View source for The Mummies of Malenque

{{TRAJQ episode
| episode_name    = The Mummies of Malenque
| episode_no  = H00616-94049
| airdate = December 11, 1996
| writer = Glenn Leopold
| locations = Colombia - 7.21N, 75.85W (2675 miles)
| vehicles = [[Vehicles#Dragonfly Jet|Dragonfly Jet]]<Br />Quest Helicopter
| guest_star = Teresa Saldana (Estella Velasquez)<Br />Fernando Escandon (Dr. Salazar)<Br />Castulo Guerra (Col. Salazar / Miguel)<br />Tonyo Melendez (Jose / Reynaldo)
| image = [[Image:Vlcsnap-96837.png|200px]]
| episodes = [[To Bardo and Back]] <--> [[Rock of Rages]]
}}
==Plot Summary==

===Teaser===

The story begins with [[Jessie Bannon]] racing through the jungles of Columbia to elude two men. A medallion around her neck, she stumbles on a root and falls into quicksand. The men pretend to help her out, but only long enough to steal the medallion and break her lifeline. [[Jonny Quest]] races to the scene, stunning the two men with quick attacks before helping Jessie out. The rescue is again interrupted with a gunshot; one of the men has a rifle. [[Race Bannon]] swings from a vine and kicks him out of commission as the other man prepares to counterattack. Race easily dispatches him and rescues Jessie, revealing that he's come to pick up Jessie from a visit to her mother. The reunion is broken when a jeep with gun-toting thugs bursts from the jungle; Jessie confirms that the medallion is their target. They flee to the edge of a cliff and hang on the cusp with vines (and Race's hand). Unfortunately, the thugs brake in time to avoid falling off, and begin smashing Race's hand as Jonny's rope begins to break.

===Act One===

[[Dr. Benton Quest|Dr. Quest]] and [[Hadji Singh|Hadji]] appear in the Quest Helicopter to rescue their friends, using a sonic blaster weapon to ward off the bad guys. The team return to a Malenque pyramid site, where Jessie's mother, [[Allies#Estella Velasquez|Estella Velasquez]] has been working. Race's confrontation with his ex-wife over Jessie's peril is interrupted by Dr. Quest and Estella's agreement that the Malenque are enough to simulate a young person's mind, having been an advanced civilization given their antiquity. The conversation turns to the fate of the Malenque civilization; Dr. Quest wishes he had the medallion Jessie had found. She provides a rubbing, made thanks to Dr. Quest's archaeological instructions; Estella translates it as the team and friendly Colonel Salazar listen.

The mummies have their home<Br />
Beneath the weeping stone;<Br />
Their tears have come to late<Br />
To avoid their wicked fate.<br />

Jessie shows her mother where she found the medallion—behind a wall depicting a Malenque medicine man making an elixir, apparently to defeat enemies. As Colonel Salazar regrets that gravediggers and tomb raiders are still around to filch artifacts, Jessie, Jonny, and Hadji trek to the river to wash off. Hadji skips rocks as Bandit surveys the landscape; the team revel in the natural beauty of the forest. The idyllic rest is broken when Bandit bolts from a hedge with a jaguar in tow. The team run for their lives, finding a narrow cave whose opening through which the cat cannot pass. Hadji attempts to calm it by gazing in its eyes, while Jessie finds a weeping statue reminiscent of the medallion's words. With Jonny's help, she removes it from over a dusty well just as the jaguar makes his way in. The three jump down the hole only to be swept away by an underground river leading to a cave complex. Within the caverns are countless mummies. The team are aghast to hear footsteps and shadows proceeding from another lit cavern.

===Act Two===

The men retrieve a few mummies and return to the other cavern, suggesting cryptically that a doctor is using the mummies for some purpose. Hadji concocts a plan to escape, but Jonny heads down the cavern in curiosity of what the mummies are being used for. Hadji reluctantly follows with Bandit. In the inner cavern, Dr. Salazar and this men are preparing an elixir from the mummies; Salazar notes that it was an ultimate plague the Malenque made to wipe out their enemies. Unfortunately, the plague backfired, wiping out their civilization save for Salazar, who is the final descendant and bears a winged snake tattoo on his neck. He notes that an antidote was developed, though too late to save them. He used his brother, Colonel Salazar, to find the mummies so he could use the infected tissue to resurrect the plague with his biochemical abilities in hopes of conquering the world. He tries the green elixir on a henchman while the others don gas masks; the henchman seems to become a mummy and will be dead within an hour.

The team try to escape the scene, but Bandit knocks down a shovel, alerting Salazar to their presence. As they flee in a mine cart, Salazar hurls a container of the plague, which Jessie accidentally breathes. Jonny commands Bandit to take a different shaft and get help; as the tracks above them seem to run out, they prepare to jump but notice that Jessie is now extremely aged and disfigured. Jonny and Hadji grab her arms and bail before the cart takes a plunge. The henchmen approach but are soon beaten by Race and Estella, led there by Bandit. Race and Estella discover their daughter's predicament; Race is enraged and bolts down the shaft in search of the antidote with Jonny close behind. Dr. Salazar is gone, but the dying thug infected with the plague notes that he intends to commandeer the Quest helicopter. Race and Jonny exit the shaft to find Colonel Salazar, who betrays them at gunpoint. Bandit bites his hand, buying enough time for Race to land his fist squarely on Salazar's glass jaw, knocking him out cold.

They speed towards the pyramid site in Salazar's jeep, finding the Quest helicopter about to take off and Benton in good condition despite a blow to the head. Jonny drives Race below the ascending helicopter; Race enters it and throws a henchman to his death below. He fights Salazar, and the chaos leads to the helicopter's crash into a pyramid. A blade flies off the vehicle and pierces the engine of the jeep below. The helicopter crashes, creating a sinkhole to one of the mummy caverns. Race and Salazar continue to battle as fuel leaks from the ruptured tank. Jonny enters the scene just as Salazar prepares to bash Race with a bone. However, the mummies come to life, declaring that their evil was responsible for their downfall, and that they will not let the same sequence of events repeat itself. Jonny aims to leave, but Race must get the medallion to save Jessie. The mummies break Salazar's plague container, and as he laughs that he has the antidote, a mummy rips the medallion away; Jonny catches it in midair. They escape as the fuel explodes. Back at camp, they administer the antidote, and Jessie's face returns to normal in seconds. The team are thankful for her salvation as the relief of the medicine man crumbles outside.

==Notes==

===Quotes===

*Race - "Okay, I surrender! I know when I'm outnumbered."
~
*Jonny - "Wow...No wonder you're mom took you here for vacation, Jess. This place is...cool." 
~
*Thug - "It's a regular mummy mercado, eh?"
~
*Race - "I wonder how normal families spend their vacations."
~
*Race - "If you're going to keep saving me, maybe we should get remarried."
~
*Race - "Thanks, Bandit. You'll probably need a rabies shot."

===Goofs===

*Estella must have been a quick-thinking poet to render a rhyming quatrain from a Malenque inscription.

===Trivia===

*The Questworld teaser features "fully vectorized" Questworld pets, including the Cyber-Whale (swimming instructor), Scorpia-Monster (file protector), and Virtua-Snake (which tends to slither away).
*Race's vine swing is reminiscent of his attack in The Lizard Men, a classic Jonny Quest episode. The scene in question is shown in the opening titles of the classic series as well.
*Salazar's appearance and use of a glove box to handle the plague is reminiscent of Dr. No, the antagonist from the James Bond film of the same name.

''From'': [[Episodes]]