A heavily injured augmented agent was brought into the medical lab and carefully set down. Jamie soon walked in, followed by an aide carrying a tray. The tray clashed to the floor, sending various surgical supplies flying as the woman rose her hands to her mouth and gasped, trying to hold back a scream. Jamie felt as bad as the young nurse felt, but tried to hold back the emotions as he briskly walked over to his friend, barking orders left and right. Jamie knew with cold horror that had he not already been informed of who his patient was, he would not even have suspected the true identity of his old friend.
Hours later, JC Denton woke up. He had a mild headache, and his throat was parched dry, but other than that he seemed fine. A light turned on next to the bed JC was laying on. "Ah, looks like your awake." JC winced from the harsh light, and peered at the dark silhouette above him.
JC recognized who it was, and tried to speak, but could only cough. He fought with his lungs briefly, and finally managed to gasp out the word "Water."
The man next to JC smiled (but only on the inside) and said "Sure." He walked to a sink far out of JC's range of vision, filled a paper cup, and brought it back over. The shadow raised the cup to JC's lips and poured, providing southing relief to his withered tounge. "You did real good out there today kid, I'm proud of you." JC coughed and sputtered, sending sprays of water all around. He was still a bit thirsty, but at least not he could speak.
"Paul," JC gasped as soon as he was able. "I thought you were in Hong Kong?"
"I was, but I got sent back."
"What did you do?"
"Never mind that now, you have some new objectives."
"Already? I nearly died on that Mario punk. Then the troops arrived…didn't realize I was being sarcastic when I was shouting, 'just shoot me damnit!' Took over thirty slugs to the head…"
"Better get used to it, because you're going out again. You are to report to Manderly for your debriefing as soon as you are up, collect some supplies from the armory, and head out." JC dropped his head back on the pillow in despair. "Of course," Paul grinned, "if you need a few more minutes, I could tell you everything I know about your upcoming mission."
JC stepped off the helicopter, wearing a new set of body armor and his spare overcoat. The air was thick with moisture as the agent stepped over a fallen log and ducked into the underbrush, waiting for the chopper to vanish. As the sound of twirling blades faded into the night, a view screen blurred into existence in the corner of JC's vision.
"Alright JC, just for review, you are to locate your two targets and terminate them. Your first target has been luring small children into his cult for years, he may tray to use them as hostages. The second one, well… He's more likely to find out. Alex, out." The pasty visage disappeared, and JC was left alone in his thoughts. He mentally pulled up a map of the forest he was in, then started making his way through the bushes.
After half an hour of slow, silent travel, he finally came to a clearing, where his primary target stood, surrounded by the faces of numerous four to eight year olds, dancing around a fire. This…This beast had been defrosted in the later 20th century, and had since converted many young minions to his dark cause, and then infecting them with diabetes. Despite this, if he went for a direct confrontation, that would risk the children; they would do anything to protect their master.
Finally, JC could only come up with one solution; frighten the children enough to cause them to run away, and then he could take down the ancient reptile without their interference. The agent crept as close as he could without being detected, then leapt from the bushes, whipping out his pistol.
"Yo fatty!" JC screamed. "Where's the cream filling!" The childish sing-song proclamations of "I love you, you love me…" were quickly reduced to a hail of terrified screams as the bullets erupted from JC's gun and plunged into the dinosaur's purple flesh. The young ones fled in fright, as the UNATCO standard issue sidearm sang a song of its own. But the great beast was not to be felled so easily. With a roar that shook the earth like water, the foul creature lunged at JC, jaws snapping fiercely as its essence spilled from the numerous holes unto the jungle floor.
JC was literally swept off the ground as the dinosaur was upon him, a great monstrosity with the wrath of nations. And then it was over. As soon as he was lifted up, JC was slammed back down, the great behemoth on top of him. The antiterrorist freed his arm and fired several more shots into his opponent's head, only to realize that the beast was fallen, never to stir again. When JC started examining the body to figure out why the dinosaur would suddenly keel over, he saw a long, thin spear protruding from the back of the beast's head.
"JC, get out of there NOW!" Alex was once again obscuring JC's vision, and seemed to be in a talkative mood.
"What's up?" JC replied, struggling to free himself from underneath the giant lizard.
"The secondary target, it's found you. It must have been aiming for you but hit the primary when he tackled you. It won't be long before he sets up his next shot…" As Alex was saying this, a second spear flew silently through the air and pierced JC's right forearm, sliding between the bones and making itself comfortable. Grunting in pain, JC ripped the spear pinning his arm down from his flesh, freeing his limb and dragging dirt and filth into his blood stream simultaneously. Trying to keep his mind off the fact he would soon have a raging infection in his arm, JC used the spear as leverage to roll the purple dinosaur off of him and quickly started retreating to the trees. Another spear flew from the darkness, but harmlessly placed itself through the overcoat without causing JC need to pause.
"This guy can't be very good right?" JC thought aloud, hoping that it was loud enough for the constant monitoring systems to pick it up and send to Alex. "I mean, he's missed a killing shot on me three times in a row…"
"Based on the speed that the last two spears came at you, and what we know about this guy's equipment," Alex replied "I'd say he's about three hundred yards off. Not terribly shabby aiming." JC balked.
"How could he find a straight line to hit me from at three hundred yards?" JC demanded. "We're in the middle of the forest here!"
"I don't know," Alex stated, though his voice was confused. "All I can tell you is that this guy is a hunter, I mean a real predator. He likes to kill for sport, and has highly advanced weapon technology."
"Sport?" JC whispered when he found some thick underbrush to hide in. "Sport… He missed me three times…"
"Right. Well, he got you in the arm pretty good."
"Nailed me in the arm," JC confirmed, wincing as he felt the deep wound with his fingers. He was dripping blood, and was afraid it would make him easier to track. "Nailed me in the arm, likes to hunt for sport… Couldn't have hit me from three hundred yards, to much in the way… What does it all mean?"
"You got me, I'm just giving you the numbers."
"He must be toying with me. With us," JC replied hoarsely. "If he hunts for sport, then he wouldn't have been trying to snipe me. Not a challenge. He purposely prevented the dinosaur from hurting me to much, would have ruined his fun…"
"Yea, about that," said Alex. "Manderly saw the footage and says that since you didn't technically kill him, your not getting the op bonus for…"
"Concentrate damn it!" JC barked, louder than he wished he had. "He killed the dino, then hits me in the arm. He was trying to immobilize me. He decreased the power of his spear gun or whatever the hell, and screwed up the last shot, to make me think he was further away…that I could get away easier."
"So…" Alex said, trying to follow the line of logic. "Where does that place the target?"
"Right above me," JC replied, and quickly pulled out his assault rifle to fire off a steady stream of bullets into the branches hanging above his head. Small bits of wood and leaves fell from above, obscuring his vision, but over the roar of his gun he heard the cry of some strange, non-earth beast. A heavy thump some ten yards away told JC everything he needed to know about the location of his enemy. He quickly spun and aimed at the sound, unleashing a hail of lead at the general area.
During his exchange with Alex, JC's eyes had adapted to the near total darkness of the jungle quite nicely. He was nearly blinded, however, when a great beam of light erupted from his target area. He held up the gun, ceasing fire merely to protect his vision, raising the weapon to his face to block the light. What JC then realized to be some kind of plasma bolt connected with the assault rifle, melding together various mechanical parts. Frustrated, JC tried pulled the trigger again to no avail before throwing down the now useless cannon.
Sensing what was coming next, JC knelt down and scooped up a branch thick with leaves off the ground and wielded it in front of him. His prediction proved accurate; the heavy item barely made the trip in time to intercept the next plasma bolt headed for him. JC threw the burning branch away and took off running, clicking on his speed aug while ducking and weaving between trees as plasma bolts erupted all around him. Finally he came back to the well illuminated clearing, to where he could actually see. He ran to the far side of the area, scaring off the children who had returned and discovered the grisly fate of their leader.
Denton spun once he had reached his desired location and pulled out his combat knife, one of his few remaining armaments. He had a few LAMs, a gas grenade, various darts, and plus his pistol lay about five yards away where he had left it, but JC decided to ignore all that for now. All that mattered now was the arrogance of his opponent; would he be willing to go for the challenge of an honest knife fight?
The predator stalked into the clearing, his horrid visage covered by a thick metal mask. The beast laughed at the human, and decided to entertain its notions close combat. It would prove to be slightly more challenging than just char-broiling him with the cannon. But then, this human could run like none other…no, nothing to worry about. The predator smiled as it lifted off its mask, deactivated its cannon, and flicked out its wrist blade.
The two warriors stood for a moment, the tension building in the silent night air. Then, with their war cries reaching into the skies, they charged simultaneously. JC leapt over the flames of the bonfire, the blaze kissing his legs and topcoat as he sailed forward, lunging with his blade. The hunter met him in mid air, tackling him over the smoke and plunging them both into the fiery ashes.
JC switched on his Environmental Resistance and Ballistic Protection to spare his flesh from the knife and flames, and his opponent either matched his augmentations or was naturally immune. The alien sat on JC's stomach and slashed at his chest with the wickedly curved wrist blade, but wasn't able to break skin. JC swung one of his legs outward while stomping down with the other one, the end result of which was to send both himself and his attacker sprawling out of the flames. JC immediately turned of Env. Res. as soon as he was clear in order to save precious bioenergy, then attempted to plunge the knife into the predator's face. The alien was too quick for him, however, and began trying to return the favor. The two of them rolled around the ground, digging deep scratches into each other but not able to penetrate farther. JC's bioenergy, which had been recharged to full when he had returned to UNATCO HQ, was now nearly depleted, and once that happened the hunter was sure to make short work of him.
Seconds before his Ballistic Protection was to deactivate, JC rolled hard to get himself out from underneath his opponent, dropped his knife, and went scrabbling across the ground. The alien scrambled to its feet then leapt on top of JC, trying to pin him down. The agent continued struggling despite this, and soon reached out his hand to feel a familiar cold metal at the tips of his fingers…
Meanwhile, however, the hunter found it was having a much easier time of stabbing the human, as his blade was able to dig into the flesh now that the skin slackened and yielded to the ongoing assault. JC managed to roll onto his back, but his attacker was not allowing him to escape, and was now trying to slit open his belly with his blood covered razor. The monstrosity, sensing its victory close at hand, opened its mandible mouth and let loose a vicious scream. JC took this opportunity to jam the barrel of his freshly recovered pistol down into the extraterrestrial's throat, and pull the trigger.
The predator's body stiffened, but didn't move, not even from reflex. JC tried readjusting his weapon, but when he again fired all that issued forth was a mild click. His ammunition was spent. As this realization hit JC's mind, the body of his enemy loosened, then collapsed on top of him, already beginning to cool as the flow of hot blood began to slow from its body.
"Good job JC," Alex was back on the Info Link, hopefully with some good news. "We'll send a chopper to pick you up. We've already dispatched a unit to round up the children. With some therapy, they should be able to get over what they saw today. See you back at the base."
