Volume 8: Telophase

Issue 7: Stitch, Dinosaur Hunter

Jannette Adrian Churchwell

By Nova

The muddy ground shook beneath my feet as the T-rex closed the distance between us, lunging towards me with a gaping maw of foot-long fangs. I dived out of its way, rolling through the mud as Holly shrieked in the tree above. Its mouth slammed shut just inches above me—jaws smashing together like two cars—as I scrambled through the mud.

My movements felt sluggish as I dragged my feet through mud and ferns, but I pressed on. I needed to lead the T-rex away from Holly, best I could. I hurried back the way I came—into the forest. Behind me, I heard crushing footsteps as the monster turned to follow…

Fronds rustled and the ground quivered as a second Tyrannosaurus exploded from the undergrowth in front of me. It must have been lying in wait, its brown-beige dappled hide blending into the shades of the forests. Somehow I’d been outsmarted by a prehistoric predator.

I turned on my heel—to keep from being caught between the two dinosaurs—just as my footing slipped on the mud underneath me. As the monsters neared me, open-mouthed, I made a desperate, diving leap forward… in an attempt to avoid becoming lunch.

It was enough to save my head, torso, arm… but not all of me. A shot of pain ripped through me as the second T-rex shut its jaws closed, just over my left wrist. Ligaments tore and bones snapped as I was tugged five, ten, fifteen feet upwards. My humerus dislocated with a painful pop as I dangled from the monster’s maw. I was connected to my hand by a thread, literally, and could feel each ligament and muscle tear apart, one by one…

The moment of anguish was effectively replaced by disorientation as I dropped, falling in a spray of blood. I could feel ribs breaking and hear my ankles snap as I crashed to the ground. Despite nearly every bone in my body shattering, I was more concerned with the bloody stump that was once my left hand. I gasped as I clutched at it, the pain rolling through my body in waves.

A shadow passed over me, the T-rex looming above. I cradled my bleeding stump of a wrist with my remaining hand. I watched boney fingers sprout, jerkily, out of my fractured radius. “Come on, faster,” I muttered, staring at the muscle and ligaments snaking their way up the white, skeletal digits. Although my powers worked overtime to regenerate every cell, it seemed all too slow.

I didn’t have time to wait. Both of the Tyrannosauruses towered over me, staring down at me with hawk-like eyes. A low noise—although nearly inaudible, I felt it like a vibration in the air—rolled between them, shaking me to my bone. I had no idea what was in those monsters’ heads, but I had to assume it ended with me digesting in their stomachs.

I couldn’t let that happen. I didn’t think I’d be killed by being digested—while torturous, my powers would counteract it—but it might keep me out of the fight long enough to put Holly at risk.

No, I had to act—fast. As the last of my new skin rolled into place over my palm, I took my chance.

I made the first move, charging the T-rex in front of me—the one that had attacked first. It jerked back from me, remarkably nimbly for a giant of its size, but not fast enough. I grabbed hold of its leg, holding tight to its rough, scaly skin as it kicked the air. The world spun around me as it continued to kick. I managed to hold on, my powers digging into its flesh and carving out little handholds in its thick hide.

The dinosaur wasn’t going to get rid of me that easily. It might be bigger than me—a lot bigger than me—but at the end of the day it was just a bunch of meat.

And meat I could work with.

My powers were already in motion, tracing through the huge mass of flesh—targeting muscles, neurons, organs… I let loose an intense bolt of pain in the creature’s leg, ripping through its neurons like wildfire. Its whole body flinched under the onslaught, the T-rex’s leg spasming and threatening to give out entirely under the intense strain. Its shrieks grew louder, echoing into the sky above as I unleashed pain upon it like nothing it had ever experienced before.

But it wasn’t enough. While the dinosaur shook and shrieked in pain, it was still standing. Tyrannosaurus, apparently, were built different. I suspected it had something to do with its mass. My powers hadn’t even touched the creature’s chest cavity yet; there was just too much flesh for me to work through. And there was still the second T-rex—pacing around us, looming in the corner of my vision. The moment it realized that it could pluck me like a tick from its partner’s side, I would lose my advantage. I had to move, to act now.

I had to get to the brain.

I reached out with my hand and began to climb. My power molded the hide underneath my fingers to create bloody gashes—biological handholds and footholds—as I scaled the beast’s flank, like it was my personal, grotesque rock climbing wall. The T-rex shrieked in pain as it limped and I climbed, and we neared the gnarled tree. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Holly scrambling higher up the tree while the dinosaur scraped its bloody flank against the trunk, trying to scrape me off like some offensive parasite.

I was barely able to scramble out of the way of the trunk, off the leg, and onto the back of the beast—dodging the tree by inches. I heard Holly screaming in the branches above us. Was she in danger? I didn’t have time to look, time to check on her… I had to end this now.

I scrambled up the dinosaur’s neck, grabbing hold of the back of its skull with either hand. My powers lashed out, cutting past the skull and into the T-rex’s small brain; a simple thing compared to a human’s. I could kill it with a thought, then move onto the other. Save Holly, and get her out of this nightmare.

But Archean’s plea echoed in my head. “Try not to kill the animals…” He had said it so earnestly… Was it really just concern regarding his company’s property?

I sighed. “Fuck,” I muttered. “Go to sleep.” My powers, poised to tear the dinosaur’s brain apart, now gently probed it.

Being a hero in the Bay Area didn’t really give me too many opportunities to use my powers on animals, but I remembered petting an emu at a zoo a few years ago. I’d just started out as a hero and had gone, undercover, to scope out the place on Seraph’s behalf. She thought that Los Reales was using it as a distribution point for meth… though the only thing I’d found were some cute animals. While the emu hadn’t been cute, its brain was remarkably similar to what my powers traced through now—just smaller… And, I found the dinosaur’s pineal gland just where I had in the emu: near the back of the head.

I had the gland overproduce a wave of melatonin, and started poking the hypothalamus in ways that, in a human, would shunt it into REM sleep. I had no idea if birds worked like that, or how long a T-rex would stay asleep… But, as the dinosaur began to slow and stumble, I knew I had done something right. It swayed back and forth—emitting a low, deep rumble—before pitching forward. It came crashing to the ground, splattering mud everywhere.

I had beaten the beast.

I placed my right foot on the dinosaur’s massive skull and rested my hand on my knee. The second T-rex, looming overhead, stared down at me with an expression that I couldn’t help but think was shock. I couldn’t exactly blame it. After all, imagine watching your partner get taken out by a rat not even a quarter of your size…

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It bellowed an ear-splitting roar at me—a roar that shook me to my core—but didn’t attack.

I nearly laughed, a wave of almost manic relief washing over me. “Oh my God, you’re terrified,” I said, to my own surprise. I hopped off the head of the downed T-rex and advanced toward the one still standing.

It took a step backwards as I approached, then another. I spread my arms and started waving them in the air. It worked on mountain lions, right? Why wouldn’t it work on a T-rex?

“Get out of here!” I shouted. “Come back when we’re gone!”

As if it could understand me, the T-rex turned on its tail and strode back into the forest—each footstep shaking the ground as it disappeared into the jungle. Behind me, I heard the sleeping Tyrannosaurus let out a deep, rumbling snore.

“Y-you won…” Holly said.

I turned to look up at her. She was clutching a branch high in the canopy, staring down at me with wide, terrified eyes.

“T-there was no question about it…” I responded, immediately cringing from how awkward it sounded. I never played up the hero persona… Why was I doing it now? As self-awareness overtook me, I began to realize that I was absolutely coated in mud and blood… and not all the blood was the T-rex’s.

“Jan… is that really-” Holly started, but I cut her off.

“S-sorry, uh, citizen,” I stammered, “gotta report in that you’re safe.” I pressed down on a button labeled “transmit” on the radio watch Archean gave me. I breathed a sigh of relief as it crackled to life—clearly whoever made them built the watches tough enough to survive a powerfight.

“R-Ripple,” I said into the watch. “I’ve found Hol-,” I cleared my throat, “I… I mean, Ms. Lin. See if you can home-in on my position…” I waited a moment or two without response, before remembering radio etiquette. “Ah, uh, right. Over.”

“I can do that?” Ripple’s voice crackled through the watch. “How exactly… I can’t see anything through this forest. Over.”

I scowled at the watch and turned away from Holly, hoping she didn’t hear that. “Well, I don’t know… Look for a big, gnarly tree?” I said. “Holly’s in it, might be stuck… Over.”

“She alright? Over.”

I glanced back up at her. She was staring down at me, with an expression of deep concern on her face. While she looked a little gaunt, she didn’t appear to have any notable injuries. “She’s okay,” I responded. “Over.”

I heard what sounded like wind crackling over the radio. “I’ll be there ASAP… Stay tight, heard some nasty sounding roars a bit ago. Over.”

“That was us…” I admitted. “See you soon. Over.”

I turned back to face Holly. “Ripple will be here soon, she’ll get you out of the tree!” I shouted up at her.

“Good…” Holly said, sounding distracted. “S-so, you’re Stitch, right?”

I gulped. “Y-yep… Are you a fan?” I managed to squeak. Fan? What was I saying? It took all my willpower not to collapse in embarrassment right in front of her.

Holly locked eyes with me and, even at a distance, I could see the confusion swirling in them. “Jan…” She sighed. “Look, maybe I’m way off base here, but…”

“I… I…” I stammered. I suddenly felt an ache to tell her everything—to confess to her that yes, I was who she thought I was… That Jannette was Stitch…

But I remembered what Holly said about heroes, back in the library when we had gone “ghost hunting.” How she had described heroes as “defenders of the status quo…” She had said it with so much bile. Would that derision spread to me if she found out the truth?

“I-I don’t know what this ‘Jan’ thing is…” I stammered, dropping my voice an octave in the hopes it offered me a modicum of cover. “But I can tell you that I’m not it… I’m just Stitch, the, uh, hero…”

Holly nodded, skeptically, eyebrow raised as she looked down at me. “Alright… Well… If you insist…”

A moment of silence lapsed between us. “We’ll get you somewhere safe very soon,” I said, trying to ease the tension between us.

“Thank you,” Holly said. She sounded weaker now than she did just a moment ago.

“A-are you alright?” I asked, looking at her closely. Her eyes were beginning to flutter, her gaze drifting off me.

“I’m fine,” she insisted. But, as she leaned back against the tree trunk, I could see her grip around the branches weakening.

“Shit,” I muttered. On top of being dehydrated, she was probably malnourished and exhausted. The shot of adrenaline from hearing me calling her name, plus witnessing that battle against the T-rex… By now, it would have worn off and left her even more exhausted.

She was at serious risk of losing consciousness. That wouldn’t be a major problem if she was on the ground. Hell, a little sleep might have even done her some good if we could hook her up to an IV…

But fainting on a tree branch at least fifty or sixty feet in the air wasn’t good at all.

I pulled out my baton and extended it in one clean motion. I ran toward the tree and, with my baton, rapped on the trunk in an irregular pattern. “H-hey, Holly!” I shouted up at her.

“Hmmm?” I heard her murmur from up above—not a proper response, but it showed she was still conscious.

“Guess what song I’m playing!” I shouted, lying. The pattern I was tapping into the tree was completely made up on the spot, but hopefully it would keep her awake and guessing.

Holly didn’t answer, but seemed to be humming along to the nonexistent beat. “C-come on, guess!” I shouted.

Holly had stopped humming, and I saw her body slowly slumping to the side, dangerously misaligned with the branch she was sitting on. “No, no, no!” I shouted, beating harder on the tree with my baton. “Wake up, wake up!”

I had all the power in the world to fix her, but I couldn’t reach her.

“Ripple!” I shouted into my radio watch. “Get here on the double, Holly’s gonna fall out of a tree!”

I didn’t wait for a response. Instead, I started scrambling at the lower branches—trying to climb the tree as quickly as I could. I didn’t have any other options; she was so high up that catching her wouldn’t do any good, since I wasn’t exactly big or strong enough to cushion her fall. I also couldn’t wait for her to fall so I could heal whatever damage there was. The risk that she could suffer some traumatic brain injury and either die or come out with damaged memories was too high.

I had to reach her before she fell from the tree…

I climbed from branch to branch, cursing the fact that—while my powers could kill plants—I was much less able to manipulate them like I could with meat. I had to rely on the natural handholds the tree provided, not ones that I could make…

“Almost there!” I shouted up at Holly. She was only twenty feet or so above me… I could still make it, I could make it…

I saw her body begin to slip—as if in slow motion—over the edge of the branch. In horror, I silently watched her roll through the air in front of me, tumbling downwards toward the ground. I reached out—futilely and far too slowly—to grab her, to arrest her fall.

She slipped through my fingers. I felt my heart drop just as quickly as she plummeted down. My instinct told me to protect her from every branch that whipped against her, and from the ground now rushing toward her. But time seemed to simultaneously move too quickly and too slowly—like my arms and had turned into stone, impossible to budge.

As her body neared the mud, I almost missed the dark shape which now whizzed from the sky—plunging down after her.

But I definitely didn’t miss the ear-splitting boom that shook the tree I sat in. Standing in a muddy crater—holding Holly in her arms—Ripple appeared. She looked up at me, open-mouthed.

“Just in time,” she gasped up at me.