Attack and Counterattack
A Speed Racer Fanfic by "Freddo"
Chapter Twelve "Toward El Tigre: Darkness in the
Jungle"
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First…Reiterating some copyrights and credits....etc….
Speed Racer is (c) 2005 by Speed
Racer Enterprises.
Star Blazers is (c) 2005 by
Voyager Entertainment.
Doctor Who is (c) 2005 by the
British Broadcasting Corporation. I don't own any of these properties...Freddo
Second…Sorry I’ve been away so
long; a lot of work and some health problems kept me from getting back to this
as soon as I had liked; not to mention the fact that I lost one rough draft of
this chapter when one of my PC’s crashed a few months back…I’d like to thank
you for being patient, and thank you for enduring what will be quite a long
installment…Freddo
July 16, 1968
Space Battleship Argo
Sickbay
0310 Hours (Local Time)
It
was a depressing scene in the Argo’s
Sickbay.
Nova
lay semi-conscious on a bed in a hospital gown, receiving a drug and saline
solution through an IV to counteract the overdose of Malanite that the R’Khells
had given her.
However,
even as Speed watched Wildstar looking at his wife with concern in his eyes, he
felt sick.
Trixie
was gone.
He
was aware that the R’Khells had taken her…and the globe.
He
was also filled with rage, because Wildstar’s Space Marines had discovered
evidence that Snake had assisted in the kidnapping of Trixie. The evidence had
been some security camera video taken by a camera in the ceiling of the
corridor they had been in. At the moment, a sleepy Nova was verifying the story
for the Commodore as he gently asked her questions.
Finally,
Wildstar said to Speed, “Now we know who was involved: the Master, Snake, and
the R’Khells. They used the Master’s ship to get away.”
“It’s
hopeless,” said Speed. “We’ll never catch up to them, now…they could
be…anywhere…”
“Not
quite,” said the Doctor, who had shown up again. “I have a fix on where the
Master is; the only logical place he could go with the sphere if we wants to
use it.”
“Where?”
asked Sparky.
“
“And if you can’t stop
him?” asked Sparky.
“Then we lose, and
existence as we know it will probably end,” said the Doctor.
“Wonderful,” said Speed.
“Of course, my existence is coming to an end,
anyway…they’ll probably kill Trixie…”
“No need to give up hope,”
said the Doctor. “We can still get you there in time…”
“How?” said Speed.
“The Argo can do it,” said Wildstar. “It will be a bit tricky to
arrange, but we can still carry out our plan. We were planning to drop you off
in
“So, the idea is to catch
up to them before they get there…” mused Speed.
“If they are going
overland, it’ll take them about twenty hours from the edge of Kapetopac,” said
the Doctor. “Then, again, the Master could have taken them there already…in his
TARDIS…he could…already be there…if…”
“If what?” said Speed.
“They could be there now,”
said the Doctor. “Which means we can’t take the Mach Five; we can’t fit her
through the doors of my TARDIS since my Chameleon Circuit doesn’t work, but his
does…”
“I think I know what you’re
thinking,” said Wildstar. “Let me have Hemsford prepare a squad of Marines…I
can go, Speed can go, you, of course, will go…Sparky can go…”
“I’m going,” said Nova.
“No, you’re not well enough
yet!” said Doctor Sane.
“Doctor, Trixie will need a
medic, particularly if she’s hurt or dosed with any medication,” said Nova.
“Derek, I can do it. Order him to let me go!”
“I’ll have to think about
that…”
“I wonder where Spritle and
Chim-Chim are?” said Sparky.
“I wonder where my TARDIS
key is?” mused the Doctor as he slapped at his
pockets….
“How do you
open this thing, Chim-Chim?” said Spritle as he worked with the TARDIS key he
had picked from the Doctor’s pocket
He had seen
the TARDIS arrive earlier; it was currently in the form that it had been stuck
in for quite a few years; the form of a blue London Metropolitan Police Box,
hidden in the Argo’s mechanical
engineering labs.
The “Police
Box” was about the size of a 1960’s American telephone booth, with double doors
that seemed to be made out of wood. Of course, the doorway was too narrow to
take the Mach Five into, but two people could enter the TARDIS abreast, if they
squeezed a bit.
Chim-Chim
chattered as Spritle worked the strange-looking key into the brass lock on the
TARDIS’ front door, near the plaque that said POLICE TELEPHONE FREE FOR USE OF
PUBLIC: ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY—OFFICERS AND CARS RESPOND
TO ALL URGENT CALLS – PULL TO OPEN.
Out of
curiosity, Chim-Chim pulled at a handle by the plaque: a small hatch opened,
and the monkey found a telephone, which he began to chatter into. Then he went
“Boop-vroop?” as he raised his brows questioning Spritle as he worked at the
lock.
“Why? There
might be candy in here,” said Spritle. “Besides, wherever that old guy is
going, I wanna be there to help…”
Spritle
finally got the lock open just as footsteps could be heard outside nearby in
the corridor just outside the lab. “Let’s hide in here and see where that weird
guy hides his candy…and also see how he makes this thing appear and…”
“….d…d..disappear,” said Spritle in awe
as he crossed the dimensional threshold and found that…
…the gleaming
white control room of the TARDIS was far bigger on the inside than it was on
the outside.
“WOW!” said
Spritle. “Chim-Chim, they were right! That old guy IS from outer space! And
this thing is magic!” he said as he circled the large hexagonal control panel
that surrounded the TARDIS’ Time Rotor; a huge clear column blinking with
lights and odd devices. A strange humming noise filled the Ship.
“Maybe this
thing will give us candy?” asked Spritle as he poked at a few buttons. Some of
the buttons and lights changed color, but no candy seemed to be forthcoming
from the control panel. Spritle then left the key on the control panel and
said, “Let’s look through that door for the candy machines…”
Chim-Chim
agreed with him, and he and Spritle ran off as the others came in…
The Doctor,
Speed, Sparky, Wildstar, Nova (who was back in her regular uniform), Hemsford, and
about twenty Space Marines entered the control room a minute later.
“I wonder who
opened the door,” said the Doctor as he looked around; and noticed his TARDIS
key sitting on the control panel. “Hullo. There it is!” he said as he shut the
doors by pulling a red lever on the console. “I say; who’s been messing about
with my ship?”
“Where could
someone go to hide in here?” asked Sparky.
“It’s
immense, and I’ve been in here once before,” said Wildstar.
“You could
hide anywhere in this ship,” said Nova. “I think these corridors go on for
miles…”
“Three
hundred and eighty, to be precise,” said the Doctor.
“What?” said Speed.
“There’s
three hundred and eighty miles’ worth of corridors in my TARDIS; been a few
hundred years since I’ve checked them all out, oh, this is bad, this is very,
VERY bad….”
“What’s bad?”
asked Lieutenant Hemsford; the platoon leader of Wildstar’s current Space
Marine contingent. “And how big is this thing again?” asked the large
African-American. “And, how, sir, do you get all this inside such a small…”
“Dimensional
transcendentiality,” snapped the Doctor as he looked at the console. “Whoever
has been messing about with my ship has prepared it for a Time Ram by sheer
chance…”
“What’s
that?” asked Wildstar.
“A method of attack that could destroy the ship; and everything around
it. They’ve taken the energy source, which feeds off the Eye of Harmony…”
“That is?”
asked Sparky.
“Bugger your
questions!” snapped the Doctor as he worked. The old man was sweating as he
changed control settings. “If this ship goes up, Wildstar, it will create a
massive wave of time-space disturbance that would most surely solve our
problems for good…with a rather nasty effect…”
“What is…that
rather nasty effect?” asked Nova meekly.
“It will
create a black hole that will suck this ship, your spacecraft,
Speed looked
around, and found a slingshot near a door. “Spritle!” he yelled. “That little
brat’s probably looking for candy! Spritle!” yelled Speed as he stuck his head
down a corridor. “Come back!” he yelled, his voice echoing down the huge space.
“Too late to
bother now,” said the Doctor as he worked and the sound of the humming changed.
“Reversed it, just in time, now, everyone, SIT!” he yelled.
“Why?” said
Sparky.
The Doctor
worked and then pressed one final button. The Time Rotor began to move up and
down, and he said, “We’re on our way to El Tigre now! If you don’t sit down,
the TARDIS could knock you about for a bit…..”
And, outside,
there was a sudden wheezing noise as the light atop the TARDIS began to flash.
At that, the
ship dematerialized and disappeared from the Argo. Inside, the ship rocked under their feet as it went off into
the Vortex.
Speed had the
feeling this was going to be a very strange ride…
In the
meantime, in the jungle, the Master’s TARDIS appeared.
“Great job,
huh?” said Snake Oiler as he dragged an unconscious Trixie around like a sack.
“No, not a
great job,” mused the Master. “Something threw me off course! We were aiming
right for the pyramid! Karnaz, were you playing games with my controls?”
“I was not,”
said Karnaz. “And we have something to settle before we step outside.”
“What?”
snapped the Master.
“We must
settle who is in command here,” said Karnaz as he and his men quietly surrounded
the Master with drawn blasters. “There are six of us,” said Karnaz as he
pointed at himself, Viggatz, Ratzen, and the other surviving members of Team
Rouge who were there, “One of you, and two stupid humans. And there is one
globe…”
“You can have
this,” said the Master as he threw a
crystal globe onto the deck before a shocked Snake. “Take it, and leave. Do you not think I have other
means of accomplishing my mission? Means that do not include
you or your moronic sacred artifacts?”
“Why, the
sacred globe of Ekogaru,” said Viggatz in awe. He felt drawn to the sphere.
“Let me have the honor, Commander Karnaz…”
Karnaz struck
him across the face. “Idiot! Only I can detect if it
is true or not,” said the R’Khell. Trixie slowly began to wake up as Karnaz
reached for the globe.
If I can get that, thought Trixie woozily… Maybe there’s some way I can get away with it…even if it costs me my
soul…I want to save everyone…especially Speed…
As Karnaz reached for the globe, Trixie jumped for it with a squeal.
“NO!!!”
yelled Viggatz. He shot at Trixie, but she rolled away from the shot.
Ratzen kicked
Trixie in the side. She screamed as she felt two ribs cracking, and she
struggled to get up as her fingers brushed the globe.
But, Ratzen
took it and then struck her across the face.
“How dare you
profane that?” said the R’Khell commander. He held it and said, “O, Lord
Ekogaru, let me feel your presence, and….WHAT? Nothing?”
“You see how
easy you are to fool?” said the Master with an evil smile. He slowly withdrew a
second globe with one hand. The other hand held a weapon; namely, his Tissue
Compression Eliminator.
“So, we both
have blasters,” said Karnaz as, unexpectedly, Snake crawled over to Trixie.
“What do you want?” she whispered.
“I wanted you
captured and I wanted you as a hostage; not permanently hurt.”
“How
chivalrous of you,” she said.
“Get out of
the way, damn you!”
“Why?”
“You don’t
wanna be nearby when those weapons go off,” he said. “And I don’t want you
dead.”
Somehow
trusting Snake’s judgment, Trixie crawled along with him to a corner of the
room, un-noticed by the aliens.
“So, we have
blasters, both of us,” said the Master. “Why don’t you fire first?”
“I will, you V’ranshanda! KIRRATZ!” yelled Karnaz in his own language.
The R’Khells
all fired…at once.
The Master
leaped upwards and did a somersault in mid-air as six laser beams converged on
the spot where he had been.
The shocked
R’Khells tried to react as the Master landed on his booted toes. Then, with an
evil smile, he activated his weapon and spun it around at the R’Khells.
Viggatz was
the only one to escape; he ran out the TARDIS doors as the beam hit Ratzen.
Trixie sat
open-mouthed as Ratzen suddenly turned…
…into a shriveled husk that looked like a small doll. The same fate befell
“Here, human,
do you want Karnaz?” said the Master as he picked him up and threw his smoking,
shrunken form at Trixie. “I understand that you females fancy playing with
dolls.”
“You are horrible!” cried Trixie.
“You can have
this, too,” he said as he kicked the false globe at her. “It’s a fake. You may
enjoy playing with it with your boyfriend. He is on his way, you know. Not that he can do much in regards to my plans.”
“What are
your plans?” sneered Snake as he got up.
“You’re a
persistent one, aren’t you?” he whispered. He stared at Snake and said, “I am
your Master. You shall sleep. You shall sleep now!”
Snake fought
the impulse for a moment, but then he fell asleep with open eyes. “Now, awake,
and tie her up,” said the Master.
“Be silent,”
said the Master as he stared at Trixie. “Yes…obey…”
Unable to
resist the weird alien impulse, Trixie was struck dumb, but she remained
conscious as the hypnotized form of Snake Oiler tied her up with some rope.
“My plan?”
said the Master. He looked at his control panel and said, “Now I see why we are
off course…ten miles away from the Pyramid….we hit the edge of a forming Time
Ram field in the Vortex. Nice try, Doctor. Glad you were able to break away
from your Terran pets long enough to try something ruthless…and suicidal. Yes,
Doctor…I take off my hat to you. But you cannot stop me now. Our race now ends. It ends at the El Tigre Pyramid. It is
fortunate it ends there. The reason why is because the ley lines of the Earth
intersect strongly at that point at the equator, creating a magnetic zone of
turbulence that will, if I turn the globe ninety degrees when placing it in the
pyramid, enable me to harness all of the block transfer equations that underlie
the structure of the Universe. When I have those equations in my power, I will
be able to force the Universe to surrender…to my will…or, if it will not
surrender, I can simply erase this Universe, and start over again. Yes, I can
rewrite the verses of the Terrans’ Scriptures, “In the beginning, God made the
heavens and the Earth”, and rewrite them to read, “In the beginning, I, the
Master, wrought a new heavens and a new Earth! And then, all will worship me!
Godhood awaits me!”
Trixie shivered at the
Master’s blasphemy as he laughed a cold, vicious laugh like a madman while he
turned to the controls of his ship. God,
I don’t pray all that much, she thought. But, if You can hear me, please help me put a
stop to this. This man is utterly mad!
July 16, 1968
The Doctor’s TARDIS
Food Preparation Area
0522 Hours (Local Time)
Spritle had found exactly
what he had wanted to find.
A candy
machine.
Well, he guessed it was
one. It was a large device that had pictures of different foods on it near red
buttons. He pressed the one that was near an item that looked like a chocolate
bar inside a wrapper and he pressed once.
To his delight, a chocolate
bar came out.
Then, he pressed the button
again Chim-Chim needs one, he
thought.
A second one came out. He
fed it to Chim-Chim, and locked the device open by banging on the button again.
As he greedily ate his
candy, another one came out. Followed by another, and
another.
He hid them in his
coveralls as Speed showed up.
His brother demanded, “What
are you doing?”
“Uh…Speed, I’m okay…”
“What are you up to?”
“Getting
candy.”
“You know you’re in a lot
of trouble? When you pushed all of those buttons out there, you caused the ship
to go into Time Ram mode, and you almost blew us up!”
“I’m sorry,” said Spritle with
downcast eyes…as more candy came out of the alien food processor. The candy
bars were starting to pile up on the floor, as they had filled up the hopper at
the bottom of the machine. Chim-Chim grabbed at one as two more fell out onto
his paw.
“You deserve a spanking!”
said Speed.
“Isn’t that usually
Trixie’s job?” said Spritle. “Where is she?”
Speed went silent and shut
his eyes in pain.
“Speed…where’s
Trixie gone?”
“The enemy…captured her. I
think she’s in terrible pain right now…or maybe…she’s…dead…”
“Dead..?”
Speed nodded as tears ran
down his cheeks.
At that, Spritle began to
scream and cry. “I loved Trixie!” he yelled. “Please, God don’t let her be
dead!”
“She…I don’t want to think
about it…,” said Speed. “And Sandor gave me this,” he said as he pulled
something out of his pocket. It was a small box.
“What is it?” sobbed
Spritle.
“An engagement ring he
made,” said Speed. “Spritle…I…I was gonna ask her to marry me…today…but how can
I, if…?”
Sprite nodded sadly. “Let
me stop this machine. Suddenly, I don’t want any more candy.” He banged on the
button. More candy came out. “Speedy! I can’t stop it! I…”
The Doctor stuck his head
in the room. “We’re two miles away from the El Tigre Pyramid, Speed. It was the
closest I could get it, thanks to this jungle. Are you ready to go?”
“I guess so,” said Speed as
he put Trixie’s ring back in his pocket.
“Speed, c’mon,” said
Sparky.
“Yeah…”
“But the candy machine!”
yelled Spritle.
“A stowaway?” said the
Doctor. “Are you aware, young man, what you almost did to my ship?”
“I can’t stop this candy
machine,” said Spritle.
“I mean, when you were
pressing buttons in the control room,” said the Doctor as he looked at the
machine. He suddenly comprehended that his food processor was making enough
candy bars to fill the alcove ankle-deep. “There, that’ll do it,” he said as he
banged the machine a certain way with his fist…and the candy stopped. “It needs
repair. It has been doing that for the past…oh…three hundred years. Sparky, you
will keep these little hellions in here. Speed, come with me. The nerve of
them, causing a Time Ram by pushing buttons, almost destroyed the Earth with
it, they did…”
“Are we in trouble?” asked
Spritle as they were left alone with Sparky.
“I think you are,” said
Sparky. “I really think you are…”
Outside, the Doctor took a
sniff of the deep jungle air. He was followed by Commodore Derek Wildstar,
Nova, Hemsford and his men, and Speed.
Speed looked gloomily at a
path in the jungle that was marked with a yellow flag. “This was where the race
was supposed to end,” he said.
Wildstar started as he
heard footsteps coming out of the jungle. “Everyone, look sharp!” he snapped.
He and Nova pulled their blasters, followed by the Marines.
Three battered-looking men
in Brazilian Army fatigues emerged from the jungle with their hands up. Their
leader, a bearded man who was covered with sweat, ran up to the Doctor yelling,
“Perigo, Perigo
Grande!”
“What?” asked Derek.
“Portuguese,” said Nova. “Danger, great danger!”
“What is this?” said the
Doctor.
“perigo, perigo grande. Nativos selvagens,” said
their leader. “Não entre na selva. Somente três de nós sobreviveram. São headhunters.”
“Headhunters?”
said the Doctor. “Interesting…”
The
sergeant continued in anguished Portuguese as his two survivors took canteens
of water from the Space Marines. “Devem ter cancelado a raça por causa dos headhunters! Estão guardando a
pirâmide do EL Tigre. Nós guardávamos o último ponto de verificação e a linha
de revestimento. Não vá promover.”
“What’s
going on?” asked Derek. “Nova, this isn’t my language…”
“He says that they were
guarding the finish line of the race until a band of headhunters drove them
off,” said Nova. “He says they were guarding the El Tigre Pyramid. Great.”
Nova stepped forward, nodding as the
Doctor asked the Portuguese leader, “Quantos
homens você tem, e quantos homens você tem? Pode você falar o inglês?”
Nova added, “Você necessita a atenção médica?”
“Yes, I speak English,
not good, though. We don’t need doctors, dear girl;
the dead men do. Or did. But they
dead. There was squad of twenty of us, my old sir. I think they were
over a hundred. They had spears and blowguns. Very bad men.
I am Sergeant Vicente Fernandez, and this is Private Piura and Corporal
Alvorado. I’m only one here who speaks English. Americans?”
“You
could kinda say that,” said Hemsford. “We’re Marines.”
“Don’t
go in that jungle. Great danger. And also…they…they…”
Then, Piura burst in with, “O trovão que nós nos ouvimos antes,
sergeant, o trovão. E shakling à terra. E o que o nativo nos disse.”
“Thunder,
earthquake,” said the Doctor. “What did the native tell you?”
“He
told us they were at war with something trying to invade their sacred jungle,”
said Sergeant Fernandez.
“What?”
said Speed.
“O diabo, diabo, diabo!”,
said Corporal Alvorado.
“He
says, ‘The devil’,” said Nova.
“Sounds appropriate, given our friend. I think the Master is
making the locals even more restless than usual,” said the Doctor. “Sergeant,
your men are safe with us. Follow us. We are a special mission.”
“Where
are you going?” asked Sergeant Fernandez.
“To
El Tigre,” said Wildstar. “We have to get there.”
“And
no,” said Nova. “We’re not crazy. We have to do this. For the sake of us all….”
“I
know where he is,” said the Doctor. “Let’s go.”
The
Doctor walked off down the jungle path alone. The force of the old Time Lord’s
will was such that the others followed him after only a moment’s hesitation.
He
seemed to know where they were going. And, somehow, the others had confidence.
Why?
It
was the aura he gave off. After all, he was the most intelligent of the group.
As
they walked on, a depressed Speed wondered if Trixie was alive or not.
Trixie, he thought. If you’re dead, I guess the rest of us are
going to join you…and very soon, at that.
What will happen next?
What is Snake’s agenda? Is Trixie safe from
him?
What will the Master do? Will he beat the
Doctor to the pyramid?
And what might the surviving R’Khells be up
to?
Can Speed help our friends win and save the
planet?
Stay tuned for Chapter Thirteen where we
will conclude with: "Hell in the Jungle"
TO BE CONTINUED....
To Return to the Introduction for "Attack and Counterattack" click here