Dogman: Supertracker

Dr Klepperman, a grey haired, 60 year old experimental physicist looked on, shaking his head with dismay as his atomic replicator reduced yet another 20 dollar bill to atoms.

 

“No, no”, he said putting his hands over his eyes and almost weeping tears through them, “It won’t work. It just won’t work. It’s impossible to make a molecular duplicate of the bank note without destroying the original”.

 

His daughter, Anya put her hands upon his shoulders desperate to comfort him.

 

“What are we to do father?”, she asked.

 

“I don’t know”, her father replied, shaking his head; his voice and his face full of despondency, “The Dragon wants me to create an atomic duplicating machine for him and if I cannot do that who knows what he will do. He is a ruthless, cold hearted criminal, Anya”.

 

Then he added with a fierce determination, picking up a wrench from the floor of their warehouse prison, “But I promise this, daughter, I shall die before I let him do anything to harm you”.

 

“Don’t give up hope father”, said his daughter, “Who knows? Perhaps the Police will save us or even… even a masked hero like Dogman, the supertracker. They say that he has super developed senses just like a dog; that he can track anyone, he finds missing people all the time and you are an important, world famous physicist, father, I’m sure that Dogman is looking for us at this very moment”.

 

But then they both heard the sound of the large, vertically sliding warehouse door being electronically raised and saw the long armour plated dragon mobile returning and then, one of the dragons red uniformed and dragon masked henchmen opening a gull wing door and getting quickly  out of the front passenger seat, he opened the door for his master and the scientist and his daughter saw the face of the dragon emerging from the back seat of the car and both felt a shudder go through them.

 

Then the burly, red haired; green eyed and grim faced crime lord, whirling an ivory handled swagger stick with a coiled dragon carved upon it, turned to face Dr Klepperman.

 

“I trust you have made progress with your duplicating machine, Doctor?”, said the crime lord, “Since I last spoke to you”.

 

“Yes”, lied the old man, “It just needs some adjustments. Some fine tuning that is all. I promise it will be ready. Just a little more time, please”.

 

“Time is money, Dr Klepperman”, said the crime lord, angrily, “And I have already sank a great deal of money into this venture; buying you all the laboratory equipment and parts that you requested at black market prices. I expect to see results, soon and I am not a man that you want to disappoint, Doctor, please remember that”.

 

“Yes”, replied the Doctor, timidly, “I…I do”.

 

But then the Dragons disposition changed, becoming more amiable and his green eyes gleamed with a passionate intensity.

 

“Believe in yourself, doctor”, he said, “Faith in one’s self, that is the key to success. I arrived in this country with nothing but the shirt on my back but I believed in myself and today I have power and wealth that most men can only dream of and you and your daughter can share some of that wealth and power if you do a good job for me. With your atomic duplicating machine I can revolutionise the art of forgery and counterfeiting for the 21^st Century and become the richest man upon this Earth”.

 

The scientist’s daughter glared fiercely towards the criminal,

 

“My father has already told you he is trying his best”, she said, her voice filled with passionate anger.

 

Dr Klepperman put a gentle restraining hand upon his daughters elbow,

 

“Anya, please…”, he said, “You’ll only make things worse”.

 

But then the blazing green eyes of the Dragon looked deep into those of the young woman and she saw, for just an instant, something behind his face; the face of something not human; something dark and evil and reptilian; the face of a dragon and, her heart fluttering with cold fear; an icy numbness washing over her whole body; suddenly the fierce anger went from her eyes and instead she was pale and trembling.

 

“Anya, what’s wrong?”, asked Dr Klepperman noticing the change that had come over her; the sudden deep fear in her face.

 

“She has just seen the face of the dragon”, said the crime lord, “That’s all, doctor. Some criminals wear masks to hide their face. I wear a face to hide something else”.

 

The scientists daughter sat down in a chair beside her father’s machine, placing a hand upon her chest; staring down at the floor in silence; her eyes full of confusion and terror and Dr Klepperman worried that the stress of their kidnapping and imprisonment might have taken a heavy toll upon his daughters mind.

 

But then the Doctor and his daughter; everyone in the warehouse, heard a loud commotion coming from outside; the sound of piled packing crates crashing onto concrete; of men’s voices in an uproar and machine guns being fired and then, the door at the front of the warehouse sliding open again one of The Dragons many red masked henchmen entered, stumbling towards them before collapsing at the crime lords feet.

 

“What happened to that man? What’s going on outside?”, barked the Dragon; his face rapidly becoming a blazing crimson colour.

 

But then another of the Dragons men came running into the warehouse.

 

“Sir, Dragon, sir”, said the man, babbling; panic in his voice and his limbs shaking, “It’s the Dogman, sir, the supertracker. He has already over powered at least six of our men, at least I think…”.

 

Dr Klepperman sank to his knees beside his daughter and put his arms around her.

 

“Did you hear that, Anya”, he whispered to her, hopefully, “It’s just like you said. Dogman HAS come to save us”.

 

The dragon reached under his red velvet jacket and pulled out a handgun with a dragon carved upon the handle then, his free hand grabbing hold of and dragging Anya Klepperman to her feet, he pressed the long barrel of his gun behind her ear.

 

“Whatever this trackers super powers, I’m sure that like most masked heroes our Dogman is weighed down by the baggage of a conscience”, said the Dragon, “I on the other hand bear no such burden and am very willing to put a bullet through young Miss Klepperman’s head if he tries anything”.

 

 

Just then however, another of the dragons many masked guards entered carrying a blood stained mask, Dogman’s trademark Dog muzzle mask, in his left hand with a bullet hole between its two eyeholes.

 

“Dragon, Sir”, said the guard, bowing respectfully, “Dogman is dead. I put a bullet in his head myself”.

 

Hearing this, the dragon smiled, releasing Dr Klepperman’s daughter from his claw like grip and sliding his gun back under his jacket.

 

“Good work man”, said the Dragon, “Remind me to give you a promotion”.

 

But then, suddenly, the dragon masked minion raised his gun and placed it against his masters forehead.

 

“No thanks”, said the guard, using his other hand to tear off the dragon mask, revealing a dog faced one beneath, “The satisfaction of bringing you to justice will be enough for me”.

 

But then, suddenly, the hero seemed to see something odd that disturbed him; something not quite human behind the dragons face; a different face, strange, dark and reptilian.

 

“You’re not human?”, said Dogman, shocked, “What are you?”.

 

“I am the last surviving member of a noble criminal fraternity from across the stars”, said the Dragon, “The dragon lords. You could call them a kind of mafia. A long time ago they were rounded up by the brutal police force of my people and wiped out but I managed to escape and, ever the entrepreneur, I decided to try my fortunes here on your planet”.

 

“Well”, said Dog Man, a determined look filling his eyes, “Whatever you are you are going to prison”.

 

And as the supertracker spoke, all could hear, from outside the warehouse, the sound of police cars with wailing sirens, screeching breaks and slamming doors.

 

But then, grinning, the strange alien kingpin started to open his mouth and, before Dogman could do anything, he had breathed out a stream of blue fire that engulfed Dogmans mask, setting it completely ablaze.

 

And then, bursting from the back of the villains double breasted suit, to their horror and awe, Dr Klepperman and his daughter saw two large scaly, bat like wings emerge, unfold and start to flap.

 

“Fortunately, my canine friend, we dragons have wings”, said the reptilian crimelord, laughing, as he rose into the air.

 

Tearing off his burning mask but shielding his face to protect his identity, Dogman tried desperately to shoot the dragon winged criminal out of the air but it was too late; spreading the wings wide as a hang glider, its entire body now transforming into its genuine green, scaly reptilian form, the alien villain soared off as swiftly and agilely as a bird of prey towards the entrance of the warehouse and then, in the next moment, was gone.

 

Picking up the henchman’s dragon mask he had dropped earlier, Dogman slipped it over his face and then turned to Dr Klepperman.

 

“At least you and your daughter are safe”, he said, “And the Dragons evil plans to build an atomic counterfeiting machine have been foiled”.

 

“That was always bound to happen, I’m afraid”, said the Doctor, sounding disappointed with himself, “You see my machine doesn’t work”.

 

“It will, Doctor”, said Dogman, smiling and placing a hand on the Doctors shoulder, “And more importantly, it will work for good, not for evil”.