paradigm vs. spectre (in comicrama vision!)

i'm REALLY regretting getting up this morning!

after all the crazy excitingness that had been the drumheller poaching caper, i thought my day couldn't get any weirder...

then suddenly me and professor paradigm had come under attack out of no where!

our attacker, some guy called "spectre", seemed to know paradigm pretty well... all i knew was that he was intent on dinonapping me, and that he packed a might impressive grip.

in fact spectre's holds on me so far had been so good, on account of his knowing several ubber effective pressure points on my tyrannosaurid physiology, i was nearly paralyzed. as much as i wanted to struggle, and even at some points use my bone crushing bite on him, the most i could muster was a spastic twitch. he'd shot my body into totally useless numbness.

as for why he wanted to steal me, i wasn't sure. based on how paradigm had suddenly tensed up, i could tell my abduction wasn't going to be a good thing... was this another angle on the poaching case i'd managed to miss? or was there something else behind this?

"let him go jaden!" paradigm ordered. so they were both on a first name basis with each other. i was really starting to hate this whole surprises around every corner that palaeo-central was seeming to bring with it.

"now, now alvar, you didn't say the magic word," jaden spectre mockingly answered.

paradigm said nothing more, but rather rushed towards myself and spectre. in a moment's reaction i was tossed aside and spectre replaced me with a long japanese sword he had strapped to his back.

you might be thinking this was an ideal chance for me to escape. sadly spectre's pressure point grip had rendered me capable of just slightly better than a weak crawl. so though i made incredibly slow progress away from the battle that was about to ensue, I didn't get very far from it...

the fight happened really fast too. i include the pictures here in comicrama style so it might be easier to follow (let me know what you think of this style of blog post for my future consideration)

seeing spectre's sword paradigm hesitated for a moment, but only a moment, before trying to close with his opponent. spectre took a slash at paradigm, which the professor narrowly ducked. in this moment of opportunity spectre landed a solid kick on the professor...

it was a good kick, and paradigm let out an audible grunt of pain. i thought this was going to turn out just like his last fight, and i was doomed.

needles seemed to think so too, as he took another swing with his blade. paradigm suddenly pivoted on the spot, and launched an awesome punch right into spectre's stomach. as spectre keeled over in response paradigm shot his hand up in a rather mean uppercut like blow right into spectre's jaw.

spectre recoiled and restored his sword in front of him. "just like old times," spectre said almost fondly. "it's just too bad you came unprepared, alvar," he taunted with the tip of his blade.

"i always come prepared," paradigm retorted very confidently, as he reached behind him. i grew hopeful of the mystery weapon he'd pull out from behind him. was it his own sword (maybe from england or somewhere exotic like antarctica?), or better yet a battle axe, or wait a rocket launcher, no of course it would be a tank! crushing my enthusiasm paradigm pulled out a standard issue digging awl...

spectre paused, just as confused as me. "that's a little creative, on using what you have available," he pointed out to paradigm. "even for you alvar!"

paradigm in a very civil, and almost embarrassed i'd venture, manner replied. "you are catching me at an awkward time jaden. which i'm sure you planned on," paradigm explained. "i did just spend a great deal of effort on two poachers, and this is the only piece of evidence i collected that is close to a weapon."

spectre seemed more enthused and honoured by this answer. "you're willing to use a piece of evidence from a case against me," he humbly stated. "why not then..."

spectre lunged full swing with his sword, and all common sense would bet the professor was doomed with his tiny excavation tool.

yet paradigm counter lunged, and his awl caught spectre's sword masterfully. a splash of sparks erupted from the colliding weapons. both combatants didn't disengage though, rather both tried to swing the close quarters to their enemy into an advantage.

paradigm didn't miss a beat, and cracked the handle of his awl with full force against spectre's jaw. it looked like the professor had planned on swinging the pointy business end of the tool into spectre's shoulder or arm to injury this key combat limb, but spectre out maneuvered him. paradigm's blow was followed nanoseconds later by spectre's sword's hilt into the professor's throat sending him recoiling.

spectre flicked his sword, knocking the awl out of paradigm's grasp...

the black clade villain then tried to swing the sword back towards the professor, but paradigm seized him by the wrist and applied some sort of pressure point grip to it, causing spectre to drop his weapon.

one of the two of them tried to hit the other (i seriously couldn't tell, they were both moving so quickly and smoothly now) and the opposite blocked it. spectre put to much emphasis on the arm to arm combat, and thus neglected his lower body's defenses. an opening paradigm struck out against...

however this didn't incapacitate spectre, whose focus on the upper combat zone, now allowed a powerful counter attack on the slightly off balance paradigm.

spectre coyly wandered slightly away from the battle, as paradigm regrouped. spectre clearly had the intent of picking something up off the ground. as his sword lay right beside him, both myself and the professor focused on it. which had been spectre's notion...

as paradigm dashed towards the sword to prevent it from reentering the engagement, i was startled when spectre reached down and seized ME!

using me as a blunt force weapon, spectre batted me into the professor. my thickly boned and muscled head impacted the professor's much more modest mammalian skull with a great enough force i felt him go limp against the blow... not that i felt all that great as a result of the contact either!

we both collapsed into a pile on the ground. for all i knew paradigm was dead at first, till i fortunately felt his chest move and heard the eerie sound his re-breather makes for an exhale.

the whole duel had lasted only a couple of minutes, in a fast and furious blur. i'd been so engrossed on the battle and its outcome i'd almost been excited, rather then fearing for my life. now with spectre looming over the two of us completely helplessly dread finally took its hold on me...

it was very suspenseful too. he could any manner of evil things either of us right now...

no matter what it ended up being, just the mere anticipation and worry of what it was going to be was the worst though!

i shrieked with startled fear, when spectre finally settled on a simple evil laugh...

"pleasant dreams alvar," he goaded the unconscious paradigm. "by the time you wake up, i'll have made scientific history!"

i had no idea what that meant or why it sounded so ominous.

before i had much time to think on it , spectre picked me up, and draped my frozen body over his shoulder and sprinted off into the badlands...

just like that i'd been dinonapped!

by a deadly madman who wanted to make science history... the problem is i couldn't tell what i had to do with it, or why i'd been stolen to do so (i'd have happily helped make history if i'd been asked... which caused me to think this was not going to be a good thing!)

to be continued...