The Nightdragon
#4 - O Mortifero
Johnny Chen is determined to help his new friend Simian, a unique and fascinating creature that is part man and part monkey. Simian has friends who have been subjected to secret experimentation by Gen-Tech, a company that delves into genetic manipulation. The monkey man wants to free them, and Chen, who is the vigilante hero known as the NightDragon, has given his word to do just that. However, he is in for a shocking surprise! Simian’s friends may not be so easy to rescue. Gen-Tech has turned them into unimaginably monstrous creations that transgress the laws of nature; the results being both physical and psychological changes, thus making them extremely dangerous.
On top of that, the Horde is back! Chen has encountered this commando terrorist group before. This time they are being led by one of the organization’s lieutenants, a gruesomely garbed figure known only as O Mortifero aka the Deadly One. It is his intention to take these genetically manipulated creatures for the devious purposes of the Horde’s mysterious leader.
Chen cannot let that happen. Now, to prevent the threat of these abominations being loosed on the City of Nocturnity, he must again ally himself with those who seek to bring him to justice. This also means the NightDragon will put himself in the most dangerous of all places: between a group of manmade monsters and the murderous Horde henchman, O Mortifero!
Continue the adventure started in “The NightDragon (#3): Simian” to its thrilling conclusion full of tension, humor, astounding action, and martial arts mayhem!
Excerpt
Chen stepped back. “Can the process be reversed?”
Stanton really laughed at that; a loud, derisive, belly laugh of the sort an arrogant man would cast upon a simpleton. He turned to look out at the moonlight playing over the sea. “Reverse the process? Are you mad? The experimentation that it took to achieve these results was the effort of innumerable tests in ‘trial and error’ over a lengthy amount of time. And those tests were, and are being, compounded by constant tweaking. That can’t be undone. Ever!”
“And you call me mad?” Chen growled in a low and lethal voice.
“You would have to be to show up here,” said a voice from behind them.
Each twisted around with a start to see O Mortifero standing on the balcony, only a few feet away from the entrance to Stanton’s bedroom. His cowl fluttered gently in the night breeze around his skull-faced mask as he stood in right profile to them, his hands resting on the knobs of the bones sheathed against his thighs.
Stanton shrank away against the balustrade and began inching his way along it toward its far end. He did not want to be caught in the middle between these two deadly men. As the doctor moved off, the vigilante turned to present his right profile to his new nemesis, spreading his feet slightly and keeping his hands away from his body as he did so.
Mortifero pulled the bones from their sheaths, letting them slide up through his hands as he did so, in order to grip them at their slender bases, in order to use the knobs for striking. “Boa noite, Dragão Noturno. Vamos dançar?” Taking one step forward, he tapped the weapons together in staccato succession as he said, “Good evening, NightDragon. Shall we dance?”