The real adventures of Johnny Quest

Disclaimer: the quest team belongs to Hanna Barbera ,I don't own them and I am not making money out of this.

Rate: Pg-16 for extreme violence.

Category: Mostly horror.

Blood, water and fire.

Aragon, 1610:

The ball was the most important one of the year, destinies, kingdoms and lives depending on it, the king of Spain offered it to celebrate the baptism of his newly born son, his heir to the crown. Carolina was nervous, today her engagement to Juan would be published in the toast; she loved him, but maybe more as a brother than a husband. Still it's better to marry someone you care about instead of a perfect stranger, like many of the girls did in those days. Either way she did not have a choice, under different circumstances she would have dozens of candidates. After all she was a duchess, a beautiful, healthy one, but there was one flaw, she was a bastard.

As many Spanish persons her parents had dark hair and brown eyes, she was instead a red-haired beauty with emerald eyes, just like the irish gardener her family haired before she was conceived. Every one knew, even when the gardener disappeared mysteriously, so there would be no comparison between them.

Because of that, most members of the Spanish royalty refused to marry her, she would have to marry someone of the bourgeoisie. That was until Juan appeared, he had the same burden Carolina did, he looked exactly like his mother's tutor, an english professor with blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was a viscount, so she could marry at least someone with "blue blood".

Every thing was perfect at the ball, but Carolina felt overwhelmed by the upcoming toast and went outside, to the garden of the palace, there she met with Juan.

-"Hello" she said surprised, she didn't expect to find him there.

-"Hello Carolina, are you feeling ill? You look pale." He said concerned.

-"I'm scared" she said shyly.

-"Me too, I do like the idea of marrying to you, but there's something wrong in here, our parents are hiding something from us"

-"I feel that way too, but I think they will tell us after the ball is over, it has something to do with our engagement".

She tried to be stoic, but something felt wrong, as if a tragedy was about to happen, Juan saw that and held her close until she stopped shaking.

When the ball ended both teen's parents reunited in a private room of the palace and told them what was on their minds:

-"You have to marry soon and have a child as fast as possible, you can even try to conceive one before your wedding, no one would know" Raquel, Juan's mother, said cheerfully.

-"WHAT!" the children screamed in unison.

-"If you have a girl, Carolina, she will marry the prince!"

-"That is impossible, the daughter of my cousin Carla will marry him" Carolina said looking scared.

-"That child is not born yet, and after five years from her marriage the king is impatient" her father Raul replied.

-"The king does not want his son to marry a foreigner, so it depends on you and your cousin to provide a bride for him, and now that he knows Carla has an ill hart you are the one up for the task" Juan's father, Carlos, said proudly.

Carolina squared her jaw and said in a cold voice: - "I will not do it, I am not ready"

Raul stood up and slapped his daughter hard enough to throw her to the ground and yelled:-"YOU SPOILED BRAT! YOU WILL HAVE A DAUGHTER BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR OR ELSE…"

-"OR ELSE WHAT?" Juan told him as he stepped between him and his daughter, "I will NOT force her to do something she doesn't want". He turned his back on Raul and helped her to stand up. That's when she saw his beautiful sapphire eyes. His handsome face was lit with the dim light of the fireplace, making him look like those angels painted on the bible she often read (like many people she was a strict catholic in order to avoid the claws of the inquisition). They got lost in each others eyes and didn't notice Raul getting ready to fight with Juan, but before he could hit him, Raquel held him back and sent the children to the guest's chambers. Once they were gone she told everyone in the room with a coy smile:-"do not worry for them, I saw the look on their eyes, just let them stay together and nature will do the rest". Everyone laughed.

While their parents planned the wedding, Carolina and Juan sat on the bed they now shared by order of Sara, and started talking. They had been good friends for a year before the engagement was decided and now they were starting to act as lovers. In one point their lips met, but before they could close their eyes and enjoy the kiss they heard a loud thump on the door of their room, as men dressed in robes passed trough it holding a big cross.

The man in the middle of the group had a red robe and seemed to command the others dressed in black, he said out loud:-"Juan Bustamante and Carolina Velazquez, you are arrested by the holy inquisition for the charge of sorcery; you will be judged and punished in the name of god and Jesus crist".

…………………………………………………………………………………….

Galicia, Spain. Countryside. 2006

Estella Velasquez was speaking with her ex-husband. When he arrived at the airport and didn't saw his ex wife and daughter he thought she would try to convince him to let Jesse stay with her a few more months, he expected to fight with her again. When Stella was in a big excavation she didn't wanted Jesse to go with her father until it was over, she said Jess would loose of important findings. Race Bannon was wrong.

His ex couldn't make it on time to see him at the airport, the whole excavation team was too busy, but she was more than eager to let her daughter go:

-"This work, is affecting her" Stella said, -"Here is where many innocents where murdered by the Spanish inquisition, we found many bones of men, women and children and all this is giving her nightmares".

Race saw the site, even after all that time the place was particularly morbid, it was in the country, far from civilization, in the top of a shallow hill that had dry grass and dirt instead of the lovely green soil that surrounded it. Back in the day, even when many persons were murdered in the city, some others were taken outside the village in order to torture them with total freedom; it was a medieval version of concentration camps.

-"Can't say I blame her, but don't worry, Johnny went to find Jess and he'll get her mind out of it. Now tell me something, how did you guys found out about this place?"

-"It's a weird story, a boy suddenly went nuts in a town not far away, he ran off and was found digging with his hands right in this hill, saying that he was buried here and had to set himself free, he did it all night long, when police went to take him to the hospital they found the bones. Seems that the previous storm made the tombs shallower so he could get to it. You see, this hill's soil is no good for crops, so no one touched the ground in a very long time, otherwise this site would be found years ago".

…………………………….

Jesse was cleaning the dirt of a knife she found in the ground, she was far from the excavation site but still it was easy to find lost objects, they were sprawled all around the place. It was obviously old and it was made of a cheap iron, that's why it was left behind she thought, everything that was valuable was stolen for the priests and went right to the church. The knife seemed to be stuck on a large rock, but when she wiped all the dirt she saw it wasn't a rock, it was a skull, in that moment someone grabbed her from behind and she jumped on her feet, spun around and saw Johnny:

-"Don't do that again, hotshot!"

-"Lighten up Jess, it was just a joke" then he saw her pale face

-"what's wrong ace? You don't look so hot". A second later he saw the knife crushed in the skull, that's why she got so scared. -"I'm sorry, I didn't mean …"-

-"I know" she chuckled "It's just that I had nightmares…"

-"I heard some of that; I spoke to your mom. Come on, I'll race you to the camp" he said as he handed her a hover board.

-"I'm in!" she said cheerfully and went off before he could even speak. He looked back at the skull and in a second, a vision (or maybe a hallucination) came to him.

He saw himself trapped in a cell surrounded by people screaming in pain, he grabbed the same knife he had seen before, broke the lock of the cell and in order to escape he stabbed the knife into a guard's head, he was running towards the open when someone grabbed him from behind, then he felt a horrible pain on his head as dark shadows surrounded him.

Johnny snapped out of it and gasped as he saw Jesse holding him by the shoulders and shaking him, she looked concerned.

-"Johnny, are you OK?" he realized he had been unconscious and stood up.

-"What the hell was that?"

-"I don't know, I turned around and found you on the floor, you stopped breathing for a second, I was about to do CPR when you started waking up, we should get your dad"

-"No, I'm fine, if we tell him he'll freak."

-"Johnny it's not normal to pass out like that, we should get help"

-"NO, it's nothing, I'm just tired from my last trip"

-"What happened?"

-"You know, terrorists trying to destroy the world, the usual"

-"Ok hotshot, but let's go waking to the camp, I don't want you to faint in the hover board and break your neck"

-"Yes mom"- he said sarcastically.

…………………………………………

Both teens barely spoke during the trip to the compound in Maine, which was recently rebuilt. They looked worn out and Johnny could tell Jessie was concerned about him. Their parents thought they were just tired, so they told them to take a few days of rest, no missions, school or homework. They hoped their kids would be back to normal fast, but it didn't happened that way.

After two days, both Doctor Quest and Race were starting to get worried, the children did nothing but sleep and the more they did it the more tired they felt, they didn't want to eat ,or play on questworld, they started to get very pale and had deep dark circles around their eyes . Doctor quest decided to do them some medical tests if they didn't get better soon.

…………………………………………

She was tied up, hanging by a piece of metal attached to the roof, they had tied her hands in her back and lifted her slowly, so the arms, in such an unnatural position, would lift over her head dislocating both her shoulders, the pain was beyond imagination. A dark figure dressed in a dark red robe came to her and told his assistants lo get her down, when they did, he grabbed her by the neck and lifted her slightly, making enough pressure to hurt her but not enough to choke her either, tears were running down her face. The dark figure kept her in that position and spoke:

-"You disgusting little witch. Satan, your lord, is waiting for you; soon you'll go to hell, unless you tell me who else was involved in your unholy rituals"

-"I DO NOT KNOW WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, I AM NOT A WITCH!" she yelled in desperation.

-"LYAR!" he yelled back, then he lifted her sill grabbing at her throat and took her to another part of the chaimbs of torture, then he made her turn around pulling her hair back with his huge hands, she saw the iron maiden and knew what was coming.

-"You are just like that filthy lover of yours, little whore, but you will face your sins like he is facing them now"

-"Please no, let Juan out of this, he is innocent"- she pleaded, then she realized her love could be suffering as much as she was, she couldn't let that happen, so she said as the man locked her inside the iron maiden and it's spikes begun to pierce her body:-"I did it, I confess whatever you say I did, I did it, but PLEASE let him go, he didn't do anything wrong, it was all my fault".

The man laughed when he heard that and told her:-"you two demons have a wicked connection, he said the same thing that you said" and he continued in a mockery tone

-"It was my fault, she was innocent"-, then he turned serious and told her he had tried to escape and killed a guard, when they caught him all he said was "If you dare to hurt her I will kill you all".-"He has been judged already"-he continued-"and he will die tomorrow soon after you die burned as the spawn of hell you are"-

With that he took a rope that was near the devise of torture and pulled it, making the spikes of the iron maiden dug deep inside her flesh.

Carolina screamed as the pain turned into agony and saw the man in front of her, he was tall, and strong ,very strong, he looked more like a soldier than a priest, still even if she tried, she couldn't see the face hiding in the hood of his robe.

Jesse woke up horrified, she had similar nightmares before but this one was much more intense than the others. She could still feel the pain of the iron spikes. She saw herself and realized she had round wounds all over her body and they were bleeding profusely, her sheets were covered in blood. This isn't happening, she thought, I'm still dreaming. She tried to make herself wake up but realized she wasn't dreaming anymore. She stood up and went to her bathroom, took of all of her clothes and stepped into the shower to wash al the blood. After a few minutes she was clean, and when the blood washed off there were no wounds or scars underneath, she wasn't hurt. She though that maybe it was just a hallucination, after all, there was no blood in her discarded clothes anymore and her skin was completely flawless, as if nothing had happened.

She stepped outside of the shower and saw her face and upper body in the mirror, and her reflection took her breath away. Starring back at her was a woman who had been burned almost completely ,there were no traces of skin, just a few black ,shredded muscles barely attached to the bones, strays of red hair still lingered in her scalp. The awful image saw Jesse with her miraculously unharmed green eyes and tried to scream, but instead of a yell, a black liquid came out of her mouth.

When Jesse came to her senses she realized she was laying in a fetal position next to the toilet, she stood up, still shaking and saw her reflection again, she recognized herself, but she was pale, her eyes were puffy and red, she had been crying, then walked to her room and saw the sheets in her bed, they were drenched in sweat, not blood.

She dressed in a pink t-shirt with sweat pants and sat on the bed trying not to fall asleep for the rest of the night.

…………………

Juan didn't know how much more he could take, the whip his captor used was turning his skin into shreds, he screamed as the priest poured a mixture of lemon, salt and boiling water in his open wounds, he tried to see his face but it was hidden in the hood of his dark red robe, he new he wasn't the same that captured him and Carolina a week ago, this one was leaner, less muscular and a few inches shorter he could see a glimpse of his beard. He was too weak to fight when he was taken to a bench by two more priests in black robes, they tied his hands above his head and his legs were stretched and tied at the other side of the bench, then the man in red robe gave a command and the chains that held his wrists and ankles started to separate from each other painfully stretching his tortured body, the man in red robe said:

-"Tell me who else was involved in that awful crime you committed"

-"For the eleventh time, I do not know what you mean! .What crime are you talking about?

-"You made witchcraft to hurt Carla Herrera, she said he saw you and her cousin doing pagan rituals in the middle of the woods, she said YOU caused her heart illness, but I know that demons like you never work alone, so tell me. Who besides your whore helped you?

As in response Juan spitted in the priest face, he couldn't tolerate someone to insult his loved one, and he realized at that moment that nothing he did or say would save him from dying. His captor spoke to him in a cold voice filled with hatred:

-"I see you do not want forgiveness from our Lord, well go to sleep with the creatures of your kind, tomorrow you will die"

By that time his arms and legs were torn, for being stretched that violently. He couldn't even move when he was taken to another room and was thrown in a dark, large hole in the ground. He broke a few more bones when he landed in the cold floor, he thought that was his last punishment for the night, but instead he saw around him and found dozens of red tiny lights around him all in pairs, the lights were getting closer and then he started recognizing the forms attached to them, they were eyes, rat's eyes, along with another critters such as worms and spiders. He knew rats ate about anything especially when they were as hungry as these seemed to be, his smell attracted them and all he could do is pray, as those creatures jumped to eat him alive.

Johnny woke up screaming, at least that's what he tried to do, but no sounds could come out of his mouth, as if someone was chocking him. He looked around and saw nothing, then he heard sharp, shrieked noise that seemed to come from under his bed, he saw under the sheets and found dozens of awful filthy rats jumping to attack him. He jumped out of his bed and tried to scream, but again, something was in his throat blocking the sounds he made. He tried to get to the door but he couldn't open it, he spun around and ran towards the window but when he saw his bed, it was empty and the only sound he heard was Bandit's whimpers, he was hiding under the bed.

It was a dream, jus a stupid dream. He thought, but the he noticed that the strange sensation of chocking got worse, now it expanded to his lungs and mouth and it felt like he was under the water, he tried to cough, it didn't work, he couldn't breathe anymore, he fell on the floor because of the lack of oxygen, but tried again, and out of his mouth came about a liter of stinky, thick, dark water. He stayed there, crouched on the floor. He wanted to cry, scream or anything that made anyone in the house come to him, instead he took a deep breath and stood up. He was going to the bathroom to wash his face when a voice came from behind, he turned around and saw himself, at least a version of him. The image was almost transparent, like a ghost, and looked as if he has been bated to death and then drowned, he was still wet and started dripping in the carpet floor. Johnny was paralyzed as the image talked to him:

-"Do not let them get to her, they will kill her. Please, if those monsters find her…" The image started crying, Johnny didn't know what to do, he was about to run for help and tell his dad to lock him away in a mad house when he heard someone knocking at the door.

-"Johnny, are you there?"- Jesse asked shyly, she got tired of waiting at the dawn, it was only one a.m.! She was terrified about having another nightmare and thought she could stay with her friend, after knocking again she pushed the door, there was no lock. Instead of seeing his friend sleeping, she found him standing in a corner of the room, shaking, with his eyes lost in the landscape that the window showed.

-"Johnny what happened? Are you alright? - Concern was clear in her voice. He looked at her and then at his room, there were no rats, no water and no ghosts, just him and Jesse He got himself together and told him in a raspy voice that he was fine and asked why was she there, trying to hide how happy he felt about having someone with him after that awful nightmare.

Jesse saw him and said in a low, soft tone of voice:

-"I had a bad dream, I didn't want to sleep again but I'm sooo tired, I thought that maybe…" She trailed off as she knew how stupid the situation was. How old am I? .Four? But before she could turn away ashamed he responded:

-"Sleep with me?-

-"Forget it, I was just…"-

-"It's ok. I had a nightmare too, I could really use some company besides Bandit"- he said as he blushed, embarrassed.

-"Cool, I'll have the left side".

As soon as they snuggled close to each other they fell asleep, they were tired, yet somehow knew that now that they were together, no more bad dreams would haunt them for the night.

When Race woke up he went right to Jesse's room, he was worried about her, tomorrow he would take the kids to the doctor so he could tell what was wrong with them. He entered in her room and found her bed open, he checked the bathroom, it was a mess, and there were discarded clothes in the floor, which was wet. This isn't like her, she's usually very neat.

He looked for her in the hall and went to Johnny's room to ask him if he saw her,

He found Benton at the door of his son's room, he was about to do the same thing Race did with his daughter, Race told him about Jesse and both men entered the room to speak with Johnny, that's when they saw there were two heads in the pillow instead of one.

-"I don't believe this"- Race said annoyed.

-"Don't think of it THAT way, they're just children." Benton replied.

-"It's not that, but you know that at his age, boys have a certain type of dreams I don't want my daughter to witness, that's all"

-"Don't worry about it, the only dreams he had were nightmares" Benton got serious; he had to do something about his son before he got worse.

Race tried to pull Jesse away from Johnny but he saw he was holding her tightly; he pulled again, with more strength this time, while Dr Quest tried to wake his son.

Even in his sleep, which was quite peaceful this time, Johnny still heard the voice of the ghost, his ghost, do not let them get to her, they will kill her. Please, if those monsters find her… and now a force was trying to take her away from him, he wouldn't let them, he held her with al his strength until a sound brought him back to reality, he opened his eyes and saw his father telling him to let Jesse go, at that moment his muscles relaxed and Race was pulling so hard that when Johnny let her go, he jumped back with Jesse in his arms, she was still asleep.

-"Ponchita wake up, don't scare me"

Jesse opened her eyes and saw his dad

-"Where am I?

-"In Johnny's room. Why did you come here?

-"I was scared" she snuggled next to his chest and fell asleep again.

Benton spoke to his son:

-"What was that all about?"

-"I was just…"

-"Having another nightmare?"

-"Yeah, kind of"

Benton sighed and said

-"I want you to go downstairs and get some breakfast, and don't you dare telling me you're not hungry, you need to eat. Race, how's Jesse?"

-"Seems fine, she's awake now. Aren't you, darling?

-"Yes dad I am"

-"Good, go have breakfast with Johnny".

Once they were alone the two adults talked:

-"Ben, did you talked to the neurologist about the kid's dreams?"

-"Yes, he was coming from D.C. to see them but the forecast says there's a hurricane coming up, he'll be here next Monday."

-"Too bad, tonight there was supposed to be a rare alignment between planets"

-"I know, Johnny was looking up for it"

Hours later the kids sat in the living room discussing their dreams:

-"Jess we have to do something about this, there's something supernatural here, unless we've lost our minds"

-"I know. Why don't you see if you can find something on the internet and I'll go look for information in your dad's library, there's got to be something about paranormal activity there, after all that's part of his research"

-"Sure, meet me at the lighthouse when you find something"

Two hours later Jesse found Johnny at the lighthouse, all computers were on and she could see on the screens an image of people being tortured the same way she was on her dream, it seemed to be extracted from an old book. Johnny was sleeping over his laptop; Jesse had to shake him roughly to awake him.

-"Great research hotshot, can you sleep and type at the same time?

-"Very funny Jess. I found something. Here it says that these tortures were common, as you know, in the inquisition, and there were many young people among the victims, but only about fifty were executed near the excavation site your mom worked, and it seems that two hi-command priests were ruling there, I think they are the ones we saw."

-"Are you sure?"

-"Yeah, back in the day, priests wore habits, not hoods. These ones did because they used to be monks from Germany, before they were recruited to do the church's dirty work in Spain. These ones in particular took care of the victims who were noble."

-"Do you know their names or have a picture of them?"

-"No. Why?"

-"Cause I found something important, you know that tonight there's gonna be an alignment in the sky between mars, Venus , the moon and the earth, like a moon eclipse but bigger."

-"Yeah, something that happens once every century, I prepared my telescope but there's a hurricane coming up so we won't see anything"

-"During that eclipse, the moon will turn red, well pink actually. It's called the hunter's moon because the souls of the evil persons come back to haunt their victims again, even after reincarnation. I think the dreams are telling us that those priests will come back tonight and kill us."

-"Wow, slow down Jess. What are you talking about?"

Jesse sighed and continued:

-"This book says the "hunters" will repossess the bodies of their reincarnated form and go after the persons they killed in their past life. You know that most dreams are more like memories from our previous lives, you told me the ghost that came to you was your doppelganger."

-"Yeah. I guess. But, even if you're right. How will they find us? They only have one night to get us and in the middle of a hurricane they don't have much chance of doing it."

-"That's the worse part, once the alignment is over souls don't always go away, sometimes they share the body with the possessed ones and sometimes they take command of the person completely. So even if we escape from them tonight, they might come for us tomorrow."

-"So what do we do?"

-"Find them before they find us"

End of chapter one.