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Heavy footsteps fell like rolling thunder as they thudded across hard concrete. The steps were unsteady, hurried, frantic. No time was wasted. Shortcuts were taken.
Quasimodo knew all of the shortcuts. He had followed his master down the stone hallways many times. Never before had he questioned the authority of his master and father figure. Now was different. Quasimodo was beginning to realize that there was more to his existence than what Frankenstein had led him to believe. He was beginning to realize that the time had come to think for himself.
The hunchback was still thinking this as he flung Mina Harker around corners, crashed through former colleagues that got in his way, and finally made his way down a wide corridor to a heavy door.
Mina watched as Quasimodo removed a ring of keys from his robe. As soon as they stopped rattling, the heavy door swung open and crashed against the stone wall beside it.
Quasimodo and Mina both turned puzzled glances at the open doorway for a moment.
Then a giant orange arm extended out of the darkness and grasped the hunchback by the throat.
> > > > > >
"Ten minutes 'til this island self-destructs," Frankenstein had said.
Maybe Frankenstein hadn't been giving Quatermain a precise time. Maybe there were at least fifteen minutes left until the mysterious island, or at least Frankenstein's laboratory and everything in the vicinity, was blown apart and everyone there was killed.
After all, Frankenstein had been delirious.
After Frankenstein had pulled a lever, Quatermain had seen a flash and heard a sound. Frankenstein had somehow started a contraption filled with TNT.
It was best to assume that he had only ten minutes.
Or less.
Quatermain climbed down the ladder from his high platform, skipping rungs whenever he could. At one point, he slipped, fell two and a half feet, and was able to grab hold of a lower rung, swinging himself with force back into the ladder and rattling everything inside of him.
Quatermain landed beside the body of Victor Frankenstein. The corpse was still smiling, but the streams of blood drying on both sides of the dead man's mouth formed a tragic frown. Quatermain looked up and stepped over the body.
A huge flame danced in the center of the floor, caused by the destruction of the device that had fallen from the sky. Quatermain considered his options. There was plenty of room to walk around the flames. It would certainly be safer. Despite the words he had spoken to Frankenstein, Quatermain felt an overpowering will to live.
But there was no time to move around. Quatermain braced himself and plunged through the fire.
> > > > > >
Edward Hyde grabbed Quasimodo's neck and lifted the hunchback off the ground. He watched the eyes of his enemy widen in terror as he saw Hyde's monstrous form. He squeezed with all the force of all of Henry Jekyll's rage. All he knew was that this man whose meaningless life he held in his hand was a representative of the man who had brought him to this hellish place. The man who had tortured him and, worse still, the man who had tortured those Jekyll considered friends.
The pathetic creature tried in vain to grab the gigantous hands that were choking him. Foolish of him. He was no match for the towering form of Mr. Hyde!
"Henry, don't!" cried Mina.
"My name isn't Henry!" roared Hyde. Quasimodo squirmed and moaned as Hyde's monstrous breath warmed his face. "It's Edward! Edward Hyde!"
"Please, don't!"
Hyde looked at Mina's beautiful face. It only made him more furious. Had this thing he was holding touched this precious flower, this woman his evil heart had melted for? He tightened his grip around Quasimodo's neck. The hunchback's eyes bulged.
"Stop!" screamed Mina, her voice now more forceful than before. "Listen to me, Henry. He helped us! He's a friend!"
Hyde groaned. His brain was throbbing as Henry Jekyll fought inside of it.
"Let him go," said Mina. "You can do it. Just let go."
"He hurt us!" Hyde insisted.
"No he didn't!" Mina insisted.
Hyde breathed heavily, more of his fragrance assailing his hostage. He had power in his hand. His hand which was so tightly clenched held the power of life and death. He could crush his enemy like a bug, or he could show forgiveness. Edward Hyde knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what his better half would do. Would Edward do the same thing?
"Calm down," said Mina. "Everything's alright now. Just let him go."
Hyde sighed. He gently lowered Quasimodo and unclasped his hand, finger by finger.
It wasn't because it was what Dr. Jekyll would do. It was what Mr. Hyde wanted to do.
"Where's Captain Nemo?" Mina asked.
"Aboard the Nautilus," said Hyde. "He contacted his crew with a communicator. Would you like to see?"
> > > > > >
Captain Nemo and his crewmates walked between rows of hideous creatures, all sleeping like innocent children. Nemo's plan had worked. He had gone into Mina's laboratory and found the chemicals he and she had been experimenting with. He was worried that the chemicals might not have the desired effect on the monster's recycled lungs. His fears proved unfounded. Nemo had instructed his entire crew to don their gasmasks, and then they had shattered test tubes full of the experimental solution against the floor of the Nautilus. The knock-out gas was a beautiful success!
Nemo turned the Nautilus in the direction it had come from.
When he received contact with Mina and Hyde, the mighty submarine was already headed towards Frankenstein's docks.
> > > > > >
Quatermain's entire body burned and ached as he ran from the laboratory. He estimated he had five minutes left. Maybe less.
Tom Sawyer was running towards him.
"Allan!" called Sawyer. His eyes lit up as he beheld his surrogate father, injured but alive and well.
Quatermain's eyes showed only fear and concern.
"Get out of here!" yelled Quatermain. "Get as far from here as possible! This whole place is about to blow sky high."
"What about you?" asked Sawyer, stepping closer. Quatermain waved him away.
"I'll meet you outside," said Quatermain. Sawyer began to trot closer once again. Quatermain kept motioning for him to run away. He'd sooner die then allow this boy to decades prematurely. Sawyer continued to ignore the plea Quatermain was giving with his hands and echoing with the concern in his eyes. Suddenly, Sawyer stopped upright and began to crumble to the ground. He was caught and suspended in midair, knocked out and being dragged away by invisible hands.
Quatermain looked around frantically after Sawyer and Skinner had left. He would not follow until he had found the rest of his friends.
There was a loud boom! A small explosion brought fragments of the stone ceiling to the ground. Quatermain guessed it was one in a series of larger explosions to come. Creatures were now running in all direction as smoke filled the air and the stone castle was filled with vapors and a general air of pandemonium.
Quatermain tried to shield his eyes and peer through the smoke. The fumes burned his lungs. Quatermain began to slow down and wheeze as he moved. As he began to suffocate, powerful hands lifted him.
He was pulled through the air by the strong arms of Mowgli and the rapid legs of Bagheera.
> > > > > >
The Nautilus had no need for stealth now. It had traveled at full speed to the island. Captain Nemo was pleased to see two rowboats moving towards the ship. Mina Harker and a companion were in one boat. Tom Sawyer was laying down in another, the oars of the ship seeming to row themselves, a sign of Rodney Skinner's presence. Edward Hyde was swimming alongside the boats. He must have shown the others the way.
Nemo met his friends beneath the main hatch as they boarded the Nautilus.
Sawyer began to stir.
"Where's Allan?" he asked weakly. "Where?"
"He said something about the entire place blowing up," said Skinner.
"You saw him?" said Mina. "Why didn't you bring him out of there?"
"Said he'd meet us," said Skinner. "Must have had something to do."
Mina growled. She couldn't see Skinner's face collapse in guilt.
"We'll have to leave him," said Nemo sadly. "It's what he would have wanted us to do."
> > > > > >
The panther stopped at the end of the dock. Quatermain stepped off. As he turned to thank Mowgli, the boy and the panther were galloped off in the other direction. The jungle was where Mowgli belonged. He would disappear as far as he could into that jungle and take his chances there. Quatermain knew there was nothing he could do to stop his friend. He just let him go.
There were only a few boats left, and none of them looked seaworthy. Quatermain didn't take the time to untie one. He threw himself into the water and swam with all of his might.
He could feel the intensity of the explosion behind him.
> > > > > >
The others were more than happy to help Quatermain into the ship. Hyde had calmed himself, and now Dr. Jekyll was happy to look at Quatermain's injuries.
"What about all of them?" asked Sawyer, looking at the sleeping monsters.
Nemo lowered his head sadly.
"We will get as close as we can to the mainland," said Nemo. "Then the Nautilus must be sacrificed."
"Captain!" a crew member called. "Look ahead!"
The white whale was still alive. Moby Dick was looking through the front panel of the Nautilus, and he didn't look happy.
Moby Dick's wide jaws opened, and the ship once again trembled as mighty teeth began to grind through the hull.
"Evacuate the Nautilus," instructed Nemo. "Everyone to the escape pods!"
The crew members marched down the corridor of the ship and pressed buttons on separate panels. Doorways formed in the side of the ship, revealing the large orbs that Nemo called escape pods.
Water was now pouring into the Nautilus. Jekyll slipped and fell to the ground. Mina helped him up and the two ran after Nemo into another pod.
A doorway closed just as Skinner entered after a swarm of Nautilus crewmembers.
As the doorway to the last pod opened, Tom Sawyer was grabbed from behind. One of the monsters had awakened and was taking a hostage.
"You should have listened to our master," the monster hissed. "Now you will die!"
As the monster's arm tightened around Sawyer's throat, Quatermain lunged past them and brought his elbow into the monster's back.
"Get into the pod!" he screamed as the monster released his grip on Sawyer.
Sawyer just watched in terror as Quatermain and the monster wrestled on the floor of the Nautilus.
"Get in the pod!" repeated Quatermain as he stood up and kicked the monster in the face.
Sawyer obeyed. He continued to watch the fight until doors closed before his eyes. It appeared that again Quatermain was sacrificing himself for Sawyer.
Sawyer wouldn't stand for that. He reached for the door control panel inside the pod.
Before Sawyer's fingers could touch the panel, the door opened and Quatermain stumbled in. Quasimodo followed behind.
"Thanks," said Quatermain as he looked into the hunchback's eyes. Quasimodo smiled.
Sawyer prayed as he took hold of the escape pod's controls. Fortunately, Nemo had drilled the entire League on escape procedures several times.
Fifty pods glided swiftly away from the Nautilus as it was brought to the depths of the ocean in the jaws of Moby Dick, along with all of Frankenstein's remaining "experiments."
"Mr. Scrooge is really not going to like this," said Nemo.