Excerpt: Continuing Tales of the Biker Mice From Mars

The air hung thick with oxygen and the scent of decaying plant-life as a light rain drizzled down on them. Vinnie was not happy about being wet but he knew he had to endure this if he was going to try and rescue Harley. Lightning streaked overhead and thunder rumbled, causing the white mouse to look up and silently curse the weather. Definitely Jaltha One was not a planet to trifle with. At least he assumed from the sounds of creatures in the nearby forests and undergrowth that sent shivers through him.

"Ah my dear, dear Shadow," a rather tall and lanky Plutarkian said, "how nice it is to see you. Too bad it's not behind bars in my glorious Jaltha One or in little pieces, but this will have to do for now."

"Shut up and start the trade," Shadow growled out.

"Now, now," the Plutarkian said, a disdainful look on his face, "one never talks to one's superior like that."

"Junior . . . You're nothing but the lowest creature to crawl across the face of the universe," Shadow said, venom in her voice.

Vinnie stayed silent as he listened, glad to know what Junior looked like. He looked nothing like any Plutarkian he had ever seen but he assumed it was because of where he was in an alternate universe.

"Do you want me to cancel the trade and simply kill my hostages?" Junior asked, "that can be arranged, my dear."

Vinnie yelped when Shadow suddenly pushed him forward. He stumbled a bit before regaining his footing on the slick ground.

"That's it," Junior said, "don't stop or I'll kill the hostages one by one."

Vinnie said nothing as he drew closer, hoping Shadow knew what she was doing.

"You'll make a fine, fine addition to my prison," Junior said, "and when certain mice learn you are alive but a prisoner of mine it will cause them to become reckless and careless and that's when I'll strike and put them out of their pitiful misery forever."

"Like Hell," Vinnie spat.

"You have no choice, my dear mouse," Junior said, "I am about to do what others of my kind have failed to do in other dimensions. I am about to capture and then wipe out the Biker Mice from Mars."

"Not if I can help it," Vinnie said.

"My dear mouse," Junior said, "you have no choice. That was taken away from you when Shadow delivered you to me."

Vinnie growled at that though fell silent as the humans and mice passed him by. He wondered how long before Shadow would spring the trap or, he began to doubt as the stench of the Plutarkians grew ever stronger with each footfall, if she really had intended to destroy Junior or not.

"I'm surprised," Junior said, "that you didn't try something. Knowing your reputation for attacking my forces I had expected your precious little Firestars to warp in and attack."

"I'm a mouse of my word," Shadow said, "his life in exchange for the others."

"And that I said," Junior said, "but you should know better than to trust a Plutarkian. Men, open fire on then. No need to leave anyone alive. It's not like they could leave the planet anyway . . ."

"Why you . . ." Shadow growled out.

Without thinking Vinnie whistled for his bike and leapt on when it sped close to him. On instinct he activated his weapons, surprised to find them active. He was more surprised when suddenly a faint green glow encased not only himself but his bike as well. He fired at the startled Plutarkians, though not as startled as when another bike, inky black and streamlined, sped close to him.

"Hang on," Shadow said, "I'm going to transport us back to the ship."

"But what about the others?" Vinnie tried to protest.

"We'll deal with them later," Shadow said, "don't worry about it. You didn't think we wouldn't come prepared for a possible deceit, did you?"

Vinnie could do little as Shadow reached over to take a hold of his bike. As had happened with Kat on his Mars there was a sudden flash of light and he was back in the hold of the ship.

"Pikestar has told us your plan," an older human man said.

"Good," Shadow said, "once we're high enough up activate the transporter and get to safety. We'll take care of the ground forces."

"I thought you only had four transport devices?" Vinnie asked.

"We do," Kat said, "I donated the one from Dragon for the ship."

Vinnie was forced to brace himself as the ship lurched, shaking as it rose from the ground.

"This is going to be your testing ground," Shadow said, "survive this and you might have a future here."

Vinnie just nodded, waiting to see what was going to happen.

"You'll stay with me," Shadow said, "where you can't transport and I can. Kat will stay with Pike so he can transport her as needed."

"So what are we going to do?" Vinnie asked.

"We're going to take out the towers controlling the lasers that prevent ships from landing," Shadow said, "once down the waiting fleet can swoop in and attack the ground forces so we can land the army and move in to shut Jaltha One down for good."

"Now that's a plan I like," Vinnie said with a chuckle.

"It's time," Pike said, "we're high enough up for them to transport to Mars orbit."

Shadow nodded. "Move out," she said before once again taking hold of Vinnie's bike, transporting him to a different section of the planet, "stay close to me," she said once they were down, "this planet has wildlife both native and imported that could make a mouse's blood run cold."

"How bad could it be?" Vinnie asked.

Shadow faintly smirked as her bike beeped once. "You're about to find out."

Vinnie blinked at that before something large crashed through the underbrush. It was bigger than anything he had ever seen. It was ugly. I had a huge maw full of teeth. That's all he needed to know before firing his bike's engines and speeding out of the way, shifting to fire his laser first, saving his bike for last. However, the creature seemed to shrug off the laser attack and it roared, sending an almost deafening wave toward Vinnie that threatened to topple him from his bike.

"Told you the wildlife here was more than enough to discourage any survivors," Shadow's voice crackled over his radio.

"Ok, ok," Vinnie said as he fired several missiles at the creature, "I believe you now."

The creature roared in pain when the missiles hit but refused to go down.

"We knew from a few reports of what the creatures looked like but we never saw one this close before," Shadow said, "if we can take it down we'll be lucky."

"So you've never fought one before?" Vinnie asked, a bit astonished.

"The mice that brought back word of these creatures didn't live too long afterward," Shadow said.

"Great," Vinnie said with a sigh, "just great."

"Concentrate your fire on it's head," Shadow said, "body seems to be pretty well armored under all that hair."

Vinnie nodded as he reared his bike, firing his lasers as well as missiles at the beasts head.

The beast choked on a roar before falling backwards with a huge thud, body twitching a bit before falling still.

Vinnie pulled up beside the creature and quickly looked away and around as if searching for more. "Well, at least we know how to take it out."

"Let's just hope we don't find anymore," Shadow said, "we need our weapons for the towers. Once we take one out we should be able to restock from their supplies. Assuming they have supplies at the towers."

"And if they don't?" Vinnie asked.

"Then we improvise," Shadow said before taking off, forcing Vinnie to push his bike to its limits to catch up to her.