion hit."
Jack Sparrow shook his finger at him. "If you mean she tore off he own egg sack, then for the love of God, just say she tore off her own egg sack."
"What are we going to do?" screamed True.
Bobby looked from the dinosaur to the xenomorph. "Why not just let them fight it out. We could just step to the side and maybe miss the whole thing."
"I like his plan," commented Jack Sparrow. "See, nice and simple, and not complicated by lots of big words. Kid's going to be a great leader someday."
Nobody argued but moved quickly toward the tree line. The fifteen-foot tall xenomorph queen stormed after them, but Grumpy, who had poor eyesight, determined to attack the larger target, considering it a potentially meatier meal.
The xenomorph, having gone through blood loss, physical trauma and a cave explosion, was slowed down just enough for Grumpy to bite into her side. She squealed as new marks of pain found her and she lashed out, stabbing the large carnivore in the thigh with her barbed tail.
Grumpy, fueled by the unexpected pain in his thigh from the tail and his mouth from the acidic blood burning him, attacked with even more fervor, this time stepping on the xenomorph's tail first. They bit and clawed at each other while those who watched did so with wonder, enthusiasm, horror and some even with remorse.
Both monsters were mortally wounded and yet they struggled against each other. As Grumpy tore off one of her front limbs with what remained of his jaws, the alien queen saw an opening and shot out her extra set of jaws into the dinosaur's chest and bit a hole to his heart.
"Grumpy!" cried Holly, tears were flowing with great sobs.
As the Tyrannosaur fell dead, the xenomorph turned her head to them again, staggering forward.
"Time to end this," said Sela. The Romulan commander raised her phaser up. "On three."
Khan nodded and agreement. He brought up his phaser to bear. "One," said the genetically enhanced man.
Hank knew at this point it would be a mercy killing for the monster, but he still didn't like it. He just had to do it. "Two," the young ranger said, aiming his energy bow.
Buzz Lightyear raised his remaining wrist-blaster up and took aim. "Three," said the space commando.
The alien xenomorph was virtually disintegrated where she stood. Only the steaming acid holes in the ground marked that she had been there.
In stunned silence they went about treating themselves and gathering food. They would rest for now and then go their separate ways. They both still had other battles to fight, but they didn't want to think about them now. Instead, they watched as a group of children danced around with a young unicorn. Some would trade stories of other adventures, but mostly they just sat and thought of others that they wanted to get back to.
To be Continued!
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Original AuThOr'S NoTeS: 1/3/2008
The alien xenomorphs with the mandibles are a Xenomorph-Predator hybrid. The alien xenomorphs with the large claw hands are a Xenomorph-Sleestak hybrid. The other unusual looking ones come from the Skeletor team that the aliens used by host embryos. The aquatic one is from Mer-Man. The long tailed one came from Whiplash. The one with spikes all over it came from Spikor. And the two-headed xenomorph came from Two-Bad. Fun stuff, huh?
Some of you may be wondering why I've introduced even more characters. Well, it's been the holidays which meant I got to spend more time over at my in-laws watching as one of my brother-in-law's hogged the computer playing Warcraft online. I'd pester him by standing in back of him and ask a whole bunch of irrelevant questions. One stuck with me when I asked who this other group was that had suddenly come up and was fighting the same monsters his group was fighting. His answer was that there were lots of groups going around fighting things for various reasons and sometimes they'd help each other without being asked. So I thought that might be an interesting way to help out our heroes against the Xenomorphs.
Updated AuThOr'S NoTeS: 1-26-2022
I kind of wish that I hadn't taken out the Xenomorph queen. It would have been interesting to see other xenomorph mixes. Can you imagine a Bizzaro-Xenomorph? Or a Giganta-Xenomorph? Could that even work on the Floronic Man or Poison Ivy? Can you imagine the size of the head if a Xenomorph came out of Hector Hammond? Speaking of strange heads, the Xenomorph mixes with Skelator or Hordak would be revolting but powerful. Scorpia would look interesting as a Xenomorph. So would Clawful. Rocksteady and Bebop Xenomorphs would be awesome. Tung Lashor would be just wrong. Zorak could be an interesting Xenomorph choice. He is already creepy.
Sorry. I have a weird mind. But where else are you going to see Conan the Barbarian and Buzz Lightyear fight side by side?
And the reason for so many crossovers (other than the fact I have a real problem?), is that I am trying to show that a diverse collection from various groups of fiction have been dragged to the Land of the Lost. And that is so much fun for me!
ChArAcTeR InDeX FoR ThE ChApTeR:
'Ace' / McShane, Dorothy Gale (Sophie Aldred) – from the TV series Doctor Who (1987-1989)
Acrobat / Diana (voiced by Tonia Gayle Smith) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Adair, Ulysses 'Uly' (Joey Zimmerman) – from the TV series Earth 2 (1994-1995)
Barbarian / Bobby (voiced by Teddy Field III) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Bombay, Dr. (Bernard Fox) – from the TV series Bewitched(1964-1972) (mentioned only)
Cassie – The Invasion, 1996, by K.A. Applegate, of the Animorphs series
Cavalier / Eric (voiced by Don Most) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985) (mentioned only)
Chiana (Gigi Edgley) – from the TV series Farscape (1999-2003)
Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) – from the movie Conan the Barbarian (1982), Conan the Destroyer (1984)
Creature from the Black Lagoon – from the movie The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), The Creature Walks Among Us (1955) (mentioned only)
Crom – from the movie Conan the Barbarian (1982), Conan the Destroyer (1984) (mentioned only)
Danziger, True (J. Madison Wright) – from the TV series Earth 2 (1994-1995)
Doctor, The 7th / Professor, The (Sylvester McCoy) – from the TV series Doctor Who (1987-1989) (mentioned only)
Grumpy, the Tyrannosaur – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Hork-Bajir– The Invasion, 1996, by K.A. Applegate, of the Animorphs series
Kyle (Matt Dallas) – from the TV series Kyle XY (2006-2009)
Lightyear, Buzz (voiced by Patrick Warburton) – from the cartoon Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000-2001)
Lizardo, Dr. Emilio (John Lithgow) – from the movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzi Across the 8th Dimension (1984) (mentioned only)
Mack, Alexandra 'Alex' (Larisa Oleynik) – from the TV series The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994-1998)
Magician / Albert 'Presto'(voiced by Adam Rich) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Marshall, Holly (Kathy Coleman) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Marshall, Jack (Ron Harper) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1976)
Marshall, Will (Wesley Eure) – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Mer-Man (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) – from the cartoon He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe (1983-1985) (mentioned only)
Ooze, Sigmund (Billy Barty) – from the TV series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975)
Peabody, Mr. (voiced by Walter Tetley) – from the cartoon Rocky and His Friends 'Peabody's Improbable History' (1959-1964)
Quest-Singh, Hadji (voiced by Danny Bravo) – from the cartoon Jonny Quest (1964-1965)
Ranger / Hank (voiced by Willie Aames) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Reyes, Hugo 'Hurley' (Jorge Garcia) – from the TV series Lost (2004-2010)
Sela, Cdr. (Denise Crosby) – from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
Shank, Warlord (George Takei) – from the TV series Space Cases (1996-1997) (mentioned only)
Sherman (voiced by Walter Tetley) – from the cartoon Rocky and His Friends 'Peabody's Improbable History' (1959-1964) (mentioned only)
Singh, Khan Noonien (Ricardo Montalban) – from the TV series Star Trek (1967), from the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Sleestak / Altrusians – from the TV series Land of the Lost (1974-1976)
Smith, Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) – from the TV series The Dead Zone (2002-2007)
Sparrow, Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) – from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
Spikor (voiced by Lou Scheimer) – from the cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1985), She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985) (mentioned only)
Taggart, Jim (Matt Frewer) – from the TV series Eureka (2006-present)
Tennyson, Ben (Tara Strong) – from the cartoon Ben 10(2005-2008)
Thief / Sheila (voiced by Katie Leigh) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Two-Bad (voiced by Lou Scheimer) – from the cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1985) (mentioned only)
Uni (voiced by Frank Welker) – from the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons (1983-1985)
Whiplash (voiced by John Erwin) – from the cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1984-1985) (mentioned only)
Xenomorphs – from the movie Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien³ (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997), AVP: Alien Vs. Predator (2004), Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)