SHADOW RAIDERS - JQ:TRA X-OVER LEGACY © 2000 Farihah Mohammed PROLOGUE: Jessie looks out the window, past the rim of the nearby forest, to a sparkling expanse of blue-grey silk embedded with glittering diamonds that are reflected in her eyes. The pale orange-yellow hue of a burning ball of fire dips slowly into a black abyss at the edge of the silken vision. She looks beyond it, remembering a girl of blue-grey crystal, a boy of burning flame and their war against the darkness of the abyss, the void, the Beast. A man stands in a doorway across the room, seemingly mesmerized by the colors, reds, oranges, burning, fiery, threads of gold. A soft whimper echoes in the silence, the colors flash together, as if coursing over a waterfall. Jessie stares down at the tiny infant in her arms, as he nestles closer to her. She smells a faintly familiar scent and turns her head slightly as a smile enters her eyes. "Jon." The figure in the doorway approaches and stands beside her. His hand slips to the threads of gold he had but admired, his gaze takes in the bowed fiery red halo and the pale ivory bundle, softly sleeping, his wife and son. Jessie turns once more to the ocean beyond and the setting sun. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Zera turns her head to the nearby tiny form, once again in wonder. Pyros holds her hand as he sits on the bed beside her reclining form, looking to his son... their son. A clear crystal cradle holds the softly sleeping child. Across the room, Jade, Graveheart, Cryos, Tekla, Femur and Zula stand at the foot of Zera's bed, all staring at their newest arrival in awe. Within the cradle, the child lies, a son born of fire but not fire himself, of ice, but neither is he that. Lying unbeknownst of his meaning, innocently bearing an answer to an age old question of peace and identity... Lying *there*... a child of *stone*. Graveheart smiles. "A new era of peace is starting here, my friends, this child represents our heritage, a union of not two worlds but three. Three worlds of War." Zera looks again at the babe, 'One day, my son, I shall tell you the story of the two who gave you life...the two who gave me my love.' She looks at Pyros, lightly squeezing his hand, he turns to her, smiles and whispers, "Thank you, my love, For our son." They look once more at the sleeping infant. The room's occupants save the babe reflect on two heroes from the past that may have left but would never be forgotten, Jonny and Jessie, and silently say... 'Thank you'. SHADOW RAIDERS [WAR PLANETS] - JQ: TRA X-OVER LEGACY © 2000 Farihah Mohammed [PROLOGUE: previously sent it.] CHAPTER ONE: HADJI: Are you ready my friends? JONNY: You betcha, Hadj! JESSIE: Ready Hadji Jessie smiled and shook her head at Jonny's enthusiasm. Jonny Quest had too much energy for his own good. JESSIE: Glad to see you're so anxious to be beaten halfway around the known universe, Hotshot. HADJI: I thought this was a team game. JESSIE: Doesn't mean we gotta lose the art of competition. JONNY: Yeah right, Jess. Who're you calling competition? You'll be eatin' my dust. Hadji looked at his friends. 'Some things never change.' he thought. HADJI: Questworld log-on. Subjects Jonny Quest and Jessie Bannon. IRIS: 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. HADJI: Goin' hot. INSIDE QUESTWORLD [JB]: Eat your own dust, Quest. Ready Hadji. [JQ]: Very ready. REALITY HADJI: Loading Shadow Raiders: War Planets. IRIS: Game ready. Choose players. HADJI: Hmmm. I think Zera and Pyros best suit Jonny and Jessie's personalities, don't * you *, Iris? Hadji smiles, 'Stubborn, volatile, never agreeable, perfect match for Jessie and Jonny.' IRIS: Understood. Player choice complete. HADJI: Begin game sequence. IRIS: Game sequence. Initiated. INSIDE QUESTWORLD: Jonny and Jessie are transformed into Pyros [Jonny] and Zera [Jessie]. [JQ]: Whoa, the ice Princess. [JB]: And the hothead. [JQ]: Level 5, Iris. The Questworld mainframe environment is transformed into the darkness of space, planets and stars shining and visible against the dark contrast. Jonny and Jessie are each inside a fighter ship. [IRIS]: Beast drones approaching. [JQ]: I see them, Iris. Jessie fires the first shot, taking out a beast drone. [JB]: One up on you, Hotshot. Jonny fires and takes out two ships. [JQ]: You're living in the past, Ace. And so the game begins. REALITY: Hadji is monitoring the game's progress, when Dr. Quest's face comes over the nearby vid-com. DR. QUEST: Hadji, Shutdown all non-essential Questworld systems. We've just been alerted of a storm coming in. HADJI: Yes, Dr. Quest. Immediately. Hadji begins the shutdown sequence. HADJI: Iris, end game. His command is ignored; he tries to enter them manually. Still nothing. HADJI: What is going on? The system is locked up. He can't get in and he can't get them out. Hadji is trying to find a backdoor into Questworld when the room goes black. HADJI: What is going on here?! There is no power. Questworld has gone offline and the lights are out. Hadji rushes over to Jonny and Jessie. HADJI: Jonny, Jonny, can you hear me? Please. Jess, Jessie, wake up. Please. As Hadji pleads with them and shakes them to awareness, Jonny and Jessie begin to stir. HADJI: Thank God! I thought something had gone wrong with you. Are you both all right? The power is out and the back-up generator isn't coming online. Come on. We should go to the house and find Dr. Quest and Race. Neither Jonny nor Jessie moved, Hadji begins to worry. HADJI: * Are * you all right? Jonny and Jessie both start speaking at once, frantically speaking. in gibberish! Hadji is stunned and confused. HADJI: My friends. Please. Calm down. I do not understand. Hadji rests his hands firmly on both their shoulders in an attempt to give them a sense of tranquility. In a blinding flash, the lights go on. Jonny and Jessie rear back into their seats, silent. and panicked. looking wildly at the room and Hadji. Hadji looks at them and in their eyes he sees. fear. A sound in the doorway draws his attention away from his friends. Dr. Quest and Race stride into the room and as they do, Jonny and Jessie begin speaking again. Panicked gestures, their words still gibberish to the stunned onlookers. Then the two turn to each other and seem to be shouting at each other in gibberish, making angry gestures with their hands. Dr. Quest looks on and a slow realisation dawns on him, ' They seem to understand each other.' Dr. QUEST: What happened here, Hadji? In seconds, Hadji recounts the events that had transpired. Dr. Quest listens to him but also observes his son and Jessie, still seemingly arguing. He picks up several things. 'Arabic.? Gaelic?!.' Hadji finished explaining. HADJI: When they came to, they began speaking in this gibberish. DR. QUEST: Whatever they are speaking it isn't gibberish. I can hear undertones of Arabic, Gaelic and Celtic languages and variants of some others. Seeming to come to an agreement, Jonny and Jessie stop speaking,looking curiously at the figures across the room. Jessie stands and addresses them speaking in the odd language.She bows at the waist, hand extended, then she stops. She look sat her hand, turns it over, turns to Jonny and seems to see himfor the first time. She mutters something in this odd language and slips to the floor, unconscious. Jonny jumps out of his chair and catches her before she slips to the ground. He looks at her, concern obvious in his features. JONNY: Zera! Zera Ąstaviasasną Sčrtąkti! Sčrtąkti! Hadji looks confused for a minute. HADJI: Zera? Jonny kneels holding Jessie's head on his lap. DR. QUEST: Hadji, get Jessie's translator. Hadji still dazed, nods and turns away. HADJI: Yes, Dr. Quest. DR. QUEST: Iris. IRIS: Yes, Dr. Quest. DR. QUEST: Do you have a recording of the past few minutes? IRIS: Yes. DR. QUEST: Analyse Jessie and Jonny's speech patterns for known language traces. IRIS: Analysing data. Analysis complete. Traces of 51 different languages were identified. DR. QUEST: Just as I thought! RACE: You mean you know what's going on here, Doc? DR. QUEST: I have an idea. Hadji returns with the universal translation device Jessie had devised. DR. QUEST: Iris. Compile the data and construct a database of a possible list of meanings for reference for this new language. IRIS: Processing. Language database created. DR. QUEST: Download to the translator. Hadji inserts the chip. IRIS: Downloading. Complete. DR. QUEST: Now to try it out. Dr. Quest moves to where Jonny is kneeling, still repeating the same litany of words, He slips one of the translators about his son's ear and places the other on his won. Jonny is startled and looks up at him angrily. JONNY: What are you doing?! DR.QUEST: It works! Hadji, Race, I can understand him. RACE: Well, fur on a catfish. Race moves forward to take his daughter from Jonny so that they can revive her. Jonny refuses to relinquish his hold. DR. QUEST: She's his daughter, Son. Let him take her. Race and Hadji will help her. JONNY: * No *! She is * not * his daughter! She is the daughter of Cryos and the Princess of the Planet Ice and I am * not * your son! My father is dead!