Minx Ep. 03: The Sphere, Cenozoic Zone

Rising to her feet and striking a dramatic pose in one fluid movement, Minx scanned the spectators. The ape-men were getting excited, and she could see Butler slapping his hands atop the stone wall at the thought that Minx appeared to be winning the battle. The humans all looked concerned, except for one. Vanessa's eyes were fixed on the bounty hunter and there was nothing but loathing evident in the scarred woman's face.

The lizard backed away from the wall of the arena, shook its head several times and then turned about looking for its prey. Minx had little doubt that the creature would strike a deadly blow eventually.

"Hey, Vanessa!" the bounty hunter called out. "If you put a pair of tits on this thing do you think the guys would have trouble telling you two apart?"

The beast crept across the sand, cautious now.

"It's going to get you sooner or later, you bitch!" screamed Vanessa. "It's just a matter of time!"

"And it's just a matter of time before the guys start ignoring you and start taking the ape-women to bed! Have you thought about that? That scratch on your face hasn't added to your limited charms!"

"You're going to die!" screamed a furious Vanessa.

"Maybe, but did you know Paul offered to make me his queen? Fat chance of that happening to you with that ugly scar across your face!"

Vanessa picked up one of her spears and threw it at Minx with all of her strength, almost losing her balance and tumbling over the wall in her murderous fury. The bounty hunter dropped her sword, then stepped aside and caught the spear in mid-air with both hands. She spun around and then faced the lizard again, this time with a knowing smile.

The beast tensed its muscles and then let loose with another roar. Minx's arm came back and then shot forward, casting the spear straight down the throat of her would be devourer. The lizard jumped, and then jerked back in pain. Its front claws came up and tried to dislodge the spear, but it couldn't quite catch the wooden shaft in its talons.

Minx scooped up her sword and rushed forward. With the beast distracted she wanted to cut and slash the creature's hide as much as she could. Diving under it, she somersaulted again until she was underneath its belly. There she stabbed up again and again, grinning madly as a shower of red blood poured down upon her. The lizard tried to scuttle away, but it was already moving slower. The bounty hunter rolled under it and then stabbed again.

The watching crowd went silent as it became clear that Minx was about to kill the beast. The bounty hunter rolled aside as the hindquarters of the beast fell to the sand. Jumping to her feet, she lifted the sword over her head and prepared to deliver a killing blow. Shouts from the walls stopped her.

Atop the wall, many of the ape-man were jumping up and down in excitement. The humans were all rushing to Paul. Their leader looked confused. Butler and some of the ape-men leapt down into the arena and ran to Minx as the lizard gave a final gasp.

"Ship!"

"You're okay boss?"

"I'm fine. It looks like I'm living through this after all. I really don't need Dragon to rescue me..." Minx stared into the joyous face of Butler and remembered what Arachne had done for her, "but, thank him for doing his best."

"You bet, boss. Do you want me to tell him anything else?"

"Yes..." Thunder cracked and rumbled in the air above the village, interrupting Minx's words.

Everyone looked up as sheet lightning cascaded and sparked from one end of the sky to the other. Another peal of thunder startled everyone.

Minx grabbed Butler by the arms. "Forget the storm. Now's your chance to free yourselves!" She pointed her sword at Paul and his group. "Come on!"

The bounty hunter ran across the sand to the wall. She searched for a handhold and then began to climb. Suddenly the wall around her was covered with ape-men. She looked up to see spears fly over her presumably to strike doomed hominids behind and below her. She ground her teeth and continued to climb.

Butler somehow reached the top before her. She watched as a spear pushed into his chest. The wielder pushed, and Butler fell from the wall. Minx saw Miguel's face, twisted with fear and hatred, as he released the shaft of the spear and then stepped back and out of her line of sight.

Her hand grasped the top of the wall. She threw herself over the stones, hoping to catch one of the other humans by surprise, but they were gone. Ape-men were running everywhere as a continuous roar of thunder stretched out for at least ten seconds. Then the skies opened and an unimaginable torrent of water fell to the ground. Minx felt the rain battering at her painfully, but she ignored it.

Sheltering her eyes with her hands, she searched the village for any sign of her fellow humans. Spying a pale figure moving towards the sea, she chased after it. None of the ape-men came with her.

"Ship! Can you hear me?" she called out.

"Barely, boss! Stay where you are! Dragon will get there when he can!"

"No! One of them killed Butler! I'm going after them! But it's a terrible storm! A hurricane or a cyclone!"

"Boss! Get to shelter! Look for them afterwards!"

"Just let Dragon know what I'm doing!"

She followed the figure, or figures, as best she could and eventually came into the shelter of some mangroves. Once there, Minx leaned against a tree trunk. She was exhausted. The fight with the giant lizard had tired her, but chasing after a barely visible figure through a monsoon had sapped her remaining reserves. She sat down, hugged her knees to her chest and lowered her head. She promised herself that she would catch Butler's killer.

The ground seemed to sway underneath her. The rain flew first one way and then the other. Minx's eyes closed and, against her wishes, she drifted off to sleep.

XXXVI

Dragon had lost three of the pirates to carnivores on the long journey, but at last he led the remainder into the village of the ape-men. The hominids waved spears at him in clear hostility. He ordered the pirates to fire their laser pistols at the ground, and the cowed ape-men quickly fled to their huts.

The hyperman led his troop to the cliff wall, where five humans were lowering some ladders down so their rescuers could climb up.

"Come down here!" Dragon called up to them. "I won't tell you twice!"

He could hear the humans debating for a minute, then they all descended.

"Thank God you're here!" declared one man. "We were running out of food and these damn apes had us penned up. With you here we can teach them a lesson that they'll never forget!"

Dragon looked over the four men and one woman. They were all dressed in animal skin tunics and loin cloths. Each had a spear that looked to be coated in some substance, although whatever it was had dried out. The woman had a nasty scar on her face. The hyperman walked up to her, grabbed her chin and twisted her face away so he could take a good long look at her silhouette.

"Hey!" The woman batted his hand away and two of the men stepped forward.

"Oh, First Mate," called out Dragon in a pleasant voice, "tell them who you are and who I am."

Alice cleared her throat. "We are the surviving crew of the King Midas, a pirate ship that crashed inside this hollow world. He is our captain, a hyperman named Dragon."

The cave dwellers looked sceptical.

Dragon leaned toward the scarred woman. "You'd be Vanessa. Now, tell me where Minx is. If I don't like your answer I'm going to have you tied to a tree in the forest until something comes along and eats you."

"Now just one minute!" shouted out one of the men angrily. He stepped forward and pulled the frightened Vanessa back.

Dragon pulled out his laser gun, aimed it at the man's forehead and squeezed the grip, all in less than a second. A beam of ruby light appeared briefly. Then the man collapsed, like a marionette with its strings cut.

"Anyone else having any doubts about who is in control here?" asked Dragon calmly. Everyone looked at him in fear, including Alice and the pirates. He put the laser pistol back in its holster. "Good. Now I've had a long and tiring journey. I'm looking for Minxamallia Lazer. If I don't start to get answers I'll kill more of you useless humans. I'll become more inventive with each killing."

"Minx is dead," stated Vanessa, her voice shaking in fear. "Along with two of our men, Paul and Miguel."

"Paul? Ah, yes," said Dragon thoughtfully. "Better for him that he is dead, if he is really dead." He turned to face Vanessa. "I'm not sure that I like your answer, my dear."

A tremor shook through the woman's body. "We think Minx was chasing after Paul and Miguel, and they were all washed out to sea during the storm."

"Ship?" asked Dragon.

"Yes, master of my beloved Hephaestus?" responded the vessel through his implant. The cave dwellers were confused by the odd behaviour exhibited by the hyperman, while the pirates just simply waited for him to finish conversing with the artificial intelligence.

The hyperman frowned. "Ship, is she dead?"

"I don't know. She went incommunicado once before after she'd been hit right on her implant. I hope that's what has happened, but it seems very unlikely for it to happen twice. She hasn't tried to talk to me and I haven't been able to reach her."

"Thank you, Ship." Dragon turned to one of the pirates. "Rod, what do you think of this woman? Does the scar make her unattractive?"

"No, Captain. I don't have to look at her face while I'm screwing her."

"Fine. She's yours." He looked over the men. "Alice, you've been a very loyal and reliable first mate. Which of these men most pleases your eye?"

Alice eyes opened wide. She glared at the back of Dragon's head for a second and then a cold smile spread upon her lips. "That one," she said, pointing to a blond-haired man.

"He's yours then. Enjoy him." He turned to cave dwellers. "If any of you disobey your new masters they're going to turn you over to me. After what you did to Minx I'm going to think up some very creative punishments."

Dragon paced the ground for a full minute as he considered what he should do next. The others waited in complete silence.

"First Mate, put these remaining humans to work. Have them build a palisade around the village. I want those hominids taught farming. Alice, you're in charge of daily activities. If anyone disobeys you they will answer to me. Now go."

The humans rushed off, leaving Dragon alone. He wondered if Arachne had survived the storm. If Minx were dead then she would surely want him to watch over the giant spider. Also, if Minx really were dead, he had to find a way to escape this world and take Ship with him. He'd free Hephaestus, too.

As illogical as it sounded though, he didn't believe she was dead. He just couldn't imagine the universe without her.

"By the stars, I need her!" he shouted at the sky. As he said it he realized that he did need her, and not as the mother of a race of galactic overlords but as his partner. The thought that she might be dead made his innermost desires crystal clear. He briefly considered the irony that despite possessing the higher intelligence of a hyperman, he had just learned a simple lesson of life as slowly as if he were merely human. Minx had been correct: his people weren't superior, they just thought they were.

Dragon pulled out his binoculars and scanned the shoreline for bodies. He walked to the sea and searched again. There was a lot of debris, and he could spend a long time picking through it. Then he remembered that he had people that could do that for him.

He turned his binoculars to the sea itself. What monsters might lurk in those depths, he wondered. There was debris upon the now-calm sea itself. In some places he could spy sharks and long-necked saurians hunting for land animals amongst the flotsam.

Then he spied it. There was a large floating mass of trees well out on the waters. He scanned the shore and found the likely spot where it had all been torn loose by the storm surge. Bringing the strange raft into view again, he stared at it for a long time. There appeared to be a wind pushing the mass of vegetation away from him, he guessed to wash up on the other side of this sea.

Although he believed in a universal creator, as did all hyperpeople, he had never thought that praying to such a being would actually bring anything. He was sorely tempted to ignore rational thought and pray at that moment.

Suddenly, there was a movement at the treeline. He focussed his glasses. It was a human, but too far away to see exactly who it was.

"I'll need a boat," he said to himself, "and information."

The end.

Minx will return in Episode 4: The Sphere, Mesozoic Era.