Hi everybody! Le 15 Janvier, 1999 (1/15/99) I'm new, so don't be too shocked at what you read... Here's something to keep you all company awhile, besides all the chatter going on. Much love and thanks to all the beta readers who helped me... y'all know who you are! ^_^ Disclaimer: Jonny Quest and all Quest-related objects/characters/monsters/junk are not mine and are owned by HB. I’m broke, and I’m not making any money out of writing this, just fun. Don’t bother calling your lawyers because all you’ll get is a dust-covered penny and a bubble gum wrapper. Categories: E, A, JQ/JB HR Rating: PG-13 for language and violence Archivers: Go ahead, as long as you tell me. Author’s note- This is the first fic I’m posting up to the world so please be kind... *_* I’m also a lot under oh, say, 16 years of age, which is yet another reason to be kinder. But if you *do* read this, PLEASE SEND COMMENTS!!! ANYTHING!!! I BEG OF YOU!!! Ahem . For the Filipinos out there who may happen to read the title and start wondering, yes, the title is what it means in our native language. For whoever happens to trip over this trash and attempts to read it, may the Force and the spirit of Anakin Skywalker be with you... The dates and places are X-Files style, as I had originally intended for this to be a crossover, which didn’t work out, just to clarify things. Names, dates, and places are, well, my creation sort of, so if you visit SFO, don’t go looking for Dock 47. I do believe it exists only in my imagination. So without furder ado, I present Ikaw. Enjoy! Ikaw by Nova (a.k.a.Christine M.) Part One- Visions of You November 15 Dock 47, San Francisco, CA 7:55 P.M. A tall, dark-haired, lean young man in his late teens stood calmly on the deserted dock, glancing around every once in a while, as if he expected someone to materialize out of nowhere. Taking another lungful from his cigarette, he tightened his leather jacket around his shoulders, silently wishing that the cold, Arctic wind would die. The weather was getting weirder every day in the Bay Area, and he was definitely in no mood to wait out in it for another half hour. It was already dark, and the few lamp posts in the distance gave feeble aid to the lighting on the dock. “ Damien,” a deep, gruff voice whispered his name, startling the young man in question enough for him to drop the cigarette. Damien Howser spun vehemently around to face a burly, older man wearing a thick, brown overcoat. The burly man’s shadow loomed over the teen threateningly, as he was almost a head taller than Damien. The younger man sighed deeply, wondering why the heck he was so paranoid. After all, it was only a quiet exchange he had to perform, no great task. “ D’you have the goods, Crow?” Damien questioned, trying his best to sound tough, though in fact, he was completely intimidated by his contact. His knees felt like toothpicks at the moment. Crow’s hunched figure straightened, making him seem all the more frightening to the younger man. Crow Redd, after all, had a unique reputation in the underworld of getting back at people who made him mad. Damien could see him fumble quickly for a package in his coat, but not before both men heard a noise, like a muffled splash. The older, more experienced man swiftly pulled out a weapon, an automatic, and trained it on the trembling young man in front of him. “ Ya got buddies ‘round here, Damien?” “ N-no!” Damien sputtered defensively. “ I didn’t tell anyone. No one knows but Jimmy.” “ So who’s that parading in the water? The Loch Ness monster?” Crow sneered. That was the moment when Damien saw the shadow of an immense figure behind Crow. Just the shadow, before the shadow’s owner decided to show itself. Damien fearfully stumbled back, his eyes glued to the point beyond Crow’s shoulder, his hands flailing in front of him in self defense. Crow knew the look of fear whenever he saw it on anyone, and this young man obviously had it bad. Only problem was that the fear wasn’t concentrated on Crow, like so many he’d seen before. Oh no, this particular fear was centered on something behind him... A flash of intense, bright light screamed past Crow’s eyes, blinding him, and pain emanated sharply from the back of his head. A blood curdling scream followed, as if the night couldn’t get any colder. That was the last thing Crow remembered. Ever. ********** San Francisco Ports 8:02 P.M. Sixteen-year-old Jonathan Benton Quest whipped past lamp posts, sped over cars and trucks, and ducked low, overhanging trees, determined to beat his best friend at a hoverboard race. His opponent was gaining on him, no more than two feet behind and closing in. In fact, Jonny’s competition was so close that he could almost feel both their heartbeats pounding in unison. “ I’m gonna get you, Jonny!” a shrill, female voice warned dangerously. It was a voice that he could recognize better than his own: Jessie Bannon. Even at the age of 16, both he and Jessie had always found time to have some immature fun, in contrast to Jonny’s adopted older brother, the Sultan of Bangalore, Hadji Singh. After all, what the 18-year-old Asian man considered was fun were things like meditating, reading, and, well, metaphysics. He’d never understand, nor did he want to for that matter, the heated competition between his two best friends, but he saw the bigger picture for what it was. The competition was dying down. It was a change in a relationship that had lasted almost ten years. “ You’re in trouble, Hot Shot! You can’t beat the record!” Jessie was presently on the same line that her friend was, but she was undeniably faster, even on a vacation away from their home in Rockport, Maine. At least back at the Quest Compound, the two were always under supervision, either Race’s, or Dr. Quest’s, and more often than anyone else, Hadji’s. Actually, Jonny wouldn’t have minded losing once again. Partially, it was because there was no one there to see him lose like a sloth to a peregrine falcon. But then again, it had always been just for the sake of his pride, and his ego, that he *tried* to win once in a while, but wherever Jessica Anne Bannon was concerned, he’d lay down his life for her. Or his ego. Or anything. It didn’t matter. “ Try me!” Jonny playfully yelled back, his wild mop of blonde hair blowing into his eyes, while Jessie’s beautiful mane of red hair billowed behind her like a cloud. Her sparkling emerald eyes met his merry blue ones and held, communicating volumes of insults and praise with one look. Their silent exchange was abruptly interrupted by a piercing scream, unmistakably male, somewhere toward the skyline of countless boats and yachts. Both teens skidded to a floating halt, glanced at each other for a split second, and sped off in the direction of the anguished cry. It repeated itself over and over, its sickeningly high pitch never faltering for an instant. This was very serious. Deadly serious. Unfortunately, Jonny and Jessie just hadn’t realized how life threatening the situation was until they caught sight of Dock 47, and two people who stood on it. More specifically, it was one person and one *thing* who stood on it. A young man with dark hair and a black leather jacket stood petrified on the dock as the figure of a... *something* approached it. Squinting as he made his approach, Jonny could discern a misshapen head, a bare back, a pair of arms, jean-clad legs, shoeless feet, and what looked like a dorsal fin protruding awkwardly from the creature’s back. Its arms were webbed, as were its toes, and as Jonny drew even closer by the second, he realized that it was covered with scales. Like sharp, metal, silver plates. Jonny heard a sharp intake of breath beside him and knew exactly how Jessie felt. Totally horrified. After all the strange phenomena that his family had seen, Jonny still wondered how they all managed to keep their heads on. Perhaps the fact that they hadn’t gone insane yet helped steel them for even stranger things to come, Jonny mused. “ I don’t like the looks of this, Jonny,” Jessie gasped as she sighted the thing. “ It looks like some sort of... cross between a human and a...” “ A killer crocodile, an iguana, a monitor lizard, and a toad, right?” Jonny offered with a grin as they dove even closer to the dock on which the creature had perched itself. It appeared to be feeding on something... Jonny heard another gasp from Jessie as they simultaneously identified what the creature was feasting upon- a man. “ Holy shit,” Jonny murmured. The creature was eating the man’s carcass, oblivious to the other young man who stood on the dock no more than ten feet away. No doubt that he was to be the next victim, but he couldn’t get away because the creature was blocking the only route off the dock. “ Jess, I’ll get that guy out of there. You stay here and call for help. I don’t want you to get hurt.” “ Jonny! I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself!” Jessie could have yelled that out to a brick wall for all anyone cared. Jonny was already out of earshot, grabbing hold of the young man and throwing him on his hoverboard, just as the creature seemed to notice its dessert leaving. It struck out with a long limb, its claw slashing at Jonny’s back, ripping his shirt, and scratching his back. “ JONNY!” she yelled, ready to willingly serve herself on a silver platter to the creature if it would save her best friend. Jonny almost lost his footing, but the young man he had saved grabbed on to his arm and jerked against gravity. Regaining his balance, Jonny mumbled a quick thanks, then navigated the hoverboard away from the creature. “ Oh Jonny,” Jessie muttered grudgingly under her breath as she dialed the police on her cell phone. It was the one that Race Bannon had forced her to carry since she was ten and proved decidedly that she got into more trouble than anyone her age. Jonny, on the other hand, had received his cell phone when he was seven years old. Even now, almost ten years later, he was always running into trouble, but with age came his overprotective instincts. His intentions were noble, true, but they were unwanted, especially by Jessie. She had proved time and again that she was quite capable of taking care of herself, but that didn’t seem to be enough for Jonny. Nowadays, it was more often that she got the knight-in-shining-armor bit from him in their messy situations, rather than the equal partner treatment that she wanted. And if there was one thing Jessie loathed, it was playing damsel-in-distress. She did know that he was doing it out of his want, his *need*, to protect her and make her happy, and she had to admit that she enjoyed the attention. But he went too far, too often, for Jessie’s gratitude to be apparent. In a blur of black and gold, Jonny breezed past her, hollering for her to follow. She complied, having no choice unless she wanted to be the creature’s side dish. It was running in her direction, its feet clattering offensively against the dock, its huge claws ripping the wood to shreds as it went. Jessie swallowed hard as she willed her hoverboard to go faster. This was one race in which victory was imperative; there was no room for anything else. She was only two feet behind Jonny, who was harboring the miserably shaken young man from the port, and who was therefore much slower, given the added weight. They flew over the fence that separated the docks from the road, and the boards skimmed over the smooth asphalt with little difficulty. Hoping despondently that the fence would buy them some time, Jonny, Jessie, and the dark-haired stranger headed toward the city, where there should be more people, more traffic, and more noise. Jonny was praying that the creature was afraid of noise, because it did attack in a quiet place. Perhaps its preference was noiseless solitude, but he wouldn’t know, not until he had reached someplace busy. He hoped that he wasn’t leading the creature to a feast for which he would be eternally burdened with guilt. The young Quest already had too much of that on his shoulders. A loud crash caused the three teens to glance back, in time to see a fallen sailboat mast, and the creature leaping right over the fence as easily as a kangaroo would hop over a small hurdle. *Dear God*, Jonny paled. *That thing can jump!* Its heavy claws hammered the ground mercilessly as the creature literally tore up the street after its targets. The consistent cracks that sharp nails digging into hard asphalt made were very audible in Jessie’s ears, and she knew all at once that it was gaining on them. Fast. They were in deep water. “ Jonny! Where are you going!?” she yelled, the frightening sound of claws making it impossible for her to look back. It was gaining on them... gaining on her... she’d end up just like that poor man... “ To the city!” Jonny replied dutifully. “ Jess, we’re in big trouble here.” “ Thanks for stating the obvious,” she muttered, loudly enough for him to hear. Her heart pounded as she heard a loud roar behind her. *Damn, the thing’s mad. I’m gonna be next... oh, God, please, dear God, no...* “ Geez, Jess, it’s just to keep up a conversation.” Trying to wrench her mind from unpleasant thoughts, Jessie replied, “ I don’t think now’s an appropriate time for conversation, don’t you think, er, what’s your name?” The young man behind Jonny realized that “Jess” was talking to him. “ Damien.” Damien Howser glanced at his saviors, wondering how they could possibly be arguing in a situation like this. First of all, Damien wondered how the *hell* they got these skateboard-like gadgets that hovered above the ground. Second, Damien wanted to know what time period they came from. Third, Damien was scared shitless because these two were obviously a lot younger than him, and yet they looked like they did this kind of thing every night or something. He just didn’t realize how close to the truth his estimation was. “ Right, Damien,” Jessie said, trying to keep up a light air, despite the ferocious snarls and ruthless claws that were catching up to them. The trio sped around a corner of the street, gliding smoothly over cars and dull shop signs, wondering where in the world civilization was. To add even more tension to their situation, there was no one walking on the streets, and the shops were very needy for human attention. The silence, though, no matter how bone-chilling, was nothing compared to the howls of the creature following the teens. With every footstep came a loud crash of shattering windshields and crunching metal, as the creature leaped from car to car. Every time it landed on the ground, a slight tremor shook the earth, and even though Jonny, Jessie, and Damien were on hoverboards, they could see how the vibrations shook the leaves out of trees. It was that powerful. It was that much more vicious. It was a thousand times more terrifying. It took all the will power Jessie could muster not to look back, even though she knew that it was slowly, but surely, gaining on them. The three teens heard a loud crack, then a swish, and they all looked back in time to see a small tree sailing toward their heads. “ Look out, Jessie!” “ Look out, Jonny!” The two hoverboards swerved on either side of the road, and the tree embedded itself neatly into the ground, sending cracks that could have been mistaken for the results of a quake. “ Um, Jonny, wasn’t your Dad working on some kind of prototype for the hoverboard, a hyper jet, or something of the like?” “ The switch is on the left side, but it doesn’t work Jess! Our boards are gonna blow to hell if we try it!” “ Too bad. Better the board than me, ‘cause I don’t want to feed any animal right now, especially if I’m the one who’s gonna be eaten. Hang on!” Jessie crouched on her hoverboard, side by side with Jonny, and turned on the switch she grasped under his hoverboard. “ Don’t do this! No!” Jonny’s eyes widened as he saw her flick the switch of his board with a decidedly evil look in her eye. “ JESSIE!!!!!!!” Then Jonny and Damien shot off at an amazing speed, leaving Jessie to eat their dust. But not for too long. Glancing one last time behind her, she paled in horror when she realized that the thing was within an arm’s reach. Then, it did something which chilled her to the bone. Its blood-red eyes staring stonily into her green ones, the creature uttered a sound, forming words that Jessie hadn’t known it could say. “ Jessie...” it hissed menacingly, closing the gap between them. “ Better now than never,” she whispered to herself. And she felt her board blast off to safety, just as she felt something scratch her right arm, painfully drawing blood. It dripped on the road, satisfying the creature’s hungry senses only momentarily. The creature’s voice was a growl, a rough, deep sound that could send chills down even Race Bannon’s spine. And in this voice, the creature told Jessie something. Something that Jessie couldn’t banish from her memory even if she wanted to. “ Ikaw... ay susunod... sa akin...” The last thing Jessie heard would haunt her forever: the gruesome cry of a wounded animal. A ravenous animal. One that would hunt for the taste of more blood. Jessie’s blood. She was marked. ********** Hyatt Hotel, Penthouse 9:36 P.M. Dr. Benton Quest sighed once more, his steaming mug of coffee drawn to his mouth again as if by some magnetic force, and he forced more of the burning liquid down his throat. He eyed the teens wearily, first to Jonny, then to the bandages just barely visible under his shirt, moving to Damien Howser, who had escaped unscathed, switching to Jessie, and finally to Jessie’s bandaged arm. Somehow, the situation seemed a little bit off, because Jonny was usually the one hurt but who saved the day, not Jessie. Dr. Quest wasn’t grateful for the switch either. Just... tired. Tired of his kids getting hurt. *Funny*, Dr. Quest thought wryly. *I think of Jessie as my own kid.* And it was true to every sense of the word. Dr. Quest thought himself as a second father to Jessie, because he did love her as much as his own son, giving her privileges only a daughter to him would be entitled to. *The daughter I never had*, he smiled at the irony. Rachel Quest had left him an heir, but there was always something to be said about the special bond that fathers and daughters everywhere had that Benton Quest longed for. Race Bannon and Jessie Bannon were no exception. At that moment, the tall, white-haired man in question entered the penthouse living room, a fatigued look matching Dr. Quest’s spirits, on his face. In his familiar Texan drawl, Race Bannon greeted the grim people in the room. “ Police haven’t found the creature,” Race’s eyes flickered mechanically toward the small injury on Jessie’s arm, “ but they found the tracks it made, and, woah boy, I’m thankin’ my lucky stars that you three *did* get out of there looking only like kerosene cats in hell.” “ Huge cracks in the road, a fallen mast, a torn up dock, and a dead man that looks like vultures had been feeding on him for weeks on end,” Dr. Quest shook his head. “ This beats it all, kids. I’m not sure whether I should or shouldn’t be glad that Hadji’s in Bangalore.” Jonny and Jessie exchanged wry smiles, which didn’t go unnoticed by Damien. The 19-year-old wondered what was going on with this family. Sure, he’d watched the news about the infamous “Quest Team” as the media had chosen to name them, and Damien had heard of strange phenomena that they investigated. A bunch of bull, of course. Or so Damien had previously believed before his encounter with the monster and Jonny and Jessie. “ So Damien,” Race Bannon began, as the rest of the family sensed an interrogation coming up. “ Tell us again what you were doing at Dock 47 and what happened.” Damien swallowed hard. Race Bannon was as frightening as Crow Redd, and he really meant business. Despite the countless times Damien had told his story, he told it again, just to be safe. “ I went to the dock ‘cause my boss, Jimmy, sent me there to, um, do an errand. Make an exchange.” “ Exchange what?” Race’s blue eyes bored into Damien’s melancholy hazel ones. “ Paperwork. And stuff. Y’know. The usual.” “ Define ‘the usual’.” A thousand excuses flared through Damien’s mind, none good enough to fool Race Bannon, Damien was sure. Race was standing over him, arms crossed, glare focused with such intensty that Damien feared that his look alone could kill. “ We were trading, uh, crops for fish,” Damien stammered lamely. The young man had been sitting on that same armchair for almost two hours already, being grilled by several policemen, some detectives, some federal agents, Dr. Quest, and now Race Bannon. The latter was the hardest man to keep a straight face to, and it seemed as if the ex-government agent could see right through him. Race snorted. “ That’s a lie, Damien. That’s a bold-faced lie. Tell us what you were really doing. The docks were closed, and that creature had obviously followed you. Its tracks led all the way up to Dock 20, Damien, so don’t go telling me it just happened to jump right out of the water and eat your friend.” “ It followed me?” Damien croaked weakly. Race nodded smugly. “ I swear, I don’t have a damned clue where that thing came from! Jimmy was the only one who knew where we were and what we were doing. B’sides, if I had led that thing to Crow, I would be dead right now.” “ Sounds like a talk with Jimmy is in order,” Jonny piped up. “ What’s his last name and where does he live?” “ Hey! Hold on a second!” Damien abruptly stood, startling everyone present. He glared darkly at Race. Especially at Race. “ Since when did this investigation turn to me? I’m not the one who killed Crow, and I’m not to blame for whatever that thing is out there!” “ That thing,” Dr. Quest interrupted coldly, “ was wearing a pair of jeans. When the police inspected the area, they discovered that the creature had dropped a note on the pier on which the address of a certain specialty shop is written, as well as the dock number and the date and time- September 15, 8 P.M. Tell me what that’s all about.” Damien paled. Considerably. “ I don’t see what’s the point of staying here. I’ve told police, F.B.I., and a bunch of people whose badges I didn’t recognize, so ask them!” With that, Damien headed for the door. When Race moved to stop him, Dr. Quest reached out and blocked his way. “ No, Race. Let him go. We’ve got all we need. We just had to confirm it.” “ The kid’s lyin’,” Race growled at Damien, who was in the process of opening the door and leaving. “ Dad’s right,” Jessie added. “ We can’t just let him go like that.” “ What’s the point?” Dr. Quest questioned. “ He wouldn’t tell us a thing if we tried.” The teens mulled this over, as Race sat back on an armchair in defeat. Silence prevailed for a few, long minutes. Dr. Quest could see that his son was seething with agitation, that the teen wanted badly to go out and follow Damien. Jonny Quest had grown up to be a man of action, like the family bodyguard. It probably wouldn’t hurt. After countless times trailing people, Jonny Quest had succeeded in following even Race once, which was a great achievement. No one had ever been able to do that to Race before, so Race figured that the young man was lucky. Dr. Quest then looked at Jessie, who was equally aching to leave and do something. She’d been spending too much time with Jonny, Dr. Quest supposed. She was usually the calm one, thinking first, before acting, which made Jonny and Jessie a good team. She thought, and he acted. Benton Quest stroked his full beard, watching the pair on the sofa, one casting the other wistful looks conveniently when the other wasn’t looking. If only... “ It said ‘ikaw’,” Jessie suddenly spoke, shattering the silence. “ What?” Jonny looked at her as if she had grown another head. “ That thing. It said ‘ikaw’,” Jessie repeated. “ And something that sounded like ‘I sue sue node’ and then ‘sah ah keen’. I have no idea what that means.” “ ‘Ikaw’, huh?” Race Bannon raised an eyebrow. “ We ought to give that creature a name and that just sounds perfect. Weird, mysterious, and eerie. Think we should call the creature ‘Ikaw’?” “ Great,” Jonny slumped back into the couch defeatedly. “ We’re in the middle of a major, life-threatening crisis, trying to bear the injuries that a very angry, sharp-clawed creature inflicted on us, while we’re also attempting to cope with the psychological effects that it had, and we’re discussing what to *name* the object of our fears!?” “ Since when did the great Jonny Quest complain about off-topic discussions? Especially with five-syllable words?” Jessie glanced at him questioningly as she leaned back, mimicking her best friend’s position. “ I don’t really care what we should call it. I just want to get rid of it.” She shuddered with a well-founded fear, which went unnoticed by all. “ All right. Ikaw it is. That’s the creature’s, um, nickname for now,” Dr. Quest shrugged, looking around the room for approval. He was met with no resistance whatsover. “ That takes care of what to call it, besides ‘thing’ and ‘creature’.” “ Any guesses as to what ‘I sue sue node’ and ‘sah u kin’ means?” “ ‘Sah ah keen’,” Jessie corrected her best friend. The latter shrugged nonchalantly. “ Whatever.” Dr. Quest was wreaking havoc within his brain, trying to come up with a language that sounded like what Jessie had said. Despite his mastery of many European, African, and Asian languages, Dr. Quest came up with a blank. “ Game plan for tomorrow,” he said. “ I’ll go to the police headquarters. To examine the evidence found at the dock. Kids, I want you to stay out of trouble, and stay in the hotel.” Dr. Quest swiftly held up a hand at the incoming protests. “ No buts. You were almost killed tonight, and I don’t want you to go around the city looking for trouble. I’ll have a guard just outside the door so you won’t go anywhere. Got it?” Jonny and Jessie resorted to pleading with sad puppy eyes, then sulking. Didn’t work of course. “ None of that attitude,” Dr. Quest snapped, trying to look away. It was especially hard to turn down these two. If Hadji were here, he would gladly take care of them. Then Dr. Quest shook his head. Hadji would be an accomplice if he were here, Sultan of Bangalore or not. “ Race, what do you think you should do?” “ Go back to the scene of the crime,” the burly bodyguard said. “ Might find something the police missed in the night.” “ Good,” Dr. Quest nodded. “ We’ll start out at 8 in the morning. We’ll call when we come back, Jessie, Jonny. Just stay out of trouble, and no...” “ Heroics,” Jessie and Jonny finished for him simultaneously. “ Right,” Dr Quest muttered. “ Now off to bed with you.” “ G’night, Dad. G’night, Race.” “ Good night, Dad. Good night Dr. Quest.” “ Good night, Jessie. Night Jonny.” As the two teens left wearily for their rooms, the phenomenologist glanced at his bodyguard, who just chuckled and uttered his good night. Dr. Quest smiled wryly, then began thinking of ways to change his predictable sayings. ********** Date: ? Place:? Time:? Jessie’s heart hammered wildly in her chest as she ran down the street for dear life. The pounding behind her continued, its pace quickening, the cracked road a trail easy to follow. She heard low growls being emitted, and she felt as if Godzilla were on her tail, ready to step on her and squish her like a mosquito. But the thing chasing her was much worse than that. Cars were crushed under its claws, people ran in terror, and even dogs stayed out of its way. Yet it pursued Jessie with an undying determination, yearning the taste of her blood, the blood he had been searching for. The blood that few had. Jessie turned around a corner and saw Jonny Quest standing there, her knight-in-shining-armor separated from her by a car. In a continuous move, she propelled herself from a bench, leaped over the vehicle, and landed in his arms, the security she felt in them calming her senses. She savored the smell of him, the feel of him holding her close. With Jonny, she was untouchable. She gazed up at his handsome face, which smiled back down at her with his notorious lopsided grin. Jessie held him tighter, wishing that he could magically transport her away from Ikaw. It was coming after her. But Jonny would slay it. He always slayed her dragons. Her gaze lingered on his face, until she saw it contort in sheer pain and horror. Blood trickled out of his mouth, and Jessie’s eyes widened in terror. He released her, and she watched as he knelt, his black turtleneck stained with the warm, red liquid. Jonny’s clear blue eyes looked into Jessie’s, as he mouthed the words that Jessie had never thought he’d say, never again would hear. “ I love you, Jess.” Taking his last breath, he fell to the ground. Then Ikaw stood triumphantly over Jonny Quest’s body, its newest trophy. Ikaw’s burning, red eyes observing her, a wicked grin on its face. It had the face of a human being, only covered with scales, its jet black hair long and flowing behind its back. “ Sa akin ka na, Jessie...” Ikaw said, before he pounced on her and ripped her flesh off her bones. Jessie screamed. ********** Date:? Place:? Time:? A creature howled loudly. It was a cry of triumph. A cry of victory. It bared its long, jagged fangs to the crescent moon, screaming as it remembered. The taste of winning. The taste of blood. So close... But a wild dream... ********** Penthouse Suite- Jessie’s room 3:32 A.M. Jessica Anne Bannon opened her eyes, her heart almost stopping, her breath short. She gasped loudly, unwilling to scream in absolute terror, but she was close. Oh so close. She wanted to scream. To yell. To holler. To create noise loud enough to wake the dead, just so she could get her mind off the terrible nightmare. The nightmare she had felt was so unbelievably real. She had felt Jonny, smelled him. She had tasted the blood she had drawn from herself when she had bitten her lip. Jessie had sensed Ikaw standing over her, had felt its claws coming in contact with her skin. And the blood. So much blood. It was agony. Jessie gasped for air, pulling her robe even tighter around her shoulders, wishing that it hadn’t been so. Her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms hugging her legs, she buried her head into her lap, sobbing uncontrollably as she remembered. Jonny’s blood. Gallons of it. Had dripped on her shirt, making the thin material of it stick to her body like crimson honey. She had felt it. The shirt, the thick, red liquid, Jonny’s body shuddering, turning limp, changing color. The look on his face was heart-stopping, and Jessie knew she couldn’t possibly banish that from her memory, just like she would always know what Ikaw had told her only the night before. * Ikaw ay susunod. Sa akin.* In this dream, he had told her something, too, something similar to what he had said the first night, only with slight differences. It was definitely in the same language, too. There was ‘ka na’ after ‘sa akin’. That was the difference. Jessie frowned though her tears and sobs remained relentless. This dream was way too weird to be the creation of her subconscious mind. How the hell was she supposed to know what language that creature spoke and just how in hell was she supposed to know what words it could say? She had shared this dream with someone. She had felt the presence of another in there, someone who knew what he or she was doing, who was watching the same events develop as Jessie. A spectator or an actor in her very vivid nightmare, Jessie didn’t know. There was only one thing she was sure of. She hadn’t been alone when she was dreaming. Oh no, there was certainly more than one person experiencing the same thing. There was a gentle knock on her door. “ Jessie?” a soft voice called out in the darkness of her room. “ I heard a noise. Are you okay?” She tried desperately to calm her sobs, to dry her tears, to will her eyes to lose their puffiness. Impossible if one has only a few seconds. Jonny Quest, clad only in pajama pants and a white undershirt, stepped into the room, his eyes glowing like blue beacons of concern. He scanned the room, and his eyes rested on his best friend, who was huddled against the backrest of her bed. Eyeing the sheets at the foot of the mattress, Jonny instantly recognized the situation, as he had lived it many times before. Irrefutable evidence of a nightmare. A pretty bad one, too, he guessed, judging from the mess of sheets and pillows on the floor, not just on the bed. His eyes flickered to his best friend, who now regarded him with huge, emerald eyes, her damp, red hair a curtain for her face. She looked at him with a pleading look, begging for him not to tell. He knew. He had asked her for the same favor whenever she discovered him in a similar state. Jonny moved swiftly to sit beside his best friend, smiling down at her as he put an arm around her shoulders. She was trembling. And even through her robe, Jonny felt that she was sweating profusely. Ikaw must have been a bigger blow to Jessie’s confidence and emotions than what he had assumed earlier. Jonny wanted to kick himself for not spotting the obvious. The way Jessie wouldn’t speak of Ikaw, the way she withdrew whenever they spoke about ‘the creature’, the manner in which she eyed the window every so often as if something would come popping right through it, the looks she cast now and then on the crescent moon, as if everything was dependent on it. She hadn’t been excited about this case. Not one inch. She had been frightened, which really scared the shit out of Jonny. Jessie Bannon wouldn’t be scared of the devil if she met him in a dark alley. She’d just whoop his ass and send him back where he belonged, and then she’d act as if she’d just finished making breakfast. But Ikaw... Ikaw was so different. Ikaw had killed Crow Redd, a well known criminal who could snap Jonny’s backbone in half like a twig if he so pleased. Crow Redd who could probably reduce even Race Bannon into a smoldering pile of ashes if he felt like it. Despite the man’s strength and resistance, Ikaw had killed him. As easily as a snake would eat a newborn mouse. It had completely shattered Jessie’s spirits, spirits both fragile and strong at the same time. Jonny couldn’t understand, wouldn’t understand, but he vowed he would take Ikaw down, even if he was as petrified of it as everyone else was. Even if he knew that Ikaw could destroy his very soul. “ Nightmare, Jess?” he whispered to her ear. He shifted them around, making Jessie kneel in front of him with her back to his chest, as he knelt behind her. Gently, slowly, he began massaging her shoulders. “ Yeah,” she replied, sounding frail. “ It was horrible... Ikaw.” That one word sent a shiver down Jessie’s spine, and she sighed deeply. Jonny continued kneading her shoulders, trying to soften the brick-hard muscles he had discovered there. She was tense, and that was quite the understatement. “ Hey, don’t worry about it. Ikaw’s gone.” “ He knows where I am, Jonny.” Jonny wrinkled his brow, wondering where in the world all this came from. “ How do you know? He’s long gone by now.” Jessie shook her head, relaxing under Jonny’s skillful fingers. If she had nightmares each night, maybe it wasn’t *all* a bad thing. “ Ikaw has made some kind of a connection to me. I can feel it. I sensed that I was, well, I might sound crazy to you, Jonny, but in my dream, I felt like I wasn’t the only person who really knew what was going on, you know?” “ Actually, no, I don’t.” “ You know how in your dreams, you only see through one person’s eyes?” “ Yeah.” “ Well, I felt that there were two of us watching the same scene.” “ Two people having the same dream from different points of view?” “ Exactly.” “ Talk about Einstein theory of relativity,” Jonny muttered, as he felt a particularly solid muscle on Jessie’s neck not softening as he massaged it. “ Hmm,” Jessie whispered, her eyes closing. “ What’s ‘hmm’ supposed to mean?” Jonny inquired, moving his hands down to her back. “ It means don’t stop,” Jessie said in a hushed voice. At the moment, heaven was on earth and Jonny was St. Peter. How she wished she could tell her best friend how she really felt, but it was way too risky... he probably would think that she was having some sort of immature crush on him... Jonny, in the meanwhile, knew this was getting way too dangerous. He was enjoying their closeness too much, and quite frankly, he knew he’d blow their friendship if this got any more comfortable than it was. “ So,” Jonny said cheerfully, trying to change the subject, “ who else do you know that was in the dream?” “ Ikaw. Just Ikaw.” ********** November 16 San Francisco Police HQ 8:30 A.M. “ Thank you for coming, Dr. Quest,” Lieutenant Jake Forge said as the phenomenologist entered the captain’s office. “ You’re very welcome, lieutenant,” Dr. Quest nodded grimly, willing to pass up the pleasantries. “ Coffee?” Forge offered. “ Sure. I’ll have it black.” “ Coming right up. Captain O’Connor’s taking care of some last-minute business,” Forge chatted, as he went to pour some coffee outside the office. Dr. Quest seated himself in the chair opposite the plaque that read Captain Alan O’Connor on the desk. He was anxious to begin examining what the police had found, and from what he’d heard, it was pretty darn unusual. Dr. Quest’s thoughts wandered to this morning, when he’d found the kids already up, but walking around like zombies. Then, the scientist shuddered at the simile. He’d encountered too many zombies to count, and he hadn’t like a single one of them. Not the ones that had killed the madman in Malenque, nor the ones that had tried to kill him and Jonny in Devon. The bearded scientist shook his head gravely, thinking back. This family faced danger more often in a month than a police officer in a whole year. It wasn’t necessarily a good thing, Dr. Quest noted. Jessie, Jonny, and Hadji had grown more mature than anyone else their age. At the ages of 14 and 15, they already had been assigned more responsibilities than a college graduate. It had to be hard on them, no doubt, and sometimes, Benton Quest wondered if he’d somehow stolen his children’s innocence. Stolen their youth. They would never experience the things that normal teenagers went through, as the Quest kids already had enough experience to amaze a man of 70. Dr. Quest wasn’t sure if lack of adolescent situations was something he should be rooting for, because it did have its disadvantages. Drugs, alcohol, sex, peer pressure, violence, adventure... Dr. Benton Quest shook his head once more. No, the last two words had entwined themselves in his children’s lives, and without them, Dr. Quest imagined that life might be excruciatingly boring for Jessie, Jonny, and Hadji, the former two especially. “ I’m sorry I’m late, Dr. Quest,” a deep, gruff voice said, abruptly startling the phenomenologist in his seat. “ Captain Alan O’Connor, San Francisco Police Department. Call me Alan, Dr. Quest.” “ Then call me Benton, Alan,” the man with the rust-colored hair smiled slightly. The captain duly extended his hand, which Dr. Quest shook firmly. Dr. Quest inspected the man, who stood at the same height as himself. With dark brown hair cut short to the extremes, magnetic blue eyes, and a determined jaw, the captain was an unforgettable man. Benton Quest judged him to be in his forties as his laugh lines and forehead seemed to tell, and he was a sturdily built man, as well as handsome, in a unique sort of way. But Captain O’Connor was definitely unforgettable. The strength of his handshake, his solid expression, and his apparently cool demeanor added to that as well. “ Benton, it is,” Alan nodded, as he gestured for his ‘guest’ to take a seat. The two sat at opposite ends, and the case entered the discussion instantly. From what Alan O’Connor had heard, Dr. Quest was always honest and straightforward, and he had a brilliant mind to match his wealth. Perhaps this was the one person that Alan could actually reveal *the* secret to. *The* secret Alan didn’t want to remain buried forever. It was a burden too great for one man to carry. As the conversation went on, and they discussed the scientific side of the evidence discovered, the captain was mulling over a decision. Dr. Quest was all that his files had declared him to be, and more. * In good time,* Captain Alan O’Connor thought. * All in good time.* ********** Penthouse Suite 8:59 A.M. “ Ready, Ace?” “ As I’ll ever be, Hotshot.” “ You sure about this?” “ Couldn’t be more certain.” “ You okay after last night?” “ Yeah.” “ You sure?” Exasperated, Jessica Bannon glared at him. “ Jonathan Benton Quest, do you or do you not want this operation to go smoothly?” Jonathan Quest meekly nodded in response. “ So shut up,” she hissed. “ Sorry,” he raised his hands defensively. “ I’m just trying to... be sure. That you’re okay, ya know?” Jessie sighed. As much as she wanted to get mad at him, she couldn’t. And as much as she wanted to slap that lopsided grin off his face, it was against nature. She loved him too much, and those crystal baby blue eyes... she knew she could drown in them if she wasn’t careful. Could she possibly care for someone as deeply as she did for Jonny Quest? Probably not. It was so difficult to resist the blonde young teenager. He had grown up to be something of a ladies’ man, so much like Jessie’s own father. In fact, he was too much like Race Bannon, and that fact made it very scary. * Maybe we *were* switched at birth,* Jessie mused wryly. With that, she stuck her head out the front door to the suite and glanced around for the security guard. The halls were mercifully empty. Her father had probably decided not to hang around any longer, waiting for them to follow him as he knew they would. Jonny and Jessie were notorious for being impatient. The two had kept their impatience at bay, long enough to assure Race Bannon that they were not following. Perhaps they had also stayed in long enough to assure even the security guard that it was safe to take a short bathroom break. Now was the time... And then Jessie’s fear of Ikaw hurtled itself back into her conscious mind, and the sly grin she had on vanished as she realized the purpose of their sneaking around. She was actually going to throw herself into the dragon’s lair, dragging Jonny in with her, then rolling a boulder across the entrance so that no one, not even the two of them, could escape. Jessie prayed that she was wrong, that Ikaw were not so powerful. That the nightmares she had envisioned were never to be. That Jonny Quest would indeed someday say the words she so wanted to hear. That Ikaw would not destroy her life. Her love. Her very soul. She had the sinking feeling that she was wrong. Oh, so hopelessly wrong... Like it so far? Actually made it so far? Don’t like it so far and you wish you’d never set your eyes on the likes of my fanfic/trash? Well then send all crazy comments and/or persistent praise and/or queer questions and/or, well, not really, infuriating insults to... nova247@hotmail.com Oh, and while you’re doing that, I’ll just pray that I’ll actually finish this thing... ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ******************************************************************** * The Jonny Quest mailinglist jq@edc.ml.org * ******************************************************************** * To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to: majordomo@edc.ml.org * * with the message: unsubscribe jq subject is ignored * ********************************************************************