Based on Camp Cretaceous by Paul Elliott/Zozergames
& the adventure “In a Strange Land” by K.G. Carlson
Zorandar designed by Aaron Allston
Director Kubert’s refusal to even consider checking out Zandar’s ‘magic woman’ really annoyed the two ‘boys’ immensely.
They caught up with Zandar as he prepared to leave to return to the jungle. When asked about why he thought this woman might be able to help, he explained that he had journeyed around this world quite a bit in his time. On his most recent travels, he had seen figures moving along the rim of an active island volcano near to the only other pathway to Dead World that he knew of, an abandoned city on the mainland he referred to as Koram, a path that had only recently stopped functioning. Climbing up the side of the volcano to investigate, he discovered a huge platform suspended from three massive chains over the caldera of the volcano. A tall, pale woman clad in fine robes was overseeing a workforce of primitive humans constructing some kind of machinery on the platform above the active volcanic cauldron. She appeared to be fully aware of Zandar hiding by the rim, which surprised him as he thought he had been well hidden, but she made no move against him. When he then witnessed her disappear into thin air, Zandar felt it wise to leave. He now wondered if she might know why the gates between worlds were no longer working.
As the they had proven willing to fight to help his Accala warriors, he asked them to accompany him as he set out to reinvestigate the ‘magic woman’ and try and discover what had happened to close the gateways. ‘Ant’ Andrews ‘accidentally’ overheard their conversation though and suggested he had better accompany them as the ‘ir-responsible adult’. His presence would at least stop them from being questioned when they tried to leave the compound.
No time to waste, they immediately headed out on the skybikes across country towards a volcanic island in a bay near to the city he’d mentioned. Zandar rode tandem on Cadet’s bike in constant risk of falling off due to his tendency to suddenly throw his arms in the air and let out whoops of sheer joy.
As they flew overland, towards the island in a bay on the Equatorial Ocean, Zandar thought he had heard something unusual in the foothills beneath them and asked them if they could spare a minute or two to investigate, though he warned them to be careful as this region was close to the reptilian people’s caverns.
As they flew closer, they could hear a chittering sound and finally saw through a clearing in the foliage of the trees to the ground below a dying, gutted Iguana mount and its rider being torn in two by a three-metre tall flightless bird with a blood-covered serrated beak. It was a species of phorusrhacid according to Mr Andrews, colloquially known as a terror bird, a large carnivorous, flightless bird that in this case had apparently taken down the lizard mount and killed its rider
. Then they heard a loud, piercing scream nearby and realised someone had apparently survived the attack and was now in fear for their life. They dropped through the clearing a little lower and saw another of the lizard people, this one half the size of the rider, slimmer and with an incandescent sheen to its scales, trying desperately to clamber up some rocks to get away from a second terror bird that was trying to grab at its human-like leg with its beak. Its scream was also starting to attract the other terror bird temporarily away from its meal of gutting the intestines of the rider. The surviving Satha, as Zandar called the lizard-people, was clearly just a frightened cub.
They had to try to save it and so Firewall asked Cadet and his passenger, “Can you distract the overgrown ostrich and I’ll sweep down and get the youngster?” In response, Zandar suddenly let out a battle cry and leapt off the back of Cadet’s bike landing on the back of the terror bird that had been attacking the corpses and held on for dear life. The impact of a falling body suddenly astride its back was sufficient to take its mind off the youngling on top of the rocks as it tried to throw a determined Zandar from its back.
That just left the oven-ready attacker to deal with. Before they could get close enough though it let out a fearful screech that seemed to petrify the cub, leaving it shaking with fear. No time to distract the last one, Firewall flew straight passed its head causing the overgrown turkey to flinch as he reached out his hand and grabbed the cubs’ shaking arm. He held on tight and pulled up sharply causing the lizard cub to suddenly rise into the air. It was lighter than he had expected and he wondered if they might have hollow bones as he hovered several metres up in the air, out of range of the bird’s admittedly impressive leaps and reached over with his other arm to pull the terrified creature up and onto the rear of the bike. There was nothing more they could do here he thought as he watched Colin fly low and parallel to the bucking T-bird and motioned for Zandar to leave his bronco and clamber back on-board the skycycle.
A short-distance away, Mr Andrews watched what was going on with an analytical eye. So far, apart from his heart being in his mouth at the risks the two ‘boys’ were taking (he had to admit he wasn’t overly concerned about the ‘noble white savage’), they’d done well so far. He hadn’t had to consider getting involved but he also knew that one of the reasons for this field trip was to judge the student’s capabilities and these two were proving to still be stubborn, annoying risk-takers and yes, heroes.
Cadet reached out his hand to Zandar as he shouted, “What are you doing on the back of that bird? Do you want to stay and play, or hop back on?” In response, the enormous bird turned and tried to peck at Cadet’s leg with its bloody beak only to find itself falling sideways and crashing onto its side as Zandar let go and using its body as a trampoline, jumped back onto the back of Cadet’s skycycle before it soared back into the air.
In the sky, the terrified female (or so Zandar thought) held on tightly, too tightly if Firewall was being honest about having these trembling claws fastened into his costume. Cadet and his passenger joined up with Firewall and his in the air as they tried to figure out what to do next. The two terror birds had already forgotten about their other live prey and had taken to squabbling over the bodies below as they tried to tear at the skin to get at the choice internal organs.
What now? They flew to join Mr Andrews who was circling the clearing. Firewall had to know, “Mr Andrews, you ever spoken with one of these Reptilians before? This one is really frightened.” Andrews smiled, “Prime Directive, remember? No, we’ve had no direct contact with them until you two came along…”
Zandar smiled, “I speak Satha. I will calm her down and explain that she is safe and we will take her home. You do intend taking her home, teacher Andrews? She will die in the forest if left to make the journey back to her home caves unaccompanied.” He went on to advise them against making any actual contact with the tribe as they would still be wanting revenge for their earlier defeat at their hands.
Firewall grinned, “You may want to land when you drop her off, as you seem to have this habit of, you know just dropping from a height?”
Andrews looked grim as he turned to Zandar, “I think there has been enough excitement for one day. How about I take the girl and you on the back of my skycycle and we get her as close to her home as we can, without starting another war and make sure she gets back safe while you two head towards the island, BUT you mustn’t try to initiate contact until we join up with you, understood? Just keep your heads down and wait for us.”
The two students nodded their agreement and immediately proceeded to forget what they had promised. With a loud cry of “woo-hoo, we’re free!” the two students set off towards the bay in the distance and the island of active volcanoes that dominated it, while Andrews’ fully aware that he was about to regret his decision headed north with his two squirming passengers. Hopefully they would meet up again in a few hours at most.
It took about half an hour of flight time to get close to the island and see that the largest of the ‘mountains’ was obviously active, going by the smoke pouring out of the top of it. Something shiny covered the centre of the smoking crater at the top; a silver platform formed of a circular disk, suspended over the magma by three massive chains set equidistant round the rim. For a split second, they thought they’d seen a transmission tower in the centre of the disk but when they looked again the tower have vanished. Optical illusion caused by the heat and smoke, obviously.
Rather than wait on the mainland opposite, the two boys elected to cross the relatively calm waters and head towards the disk-like platform. They arrived at the rim of the volcano, parked their bikes by one of the chains and looking down saw the scene exactly as Zandar had described it. The chains were massive and easily wide enough to walk across safely despite the immense heat emanating from below, the platform seemed stable and the primitive hominids working on top of it were seemingly Neanderthals, carrying metallic plates back and forth to complete the platform.
The platform though pulsed with energy to Firewall’s meta-altered senses. Each plate seemed alive with energy and as soon as it was laid alongside the others on the platform instantly networked together into an electrical entity of immense power. This was highly advanced technology in action though what its purpose was, totally escaped him. There was some sort of energy interchange between the fiery hell beneath the platform and the unit itself. It appeared to be absorbing the heat and energy. Even the chains pulsed with energy as though they were acting as some sort of power dampeners possibly?
While Firewall ogled what was being built, a pretty female in the flowing white robes was looking at them. She seemed to look straight into Cadet’s eyes as though taking measure of his soul and he felt suddenly assured that this non-threatening and attractive woman meant them no harm. Finally, seeing the woman, Firewall was also instantly convinced she meant them no harm, not least because “she didn’t look like an evil old hag!”
Probably just as well as with a gesture she was suddenly standing in front of them both, in a split second she had crossed several hundred metres of space as though in a single step. There had been no bright flash of a portal opening or any obvious indication that she had just teleported.
With a warm, friendly smile she introduced herself (in English no less!) as Moraine, a “dimension-hopping philanthropist and explorer” as she asked them why they had felt the need to come and see her?
They could almost feel the sense of reassurance and trust radiating off from her. Firewall couldn’t help see that the same energy as flowed into the platform flowed in and around her, empowering her in some almost-mystical way.
Almost hesitatingly, Firewall asked, “Would you be able to assist us? We’ve got a friend who is really badly injured and is going die unless we get some help.”
Before they could continue, she smiled that calm, reassuring smile and asked, “And what type of help do you want from me? I am not a healer.”
They quickly explained that they had been told she might know a way to reactivate the dimensional gates between worlds as their injured friend had a big bit of metal piercing her body and if they couldn’t get her back to their own world soon she wouldn’t survive. Perhaps this device she was constructing might be responsible..?
She looked at them as though taking a tally of their lives, her emerald eyes seemingly seeing deep into their souls. It was almost a religious experience except neither of them was in the slightest bit religious.
Firewall continued, “I saw you teleport over here, perhaps you might be able to help teleport her home?”
After a few seconds, she spoke again, “I’m sorry. It’s fairly easy to teleport line of sight but between worlds or across dimensions? That’s not something I can do unassisted I’m afraid and I am not responsible for the gate closures. In fact that is why I am forced to build my platform as I too am trapped here since Viracocha closed the gates to and from this world. My device both keeps me safe from any dangerous animals and provides energy to try to stabilise the portals, however the last assault on me by Viracocha caused them to go ‘off-line’ a day ago. I’m sorry, I’m stranded here myself.”
Firewall immediately asked, “Who is this Viracocha and why would he want to close the gates?”
“Viracocha was the name of the Incan god of creation and this creature has assumed this identity. Some months ago as I was travelling the Omniverse, my senses detected an impending disaster. I arrived in this reality, on this planet and spent weeks investigating the cosmic tremors I had felt only to find myself trapped here as well. This Viracocha is a power-mad being with an empire of brainwashed worshippers to the South who desires, through his madness, to destroy this planet. This assault on the fabric of this reality threatens other worlds as well, including your own.”
“Have you spoken to this Viracocha yourself? Do you not get on or something? Maybe he doesn’t realise what he is doing?”
“No, I have never met him and I need to stay here and stabilise this,” and pointed towards the platform behind her. “I have been trying to assemble this device so as to protect this reality and stop his mad scheme, but I fear I’m running out of time.”
Looking at the outpouring of energy cascading across the platform towards its centre, Firewall smiled and asked, “Do you want a hand with that?”
A look of annoyance crossed her face for a second as though she thought the question impertinent at least, then the look of calm again descended. “Do you have even a basic understanding of pan-Dimensional subatomic physics or know how to create a transmutational energy wedge to syphon off the excess energy outpouring being used to cause the gateways to go off-line? I didn’t think so and I have enough brute strength to complete the task in these almost human servants. So no, I do not ‘need a hand’ as you say… What I need is someone to try to dissuade him, or at the very least delay him so I can complete my life-saving device. If I succeed then two universes would be spared from oblivion!”
Firewall looked at her, “Perhaps afterwards you could teach me?”
Another look of annoyance flashed across her face, “Depends on if your race is long-lived enough for you to spend a couple of hundred years learning the physics involved, otherwise no… My race knows instinctively how these things work.”
Seeing the look of uncertainty on their faces, she gestured and suddenly they felt sure that they had to at least try. Moraine smiled and explained that she was a peaceful creature and she did not have the power to face this ‘death-god’ directly, but if they were willing, she could transport the heroes to the centre of his mountainous empire – to the city of Viracochasuyu.
Before they could say anything more, they found themselves standing on the wall surrounding a massive stone-built city, teleported instantaneously and they realised as they looked behind them, without their skybikes. Out of her influence the idea of confronting a ‘creator-god’ on their own sounded ridiculous but before they could berate themselves for their decisions they found themselves surrounded by several spear-wielding warriors while above them flew several skyriders on the backs of gigantic winged quetzalcoatlus, ready to prevent any attempt to escape.
Behind they could see the peaks of the southern Rim Mountains and the Equatorial Ocean beyond that. Below them, they caught a glimpse of terraced farms cut into the mountainside as several of the pterodactyl-like gliders bearing riders descending swiftly towards them. The wooden-armoured guards meanwhile approached with spears readied, calling out something in an unknown language – Firewall was pretty sure it would be in Quechua but he had no idea what it was they said, stranded as he was without access to the internet. It soon became clear from their charades that the Incan warriors wanted them to surrender and that a fight would ensue if they don’t cooperate.
Raising their hands in the air, Cadet shouted out a single word as loudly as he could, “Viracocha!”
The guards stopped and looked at them in response though they still looked unhappy at their abrupt appearance out of nowhere. Suddenly they and their guards were no longer standing on the wall but on top of the tallest temple in the centre of the city as a crowd gathered at the base of the stone steps. Firewall smiled as he took in the power output that flowed through this primitive-looking stone temple. If Moraine’s platform had felt powerful, this was several levels of technology in advance of hers – energy in the form of pulses of light lay a centimetre below the surface everywhere around.
One second they were alone with their guards and the next… In front of them stood a heavily muscled figure of a man in a bronze mask, two metres tall, his metallic looking coat and clothing completely covered him. The guards immediately fell prostrate on the stone floor, chanting repeatedly the name “Viracocha.” This Viracocha fair sparkled with energy, almost as though that was all he was…
Cadet looked at their captor, “Viracocha, I assume?” To their surprise he leant forward and in a booming voice replied in English, “Yes, speak intruders; by your own words shall you be damned or saved! Although the stench of the Deceiver is heavy upon you, I will first let you declare your intent! First who are you to enter my Empire unbidden?”
Firewall looked away from the energy interchange going on all around him as he jokingly said, “Hi, I’m Chris and this is Clint!” The creature in front of them tilted its head in a most uncomfortable way, as though it was used to using different muscles to humans and exclaimed, “That does not match, why would you lie?”
Firewall quickly corrected himself, “ah, sorry I meant to say Colin, just a joke. We’ve got a friend who…” The creature straightened his head and muttered, “Quiet!” firewall tried to continue anyway, “…is in a really bad way and…”
The figure in front of them ignored him, “Match confirmed.” That’s when Cadet realised that the image for a second flicked at the very edge – he was maybe 55% sure that they were looking at a hologram! He glanced over at Firewall, saw the smile on his face and was reasonably sure he had reached the same conclusion. There was a touch of ‘Wizard of Oz’ardry’ at play here.
As if in response, Firewall turned incorporeal. The guards immediately stepped back, spooked at the sudden change of state that Firewall had manifested but Viracocha merely exclaimed, “Interesting, but not unexpected in someone of your origins. Why have you come to my city in the clouds?”
Firewall said, “Look I’ve shown you who I am, can we now meet the real you?” and took a single step forward. Several spears stopped him from advancing any further. However, this close he felt the power output of the temple spreading out into the city itself which despite its appearance, appeared to contain a lot of high technology. It was as though the whole city was pulsing with energy and talking to itself. The hologram however obviously originated from somewhere close by.
Trying to focus, he exclaimed, “We’re here to try and save someone’s life, that’s all we are trying to do.” With his mind he tried to reach out and interface with the energy just below the stone surface but failed, he suspected that the whole setup was built from microscopic particles, possibly nanite robots, under the control of Viracocha? What had Moraine called him, the Creator?
In front of them Viracocha ignored his feeble attempts to interface and continued talking, “Do you blame me for your troubles?”
“It’s not a blame game, someone’s had an accident” pleaded Firewall.
“How does that involve me?”
“We need to get them off-world so they can be treated! We understand you have control over the portals and…”
He was cut short as Viracocha explained, “People die every day; your species is extremely short-lived. How does that affect me? Why have you come here?”
Cadet explained, “We seek to send our friend back to Earth, our home planet where our doctors can try and save her life, but the gateway will not open. We believe you may be responsible for that and we have come to plea with you to reopen them…”
Viracocha appeared to sneer at them in disgust even through his mask. “You blame me for your troubles? Fools! You serve the Deceiver in your ignorance, if not your ambition. We must test your worthiness!”
For a moment they were blinded by a sudden flare of light, then as their vision cleared, they found that they had been teleported to one end of a rectangular stone arena, 12 metres wide and 100 metres long, surrounded by the natives gathered in the stands above them. Firewall had been resubstantialised and for the moment at least, they both were unable to move; a strange paralysis gripped them. Opposite them were four Incan warriors apparently weaponless. By the angle of the suns and the large gathering assembled around the arena it would seem as though at least an hour had passed, but it had been only a moment since they had stood on the sun temple. Hovering over the centre of the arena was a gigantic vision of Viracocha, 20 metres tall looking down at everyone. His voice boomed over the arena. They knew it had to be speaking the local language as the figure addressed the gathered crowds but they still heard the proclamation in English; was it being translated in their minds telepathically?
“People of Viracochasuyu! These strangers came here at the behest of the Phantasm Queen; now they must prove their worth!” The crowd immediately roared their approval.
With a gesture from Viracocha, the Incan warriors on the far end of the arena were bathed in a silver glow. When the light faded, they were now transformed, covered in silver armour that again pulsed with excessive energy and in the process of adaptation to Firewall’s eyes. It immediately reminded them of the Silver Storms on Earth that apparently caused breakthroughs in people with Meta-potential. Was this doing the same to their opponents?
“Show us your merit, outland warriors!” Viracocha’s voice boomed out as the strange paralysis suddenly released them both even as his giant form vanished and reappeared normal size on a platform above the stands. A cheer from the gathered audience went up, though they suspected it was not for them. On the opposite side of the arena, the now silver armoured warriors rushed straight at them as a group.
Firewall ran towards the attackers and released an electromagnetic pulse muttering under breath about “time to let one off, silent but deadly, I hope!”
The two furthest away appeared undamaged but one of the other warriors was immediately staggered, the effect on another though was spectacular as his armour seized up and he collapsed temporarily, incapacitated.
“Night, night” thought Firewall then realised that someone has stunted his ability to turn into data form. He was going to be expected to spar this out whether he wanted to or not.
Cadet rushed in even as he extended his Bo Staff in preparation. As he got closer to two of the warriors he went into a slide and dropped backwards so their attempts to hit him went over his head as he slid past and struck out from the rear. He caught one of them across the bridge of his nose resulting in a broken nose and blood spurting down over his chest plate. His attempt to use the other end of the staff to trip his partner however failed as the warrior skipped over the end and spun round ready to respond. The warrior opened his hand and his armour flowed into a very familiar looking silvered staff in his attacker’s hands. He stabbed at Cadet’s throat with the tip but Cadet spun his own staff round parrying the other staff away before it made contact.
Meanwhile, the other Incan warrior focused and unleashed a way too familiar energy burst at Firewall, one identical to his own – the ruffian was somehow duplicating his own powers! The blast however lacked his accuracy and hit the ground where he had been, not where he was a second later. Apart from some minor cuts under his costume caused by being peppered by stone fragments from the explosion, he was otherwise uninjured.
The previously bloodied warrior pointed his finger and a laser pulse emanated from it straight at him. Thankfully, the warriors’ injuries and bruising around his eyes caused the shot to be off slightly. It missed but only by a couple of centimetres at most. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Firewall responded with another EMP burst hoping the microscopic nanite robots that he suspected formed their weapons and armour were too small to be shielded against an electromagnetic pulse. He also pulled out one of his remaining smoke pellets thinking to give him some extra cover if required.
The energy wave washed over the remaining warriors – the laser-emitting opponent’s armour went offline for a few seconds leaving him confused, another washed over the warrior with the nosebleed as he staggered back and into range of Cadet’s readied staff. The third warrior looked stunned as his suit of armour froze him in place. In response, Firewall held off activating the smoke pellet in his hands at least for the moment.
Cadet gathered his feet under him and leapt into the air, as he did so he swung his Bo Staff round cracking his already bleeding opponent behind the ear before he could potentially get a second shot off at Firewall. The other end connected with the last warrior hitting him hard on the temple and knocking him to the arena floor.
Even as the bleeding warrior collapsed, he tried to unleash a Taser blast at Firewall, a blast that missed, leaving him to respond with a laser blast to his opponent’s legs. The armour absorbed the blast but the warrior had already taken too much damage from the combined assault and he joined his fellow guards’ unconscious on the ground.
Whoops and shouts were emanating from the gathered audience as they got to their feet. “So what now?” thought Cadet, if this was intended to be a fight to the death then the audience was about to be very disappointed as he walked over and checked on each of their opponents in turn to make sure they would survive.
Behind him, a once again two metre tall Viracocha floated down from his platform above the arena and stood (can a hologram be considered to be standing? They were both now totally convinced that that was what they addressed rather than the man behind the curtain operating this thing…) in front of them.
Viracocha raised his hand to signal the audience to silence and with his earlier disdain absent, he said again, apparently in English “Well fought, outlanders! You are worthy to represent me in battle!” As he spoke, the arena disappeared and they found themselves back on top of the sun temple again, this time unguarded.
The avatar turned and gestured towards them as he walked down into the interior of the temple, into what was obviously some sort of throne room. “I will now answer your questions…” Firewall almost felt overwhelmed by the amount of energy flowing around him. Even Cadet noticed the fibre-optic cabling and technology on open display in this inner chamber. The figure stopped in front of a bare wall and turned to face them, gesturing as he did so for them to speak.
Firewall quickly asked, “Can you now get our friend back to Earth?”
The figure shook his head, “No.”
“Why not?” was their angry response.
Even from behind the mask there was a hint of kindness as well as sadness in its reply, “I don’t currently have control of the gates or what is blocking their functionality, I never closed them down.”
“Who or what did?” asked Cadet.
“You met her, the Phantasm Queen – the creature that told you her name was Moraine, is in fact a representative of an omniversal empire known as Terminus. She is an outcast from there, a rogue warrior actually known as Morrigu. It is her intention to show her master, Lord Omega her true worth by destroying this planet and adding its mass to his ever expanding Empire. By closing down the gates, she hopes to add all life on this planet, even mine, to the prize. I can return you to her lair but…” He paused as though trying to think what to say next then continued, “I don’t know exactly what she has done or even how but I do know that when it is fully powered it will close down all gates and technology on this planet permanently. It will then cause all the volcanoes to erupt around the planet by pulling apart the tectonic plates, suffocating the planet. With all life dead under a cloud of smoke and ash, there would be nothing left to oppose her. She would be able to contact her dire lord and offer him this planet’s mass to expand his own empire.”
“They’re playing us off against each other, Col’…” muttered Firewall. Cadet nodded in response though he also knew they had no choice.
Viracocha meanwhile continued speaking, “This device of hers could also potentially be used to summon Terminus troops to her aid, though possibly not with her master’s approval. I am familiar with Terminus, intimately familiar and I am surprised that they would authorise such a thing here given my wrath should they fail. However, I need them to actually attack before I can respond under the formal rules of engagement that govern our truce.”
“So would you want us to go and provoke an attack?” responded Firewall
“I want you to prevent activation, to fight and win.” was the solemn reply.
Firewall asked, “What advice could you give us?” Even as he spoke, he realised that the wall behind the figure wasn’t solid. It had to be a hologram too and he suddenly poked his head through the light curtain that disguised the interior into a room beyond. Instead of a snake-oil salesman or conman from Omaha, Nebraska he found himself looking at a one-metre tall winged creature that looked like a demonic imp though its wings seemed too small for its body. It held some sort of remote control in its claw and seemed to try to ignore his unwanted intrusion into its control room. Was this the real Viracocha, a pint-sized reptilian-looking alien?
Outside, the hologram continued speaking as though nothing had just occurred translating the controller’s squawks and chirps into English. “I cannot directly engage her, her transmitter is deadly to me, but I can send you back.”
Even as Firewall stepped back into the throne room and signalled for Cadet to have a peek behind the holographic ‘curtain’ for himself, he asked, “So, does she have any kind of weaknesses? Chocolates? Flowers?”
The hologram said, “The device you saw is what is keeping the gates closed and preventing my direct intervention. Destroy her device and then I can help you, help us all. If you do not destroy the device I cannot; however your friends should soon be reaching the island and able to provide assistance. I can arrange to send you back so you both arrive about the same time.”
“Is it electronic? Could it be shut down by an EMP blast?”
The creature was silent for a second then responded, “Yes but it will undoubtedly be shielded.” They got the impression that the real Viracocha was trying to read their minds. “Terminus also has… silver storm, microscopic robots, nanites… Their control is quite primitive in comparison with my own but effective. I cannot get to her though while her device is active. It is not a Terminus device, I do not know where she acquired it, only that it is likely to be effective if fully activated. It must be destroyed otherwise it could be added to Terminus’ arsenal and make them even more powerful and dangerous.”
“So, any chance you could send some of your warriors with us as backup? You know, power them back up the way you did for our trial by combat?”
He shook his head, “No, they would be merely mortal, my own horde of nanites would not function that close to the device and they would not understand what they were facing. A full-on assault would not be successful. You need to destroy the platform, sever the chains holding it above the magma of the volcano before they can repair themselves.”
“The chains can self-repair?” “It is likely, the Terminus stole the technology of the nanite swarm from me millennia before. They still do not know all of its secrets but the ability to repair they do understand.”
“Explosives?” asked the re-emerged Cadet, trying to take in everything he had just witnessed.
The hologram shook its head, “All weapons I could provide are what you would call intelligent and therefore susceptible to her device, immediately shutting them down before they could function. No, this needs something more primitive than I can access yet more efficient than my ‘children’ could provide. It is a dilemma. I also do not know how many soldiers she has brought with her, however if you can get the device offline it is likely that her own Lord will punish her both for her arrogance and for risking the treaty.”
“And her warriors..?”
“They are dead, dead people returned to functionality by technology and nanites, unable to feel pain or terror, robotic in function, unable to act independently. They call them Omnidrones.”
He gravely informed them again that she must be stopped and when her infernal device is no more, the portals to Terra would be restored to normal.
It took them a few moments of discussion to hit on a possible solution. Their skybikes were powered by anti-grav pulse globes; high technology yes, but essentially they could be turned into very primitive bombs if their polarity was reversed and the energy bottle collapsed which should result in a minute but immensely powerful black hole appearing for about a second before they extinguished themselves. The trick was that they would need all three bikes to be set off almost simultaneously while parked on each of the chains. If successful the platform with its transmitter would fall into the volcanic core and hopefully be destroyed. It might still set off a volcanic eruption but without the tectonic plates affected, it would be limited hopefully to a single explosion, insufficient they hoped to choke the whole planet. Thankfully, they had access to the necessary equipment to quickly build the devices they needed.
The question had been whether to quickly prep the bikes first then try to fly the already jury-rigged bikes to the other further away chains or to try to rig them after landing. They had realised though that they needed Firewall’s kamikaze tech abilities to rig each one so that meant flying them afterwards with whatever that meant for maintaining their stability and flight speed…
Viracocha was able to confirm that Andrews and his passenger was only a short-distance away from the island. They needed to go back now if they were to jury-rig their own two bikes and get them into position on the furthest two chains before Andrews and Zandar arrived.
Thankfully, Viacocha’s abilities still allowed for teleportation across a continent even if his ability to go trans-dimensional was blocked by Moraine, no they should call her by her true name, Morrigu.
Game time! They stepped away from Viracocha’s hologram and suddenly found themselves standing by one of the chains with their bikes on the rim of the volcano.
They couldn’t help notice that the machinery on the platform now looked different somehow; more sinister; Morrigu wasn’t bothering to disguise her machinations. The pale woman no longer wore soft robes, but gleaming emerald-coloured armour instead with a large sword belted to her waist and her eyes glowed green. “Very different look but still sexy!” muttered Firewall under his breath.
She sneered over at them, calling out, “I see you managed to survive that mountain-bound fool! No doubt you think to stop me; but you’re too late!”
With a gesture, she opened an invisible portal and eight Omegadrones poured forth even as the Neanderthal slaves scattered, heading for the furthest away chain and the lip of the volcano. Okay time for the hero 101 checklist; civilians fleeing to safety? Check. Bad guys clearly identified? Check. Battle plan agreed? Check.
In the far distance, Cadet could clearly see Andrews and his passenger heading in their direction. He sent out a quick message over his comms that the magic woman was responsible for sealing the gates and they had a plan to open them, just land on the closest chain and follow their lead. He then cut the transmission before he got the verbal backlash he knew would follow from the ‘Ant-Man’.
Firewall immediately rushed over to the bikes and quickly attached the jury-rigged devices he’d made before leaving Viracochasuyu to each of their bikes.
If Firewall was right, then the devices would enable the globe polarity to be reversed, which coupled with a bit of brute strength and ignorance should be sufficient to prime them – then the destruction of the regulator would destroy the containment bottle to create a micro-black hole and turn the bikes into focused but ever-so-powerful implosive devices.
Provided they punctured the containment seal when they parked, it would then just require someone to light the blue touch-paper of all three at approximately the same time by exploding their regulators and it would be Guy Fawkes Night, hopefully.
Both bikes now rigged and with instructions sent to Andrews to land his vehicle in the middle of the nearest ‘chain’ and then do the same vandalism to his bike, they jumped on their cycles and set off towards the other two ‘chains’.
The bike handled like a bull elephant in the middle of a stampede made even harder by the armoured zombie Omnidrones firing at them. Thankfully, the awkward handling capabilities of their altered bikes helped to made them difficult to hit. The Omnidrones were accurate in their shots, determining where the bikes should be it was just that the bikes weren’t flying normally (or safely) any more and their shots subsequently missed.
In fact, Cadet even elected to try buzzing a squad of six Omnidrones as he headed towards a crash landing on one of the central chain links. He even managed to knock one of them down though since it couldn’t feel pain and immediately got back on its feet again; it was a bit of a hollow victory.
It gave Firewall a clear flight path to the other chain though he was still subject to being fired upon. Thankfully, his barrier absorbed the couple of shots that hit him though the bike did take some superficial damage. He lasered the seal then sprinted across the platform heading towards the chain that Andrews had been allocated to hand him the final power alternator. He dodged several shots before sprinting across the chain to Andrews. The heat from the magma below and the stench almost caused him to collapse be he made it, though two of the following Omnidrones fell off as they tried to catch him.
He left Andrews to attach the device himself as he then headed back across the chain to see if he could help Cadet. Zandar meanwhile had already set off running across the chain towards the troop of advancing Omnidrones with warrior glee on his face. They would need to ensure he was rescued before they took out the chains.
Back on the platform, he saw Cadet running towards him. Firewall multi-attacked the squad of Omnidrones that were firing on Cadet and himself with lasers, sniping back as best he could, target practice time. His first blast hit an Omnidrone but didn’t appear to do any serious damage, another shot dented another’s armour while yet another incapacitated a third Omnidrone with a headshot dropping it (and he was thankful that they were already dead) though his other shots unfortunately missed.
Cadet was now heading back towards the rim however, as he raced back across the platform he pulled out and threw a handful of flash bombs back at them – leaving several of the Omnidrones blinded, at least temporarily.
Back on his chain, Andrews stood up from his bike he then threw off his jacket, pulled a mask over his face and immediately shrunk down until he vanished from view. Cadet suddenly realised whom one of the Metas providing back up at that fight club had been. The symbol of the front of his red suit had the outline in black of an insect, an ant in fact, a play on his nickname perhaps? Funnily enough, it came as no real surprise. After all they knew Whoop-Ant was a teacher at the school.
Shortly after, they noticed Morrigu swatting at something as flickers of light erupted on her face and arms. Green energy flared into an energy shield that she tried to use to block the attacks. Firewall couldn’t help wonder if Andrews had carried out the instructions to vandalise his bike first.
As he ran across the chain, Cadet felt a number of blasts hit behind him, fired by a couple of the unblinded Omnidrones apparently – thankfully the rising heat vapours and smoke meant that they all missed. Firewall wasn’t so lucky as he took fire, thankfully the blasts bounced off his energy barrier.
Morrigu gestured towards them both, and they almost fell off the chain as they began to experience pins and needles in their limbs followed by shaking. “Bloody witch” though Firewall, though he had no idea whether they were actually facing magic or just advanced technology mimicking magic, as they couldn’t tell the difference.
Thankfully, it was a glancing blow and she was immediately distracted by several blasts from a flying gnat of a hero. The issue now was that all of them were still at risk – either by being on the disk or on one of the chains and Firewall couldn’t risk firing until they were all clear.
“Get off the platform” he shouted. Cadet fired his grappler towards Zandar to get his attention as he savaged and slaughtered his squad of robotic attackers and told him to get clear – Zandar grabbed hold of the grapple in mid-air, kicked out at the remaining attackers and immediately started running after Cadet.
Andrews could apparently fly even when fully sized, going by his ongoing assault on Morrigu who was completely distracted by his attacks and constant size changes. However, even were he to turn insubstantial Firewall realised he might not survive a close encounter with Magma and immediately fled the platform.
As soon as the three of them was clear (a flying Andrews was still occupied with assaulting Morrigu) Firewall multi-attacked the rigged bikes with laser attacks from the rim. Thankfully, he hit all three regulators in each case causing a miniature black dot to appear on each which swallowed the bikes then severed the chains before collapsing. The platform started to fall, slowly, inevitably towards its destruction below with the Omnidrones still trapped on its surface.
Morrigu however remained in the same point in space, floating in the air. Andrews resumed his normal size and immediately flew over to join the others on the edge of the volcano as the collapsing platform set off the first in a series of eruptions into the surrounding sky. Shielded, she cursed them even as her platform sank completely into the magma.
Standing on the edge, the four of them realised that they had succeeded but would likely not survive the next few minutes if the volcano erupted as threatened since they no longer had any means of escape from the island and only Andrews could fly.
Then over on the other side of the rim, a massive three-metre tall humanoid stepped through a circle of light that had appeared suddenly and unexpectedly. Reinforcements? The figure stood alone, his face like stone, his body perfectly formed as though sculpted, his head covered by a metallic hood and his body protected within grey armour surrounding a large, pulsing red disk on his chest. He stood in front of her, hands behind his back, his eyes glowing red. His sudden appearance however caused an instant response in Morrigu’s countenance, as she suddenly looked both trapped and terrified.
At the same time in the billowing smoke, a giant hologram of Viracocha appeared in his true lizard-like form projected onto a silver cloud, which separated with one cloud heading in the direction of their Camp.
“Lord Omega, take your creature and depart this world. Know that this world is protected and should you fail to honour that status then I will be forced to go to war against you – if you wish the truce between us to remain in force then do not test me again.” Viracocha bellowed. Again, they heard his words in English…
Lord Omega bowed his head in acknowledgement and signalled for Morrigu to follow him through the portal. In their minds they heard a translation of his words as he stated that she was a fool for risking confronting the ‘creator’ on his refuge planet! As she floated across towards him, she trembled in abject fear. As she hesitatingly got close, omega reached out and grabbed her out of the air and with a nod towards the hologram, he turned and stepped back through the light. The last thing they heard was Omega calmly telling Morrigu, “Mistress Paine is looking forward to making your acquaintance again Morrigu. She has missed your company since your untimely escape…”
Beneath the hologram, the volcano was getting ready to erupt. Firewall tried to get its attention and a second or two after Omega and Morrigu had vanished, it turned in the air to look at them. “Ah, Viracocha, we hoped you would open a portal to get our friend out of here as she still needs medical attention?
“It’s already being dealt with.”
Firewall continued, since both Mr Andrews and Zandar possibly for the first time in their lives were speechless at the sight that had appeared before their eyes. “And, ah can you help get us out of here as we’ve ah lost our bikes and are trapped here. It would be really nice if we left before the eruption char broiled us all…”
Even before he had finished speaking the scenery abruptly changed and the four of them found themselves standing on the plain outside the outer fence. The only sign of the eruption was a plume of smoke in the far distance. Inside the fence, a small fleet of Raptors were parked on the landing field preparing to remove all non-essential staff.
Behind them, outside the outer fence was a number of collapsed, unconscious triceratops. The pummelled ground around them showed that a stampede through the Camp had been recently averted, apparently by the girls. They later discovered that Proxy had multiplied herself and a borrowed rifle, well beyond her comfort zone apparently looking at the remaining half dozen dupes currently collapsing back into her. Cadet smiled, it seemed that Proxy’s dupes had copied her splint and bandages but not her injury. It appeared that the unconscious animals in front of her had been brought down by multiple tranquilliser shots fired by her doppelgängers. Standing beside the injured original was an exhausted Bubbles who was collapsing a reflective effervescent wall which had apparently created the illusion that another herd was heading towards them, while a physically altered Changeling was still making a roar similar to the sound made by one of the larger carnivores they’d seen in their travels.
Only Icicle was missing, apparently still unconscious and already loaded on-board the first Raptor. Then to their surprise, the last remaining Proxy shook her broken arm and removed the bandage. Somehow, the shattered bone was already healing!
Andrews rushed them inside the Camp and left to track down Director Kubert for a debriefing before they headed back to Earth. From Mandy, they discovered that shortly after they had left a herd of Triceratops had stampeded across the plain towards the Camp. The girls had elected to try to change their direction, round the Camp rather than through it. They had succeeded.
They caught up with Bubbles as she was just about to enter a Raptor. She explained that a few minutes ago a weird silver mist had appeared out of nowhere and descended suddenly on the Camp. To their joy and horror it had begun to begin to heal both Pierre and Patsy’s injuries as well as apparently dissolving (or eating?) the metal spar. Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t stop the mist though they then realised that it had also been mending Lillie’s injured organs at the same time. Minutes later the first of the evac Raptors had arrived with Doctor Morris as their first passenger.
All non-essential staff was now being evacuated from Camp Cretaceous leaving a skeleton crew to wait out the eruption and hopefully cope with any other migrating herds of dinosaurs heading their way.
Several hours later, they were back at school. Doctor Lockheart and ‘Also’ Rhan were waiting to debrief each of them in turn. As each exited they suddenly realised that while everything that had happened to them on Zorandar was still clear in their minds, for some reason they could no longer remember who each other’s civilian identity had been, not even Whoop-Ant’s. It was as though that knowledge had been wiped from their minds.
Background
The South American ‘Lost World’ plateau with its migrating dinosaurs and tribes of hominids was first discovered by Professor Challenger on a near inaccessible Venezuelan Tepui (subsequently named after his companion Professor Summerlee). The Plateau turned out to be linked by a randomly switching one-way teleportation gate between the planet Zorandar and Earth.
Professor Challenger’s second expedition (with his son Edward) in the 1920s revisited the Tepui and this time they accidentally crossed over to Zorandar, trapping them there. That’s when they discovered that aliens had apparently visited the Earth millennia before had transferred dinosaur (and other extinct creatures) to this reserve world, a planet where Smilodons existed alongside T. rex.
The discovery of tribes of humans and previously thought extinct hominids on Zorandar convinced the expedition that two-way travel between the two worlds was possible and they eventually discovered the City of the Koram and the Gateway of the Gods.
Whilst travelling through the lands of the Forgotten People, Edward had a relationship with their Goddess-Princess Kiddagakaish Nedaakh who subsequently gave birth to a son subsequently named Alexander Challenger. As a result of this ‘desecration’ of her divinity, Edward and his father were exiled from Zorandar; Edward took his baby son, Alexander with him when he returned to Earth having arrived at another gate on Earth that came out amongst the Aerie.
Unknown to Edward, Kidda had actually given birth to twins – the boy (Alexander Challenger), was given to his father (tradition was that male offspring of the Forgotten were abandoned to die in the jungle), he was never told that she had also had also given birth to a twin daughter, Dwaakh, keeping the girl-child secret until he had left Zorandar. Dwaakh was raised by her mother to be a warrior princess of the People.
Back on Earth when his father Edward enlisted and subsequently died in the Spanish Civil War, he was raised by his grandfather Professor George Challenger and his wife Jessie who he considered his “real” mother.
Back on Zorandar, when Dwaakh was twenty she was captured and raped by the Warlord. She subsequently escaped and hid in the jungle where she led the rebels in their guerrilla war against the Warlord’s Empire. Hiding the fact from her mothers’ tribe that she had survived, she secretly gave birth to a son that she abandoned in a cave before attempting to return to the City, only to be ambushed and killed by the warlord’s soldiers.
The abandoned child was found by a tribe of Sasquatch (later identified as being Homo Oblitus or ‘Forgotten Man’) who raised him. However, when he was about ten the Warlord’s men found the tribe and exterminated them, leaving him again alone to look after himself.
He found his grandfather’s camp near the waterfall and a journal about their journey with his Great Uncle Alexander. Having taught himself to read he subsequently named himself Zandar. He does not know that he is related to Kidda, though the Challenger-Wildeman family are aware he is kin due to DNA tests they managed to carry out when they met him.
Kidda is still alive and living in the City of the Forgotten People. Kidda does not appear to age and still looks to be in her early 20s. Kidda has met her great-grandchildren but has only shown an interest in her great-granddaughters, ignoring her great-grandsons. She cannot understand why the females show any loyalty to inferior males.
Growing up Meta, UK-Style! 