Chapter 12
By Carycomic
* * * * *
CENTRAL AMERICA (1930)
From The Personal Correspondence of "Lin Kuei Tang"
"To My Honorable Father:
We did it! We finally caught up with the so-called 'Hardin' Expedition."
"It was very foolish of the elder Dr. Savage to think we would never recognize his pseudonym as an allusion to the family name of his son's mentor in marine engineering.* Difficult and time-consuming to determine, perhaps! But, no more so than any other line of research you taught me how to pursue. In any event, we launched our attack with a flare-illuminated mortar barrage."
"Those who survived it fled for the imagined safety of the surrounding jungle. Only to be struck down by either our Shadow League assassins… or the blowguns of the Feathered Serpent Clan.
"Here, I must digress, Father, as I feel compelled to admit that I am mystified by their leader. The one they call 'El Hijo de Kukulcan.' He is not even a mixed-blood Guatemalteco. Yet, he moves through the jungle with all the stealth of a full-blood. Indeed; he even took my bodyguards by surprise on the night we first met each other! And the unearthly charisma he exudes. . ."
". . .almost rivals your own, Father."
"In any event, Sancho Lopez (our interpreter and guide) made a startling discovery. There had been one other survivor besides our intended target. The American mercenary who had been standing guard atop the cliff over-looking the ruins! I, personally, saw him take a direct hit from the first of our mortar shells. Yet, somehow, despite that and the subsequent landslide, he remained alive."
"So, Lopez tried to 'euthanize' him. By emptying a full revolver into him, at point blank range! And, _still_, he lived!"
"I know not what to make of this, Father, as even your wondrous elixir vitae cannot confer such invulnerability. So, anticipating the arousing of your own curiosity, I had the American bandaged up like an Egyptian mummy. With the bandages over his nostrils to be kept well-soaked with chloroform! If all continues to go well, we should reach the mouth of Rio de los Monos in ten days' time."
"I remain, as ever:
Your Loyal Daughter."
* * * * *
PLANET NIMBUS III (2378 A.D.)
When Sela had first seen the Predator for herself, back in the 24th century, the first thing she did was to activate the holo-emitter built into the old comm badge that had once belonged to her mother (the only personal effect of Tasha Yar's that she had felt like keeping). Whereupon, the image of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman had materialized, asking for a succinct statement as to the nature of the medical emergency. The only difference between this and other EMH-Mark Ones, however, being the additional personality Sela had programmed into the former.
Namely; the scientific "curiosity" of Zora of Tiburon.
"Can you treat this creature's wounds? And, if not, can it be cloned?"
The modified hologram bent down; its head disconcertingly penetrating the Predator's hide like an old-fashioned X-ray.
"Hmmm!" it mused upon standing back up, a minute later: "I'd love to vivisect this thing! So many biological incongruities. Insect-like mandibles; reptilian physiology; bio-luminescent blood; and vocal cords resembling those of a psittacine avian!"
"Never mind that!" snapped Sela. "Answer my first two questions. Yes or no?"
"No, ma'am" the EMH sullenly replied. "Cloning will not be necessary as you got the 'patient' to me just in time."
And, now, over three hundred years in the past, Sela was using those parrot-like vocal cords to communicate with her slave's would-be abductor.
"I would much rather stay here, thank you."
Whereupon, she had the Predator pop out its left-hand gauntlet blades. . .and run them through Sergeant Steeljacket.
* * * * *
SOMEWHERE IN THE KNICKERBOCKER NATIONAL FOREST (2001)
The loud scream of pain that Sergeant Major Adam Fors emitted could only be described as "blood-curdling." And the only thing louder than that was the profanity of horrified disbelief uttered by Lt. Garber, who had been watching the strange stand-off via the webcam in the exo-skeleton's b*** plate. When the feed went dark, he immediately ordered both the skycrane (along with a Huey Cobra gunship and a silver Aerospatiale Alouette III) made ready for take-off. He then turned back to the visiting Sikh "dignitary" he had been negotiating with… only to find him gone.
"Where the blazes…?" he began to rhetorically ask, aloud. Only to be cut off by a massive crashing sound from the next room!
* * * * *
Meanwhile, at that same moment, in Gotham City, the Dark Knight was doing some shouting of his own.
"Now, Robin! Now! !"
Whereupon, the Teen Wonder fired his mentor's newest "toy." A miniature crossbow, with collapsible pistol grip, that fired bat-winged quarrels! In this case, one that had been fashioned out of a tranquilizer dart. With the chemical-injecting portion filled with a thorazine-based liquid Batman had dubbed "anti-Venom." For the latter could neutralize the super-steroid called "Venom" that Pamela Isley had developed, while working as the research assistant of Dr. Jason Woodrue, down in Central America. The Batman's contention being that if someone could develop a superhuman brute like Bane, once, they could someday do so, again. He had hoped, however, that he would not need see that eventuality realized so soon! That hope having been proved in vain, the hypodermic quarrel flew straight and true.
Its diamond-hard tip lodging itself in the calf of the Predator's left leg!
"NO!" screamed Sela through the mind-meld. For she could sense the anti-Venom immediately taking effect!
So, instead, she immediately ordered the Yautja to flee the scene of battle. And, it did so. Although, its superhuman agility was the first thing to be severely impacted by the drug. Ergo, its relatively low-level hops, skips, and jumps made it look more like an arthritic kangaroo as it fled.
This, in turn, allowed Batman to employ a high-tech pair of bolas similar to those used by Argentine gauchos. Only, instead of wooden balls connected by a length of hempen rope, it was a pair of stainless steel ball bearings connected by a conductive piece of wire that the Dark Knight subsequently magnetized from a battery pack on his utility belt. Thereby ensuring the ball bearings stuck together!
As a result, the Predator fell flat on its face. Allowing Batman, Robin, Deathstroke, and the five "FBI agents" to converge on it, simultaneously. Deathstroke, however, was still determined to take it in himself. Prompting him to brandish his katana at the other seven.
"Back off; all of you! You heard what Sgt. Steeljacket said. This thing is the property of Task Force X."
"Even with your enhanced abilities," said Ambassador Spock (a.k.a. "Agent Paris"). "You are still outnumbered. It would, therefore, be more logical to surrender this being to us."
Almost as if in rebuttal, an APC (armored personnel carrier) came roaring up to the bizarre battlefield. Whereupon, its loading ramp hit the ground like a lead balloon and a dozen men rapidly deployed. Each of them wearing flak jackets, ninja masks, and black berets. And, all of them armed with nine-millimeter Finnish Jatimatic submachine guns.
tbc
Zora: A scientist known for her cruel and inhumane experiments on humanoid subjects to test the body chemistry of subject tribes on Tiburon. – From Star Trek: TOS – 'The Savage Curtain'
