The Adventures Of Miniator --- Chapter 24

The Rescue

Preston Fox and Julius Bettermore-Mountblank, and their men had quickly broke camp at first light. They felt enthusiastic  about regaining their possession. The possession that would make them both world famous. Make them rich. Today they would run him down, surround him, cow him with gunshots in the air, then while the dogs kept him busy they would dart him again, and this time keep him unconscious with the drug until they were satisfied that a newly built enclosure would hold him.
They soon came to a river, which slowed the dogs awhile until they had again picked up Miniator's sent on the other side. The dogs, keeping up their ceaseless yapping, and soon had the very fresh sent of Miniator in their noses and were again pulling the pursuers on very quickly.

When Miniator awoke the sun was already climbing in the sky. His body ached from his efforts of yesterday's escape. He could hear a strange noise in the distance. The noise was new to him... it sounded unrelenting and worrying. It created a panic in him. He started to move again, he was thinking to follow the river, because he would be able to take a drink when he was thirsty, but something pointed him away from the river. It was a strange pulse like feeling in his head, like a light tingling or tickling, something like an urge to itch... His logic told him to follow the river... but this itching only seemed to be alleviated when he turned to his right. Was it some kind of survival instinct that had emerged from feeling hunted, something genetic from his origin kicking-in... something his ancestors may have used as a survival aid? He decided he couldn't ignore it. He took a long drink from the river and set off to his right. It was both the strange noise behind him, which seemed ever nearer, and this tickling in his head that also seemed to grow stronger all the time, that drove him on. He made a straight line wherever it was possible, pushing through the undergrowth. The tickling became a kind of static rush. And there was something familiar about the feeling. It felt like something that should be attend to. An alarm!
The sun reached its peak in the sky. He panted with the heat and the physical effort. He suddenly realized what this sensation in his head was...! Yes! Yes! and the reason it had seemed strange to him was because he had never been so distant from it before... and it had always been automatic... and instantly responded to... This realization put new strength in him. He knew not where he was heading, but he now knew to what he was headed... He knew if he could get to it before this sound behind him was upon him it would be his deliverance. The unrelenting querulous sound behind him was also now mixed with men's voices. Harsh fervent shouting voices.
He charged and pushed through one thick barrier of undergrowth to the next. His skin was sore and bleeding. The sensation in his head had now became a noise rather than a feeling... and a noise he could understand... And he knew it was very close...
As he smashed through yet another thick layer of undergrowth he found himself standing in a clearing, and there it was, hanging from a tree. Its light was flashing, and he could hear the voice of the Dino's computer repeating 'Miniator come in! Miniator respond!' And standing around his suit were the three figures of Swing Blood, fully clothed in his helmeted silver suit, and Narea and Nimi. And all were poised with their Atom-Mixers. And behind them was a tall watchtower, that looked as if made of stone, but which Miniator quickly realised, was in fact, the shape-shifted spaceship.
Swing threw back his helmet, and they all stepped forward to welcome him. Miniator at his full size towered over them, but they could see the deep relief in his eyes and his open body language. He quickly strapped on his great suit, then reduced his size to that of half human. Swing and Narea embraced him and all shed a tear or two.
'Welcome back Captain!' said Nimi.
'Thanks to you all!' replied Miniator in his regained voice.
At that moment his pursuers burst through the undergrowth, but they stopped dead in their tracks and stared speechless at the sight they found.
'How do you do Mr fox. and Mr Bettermore-Mountblank? Said Narea. 'Sorry you missed our rendezvous.'
The pursuers eyes scanned the scene looking for what they had expected... but nothing fit to their expectations, so a silence hung over the vista as if time had stopped.... All eyes finally fixed on Miniator, and his reduced size...
'What is this?' stammered Julius Bettermore-Mountblack?'
Fox raised his gun. As if this was the only solution to this surreal episode.
'Bubble!' commanded Miniator.
A transparent protective bubble instantly formed around Miniator. Fox's three shots disintegrated as they hit the bubble. The other men raised their weapons. Swing, Narea, and Nimi quickly fired their Atom-Mixers, thus rendering all the pursuers weapons useless. They clicked the confused mechanisms incredulously.
'Your weapons are useless!' said Narea. 'You will do no more harm here!'
'Miss Summer, what is all this...?' asked Preston Fox stepping forward and throwing down his useless weapon.
'This is the end of your despicable adventure, your boy's game! We have tracked you across the World, Mr Fox. We have witnessed yours and Mr Bettermore-Mountblank obsession and your callousness towards creatures. I would like to introduce you to your prey.... This is Miniator, an ambassador from the Planet Toolia, a place where all beings are respected.
Miniator now spoke through his suit, which brought a new shocked expression on the faces of all the pursuers.
'You thought me a dumb creature, thus something you could manipulate, like an object rather than a living being... as if I was not a creature in my own right. And this is how you see all animals.... You use your power over them, because you can... You lock them up... without regard for the suffering this brings, and for what? To pleasure your own species and to enrich yourself...'
'So you are aliens, you don't belong here... Snapped Julius Bettermore-Mountblank. You have no authority here...'
'I am from this planet,' said Swing... although not of this time... and I find your behaviour unacceptable in any time... My life was as destructive as yours, and still would be, if Miniator, this creature you wished to cage, hadn't brought me to my senses, if he had not shown me another way.
'Your lives are dependant on the suffering of creatures, and you are without compassion.
'Let us leave, Miniator, for reasonable words are wasted here.' Miniator and his crew turned and walked into the watchtower. And a few moments later the spaceship shifted its shape back to the original form of the spaceship and took off. Leaving the group of pursuers at a loss and without recourse to stop them.
The spaceship soon left the Earth's atmosphere and came into obit around the blue planet. Miniator back with his friends never felt as happy in his life. He sat silent in the communication room, while his friends eagerly explained how they had tracked him down, and how it had finally been the the Dino's computer which had come up with the idea of using the transmitters in his suit to send radio signals to the receivers implanted in Miniators head.