Chapters 1-6 of Indiana Jones and the Insidious Fountain of Death

Posted by Goodsport from adsl-216-102-199-185.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net on February 26, 2000 at 01:25:34:

Chapter 1

    "Dad!" Shaggy said triumphantly, braving rough stares as the odor of the sewer was still on his person in the hotel lobby, as he burst through the lavish studio, "Dad, I got it!"

    Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. came out of the bathroom in his robe into the living room, cupped his hand over his nose and looked at his son.

    "Whatever you have, it doesn't smell like flowers," the 67-year-old man stated. His cheeks were wrinkled and hair bright white, with a small bald patch on top of his head. His back had gotten a little weaker than in his younger years, too. Other than that, the old man was in perfect health.

    "The last piece of the puzzle, pop. I told you I could do it," came a very cocky reply.

    "Ah..." Indiana said, sitting in his robe on a blue leather couch, looking up at his son, "You had no business, Abne- sorry, Shaggy. Do you know what danger you put yourself in? I could've lost you!"

    "Oh, Dad. You sound like grandpa when you say things like that, now take a look at this."

    Shaggy, acting as nonchalant as possible in front of his mentor, was actually exploding with joy on the inside. His greatest want in life was to make his father say something like, "Nice job, son," or "Why don't you tag along?" He took the aged piece of cloth out of his pants and set it in the correct spot on what was already made of the map on a ruffy board. The map to the city of the golden mountain was now complete.

    "Who knows what else we might find from this thing, Dad? The Ark of the Covenant? The Towers of Babel?" and then clasping a somewhat clean hand on his father's shoulder, Shaggy said, "The Holy Grail?"

    "The Ark's in the U.S. government's hands, the towers of babel were destroyed and the Holy Grail's lost forever in H'alecandretta," came a mumbled reply.

    "Huh?"

    "Nevermind, that. And what's this 'we' stuff, kid? There's no chance in Hell that you're going on this expedition, Shaggy. It's just me and two or three students that I deem fit. You had no right to put yourself in danger. What if Janus Hershey came after you or there was some sort of trap?"

    "Uh, Dad... I don't think we have to worry about Hershey anymore."

    "What?"

    "He came after me... Some sort of... eh... trap did him in," a sort of uneasiness filled the teen's speech.

    "And you made it past all that, boy?"

    "I even looked Corna in the eye. Sort of. Eye socket. The walls in the sewer chamber were kinda fake, pop."

    Indiana just sighed and sat back on the couch. He nodded toward the bathroom.

    "You smell like a sword thrower I once knew. Hit the shower, son. We have a plane to catch."

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Chapter 2

    When they finally got to Cambridge, Marion Ravenswood-Jones was almost done screaming at her husband about putting ideas in their son's head.

    "Marion, you know I can't do my old globe-trotting nowadays…"

    "So you'll let your son do it for you, you bastard?"

    "You know you're beautiful when you're angry."

    "You know I'm more beautiful now than when I was sixteen?"

    "The boy wants to go, sweetheart," he said, speeding up the Ford.

    "Oh yeah? What are you after this time? The… the… shield of Tututiticaca?" Marion said, her lack of archeological knowledge showing through her teeth.

    "No, actually, the lost city of Tt…" Henry stopped himself from sounding silly, "Never mind. The point is that archeology has gone the way of astronomy. Everyone was making up myths and having adventures in the stars and we didn't know anything about them, but now, stars are just a bunch of balls of gases. Archeology is research, Marion, reading. Studying and analyzing if we're lucky. There are no lost cities, there are no forgotten cultures, there are no ancient languages, it's just fact, and the fact is, Marion, that X never, ever marks the spot."

    "So what you're saying is that archeology is an exact science?"

    "Exactly!"

    "Belloq seemed to disagree with you."

    "And now Belloq is dead, and I'm still alive."

    "Fine, you win, you big jerk. Why did I ever marry you?"

    Jones stopped the car on the side of the road.

    "Because, Marion, I love you."

    "Oh, Indy…"

    "Besides, there's just one relic that I think is in that city."

    "Indy…"

    "Yes."

    "What in the Hell do you think is important enough to fool me into one of your college speeches to get my…"

    "…our."

    "…OUR son to endanger his life?"

    "Something that Coronado, Cortez, Listo, Fererre..."

    "Get on with it, Indy."

    "...could only dream of finding. The fountain of youth, Marion."

    "Oh."

    There was a sudden silence as Henry continued driving, Indy looked all around himself. He thought that if he actually believed that the fountain was real, then he was as crazy as Marion's Dad or Belloq was about the Ark.

    "Indy?" Marion suddenly broke the silence, and being in deep thought, Indy swerved across the road, cursing at himself.

    "What do you want, sweetheart?!" Henry said, trying to stay on the road.

    "Keep your eyes on the road, Jones!"

    "I know, Marion!"

    A truck swerved past them. Indy slammed the brake, but nothing happened.

    "Indy!"

    "Marion! What?"

    "What?"

    "What is it Marion!"

    "Why aren't you stopping!? Hit the brake, you bastard!"

    "The brake isn't working, Marion, but at least the road is flattening out."

    They broke through a farmer's fence and were heading straight for a cow. Marion stuck her head out the window and started to wave it off in a panic.

    Jones braced for impact, but nothing happened. They had stopped in a puddle of mud, sending Marion out the window from the sudden stop.

    "Marion!"

    The doctor got out and tredged through the mud to find his love covered in mud and laughed, almost maniacally.

    "Shut up, Jones," Marion pouted through gritted teeth, "After you pay for those brakes, you're paying for my dress. And..."

    She pulled him down into the mud.

    "..a new jacket."

    They both broke into a fit of senile laughter, hugging and kissing passionately. Indy pulled back suddenly.

    "Where did we have to be, again?"

    "Don't worry about it, Jones, we'll talk about it in the morning."

    She wrapped her legs around him and kissed him passionately as the cow gave off a moo before falling asleep standing in front of their car.

*************************

Chapter 3

    The sentence, 'How did I end up working with so many insane people?' went through Abner's mind every few minutes at the Historical Society's Personal museum. A man with a large scar down his face, wearing a bullet proof vest and a dagger on his belt to his right, and a fair skinned woman with dark hair and an eccentric look in her eye to his left. They were following Dr. Chen down a hall filled with Egyptian and Arabian ahnks with a onyx trove every few feet, all three trying to make out the Doctor's broken English.

    "Are you getting any of this?" The 21-year old woman whispered to Shaggy. He nodded slightly.

    "We almost there," Dr. Chen said to the three young adults. He led them into a white room. There was a table in the middle, and a projector aimed at one of the walls.

    "Please sit," Short Round said as he fed a slide into the projector. "Where's Indy?" He asked Shaggy.

    "I don't know, he must have gotten caught up somewhere." Shorty nodded and then addressed the entire group.

    "You all come here for me to tell you about the legendary Fountain of Youth, before you leave. You know the Fountain is said to be imaginary, but that no stop Dr. Jones from looking for it. It make old people young, and heal all sicknesses. Spanish explorers look for it a long time ago, but they no find it. People have looked for it for centuries, but no one has found it and lived."

    "Which is why we're here," the man sitting across from Shaggy said excitedly. Abner looked at him with amusement. His name was Alex. He was 22 years old and one of Indiana's best students. He wore olive green baggy pants, a bulletproof vest over a long sleeved black shirt, and the foot long dagger was kept in a holster on his belt. He had tall, brown boots on, and his ear-length dark blonde hair was going in all directions.

    "Yes," Dr. Chen said absently. He turned off the lights and turned on the projector.

    "These are pictures of what the fountain may look like." He clipped on several shots of regular looking fountains.

    "You said no one has ever found it and lived. Does that mean someone has found it?" The young woman asked.

    "Maybe. About thirty years ago, some lady say her husband found the Fountain, but he die of injuries before he could tell anyone but her about it."

    Shaggy looked over at the young women sitting beside him. She had on black pants and a white blouse, and had glasses that accented her dark eyes. Her straight black hair fell to her shoulders, and she sat forward, interested.

    "Is she still alive?"

    "She was alive three years ago, maybe she dead now."

    All four looked up when they heard a knock on the door.

    "Dr. Jones!" Short Round exclaimed excitedly, turned on the lights, and ran forward to greet Indiana who was standing in the doorway.

    "Good to see you again, Shorty," Indy said and gave the doctor a brief hug. "Sorry I'm late, I got a little…preoccupied yesterday." The two students and Shaggy walked forward.

    "Alex, Ana, how are you?" he said and shook both of their hands. "Shaggy," he said and gave the seventeen-year-old a half hug.

    "Where's Mom?" Abner asked.

    "She wanted to stay in the hotel, said she didn't want to come out and get mixed up in another adventure. I'm sure she'll show up sooner or later though. Hopefully. She made me walk, she took the car. So, what's happening so far?"

    "I think that we've come to the conclusion that the Fountain of Youth isn't anywhere, not in any lost, or found, city, but we're going to look for it anyway," Alex said with a tone of sarcasm in his voice.

    "Great! That's how all good adventures start out!" Indy said enthusiastically.

*************************

Chapter 4

    Alex laughed. Hard. What Shaggy had said to him was the most amusing thing that he could've heard all day long. He didn't need to hear that lecture. Alex grew up in Southern Nyemova, just east of Estonia. His accent was gone, and he spoke 6 languages. No one would be able to tell that he was Russian if he didn't have a Soviet symbol tattoo'd on his belly. His great grandfather, a Cossack, his grandfather, a leader in the Communist revolt, his father, a Relic hunter for Mother Russia. For at least four generations, Alex Kublev's family had been rebels, whether they were rebelling against the Romanovs or rebelling against a common way of life, they were rebels. And so was Alex. He had seen his father gun ho it into Africa, killing many people and destroying precious artifacts to get the golden sword of whatshisface or the ornate coffin of whoshername, and once told his father to stop, but that was how he got the scar on his face. He wanted to become an archeologist so he could save what his father would've destroyed, so, in a way, Alex was rebelling against his father's way of life.

    "No, I didn't get this scar from your Father's whip, it was from my great grandfather's knout at my father's hands," Alex replied with a chuckle.

    "Yikes, that's harsh, brother. You know my Dad got a scar from that whip? Right across the chin trying to get away from some animal, probably a snake or something. He hates snakes. Slimy little buggers, some can unhinge their jaws and swallow a person whole."

    "I can understand that, I hate scorpions. They don't look that harmless, right? But one little sting from a black one's tail, and" he made a clap with his hands, "You're gone. My father died in my mother's arms like that, got into his sleeping bag. She tried to suck the poison out, bad idea. She died, too. I still remember..." Alex shuddered, "She was blue and cold... Like a stillborn trapped in purgatory..." He suddenly went silent and looked at his feet, leaning his elbows on his kneecaps in the plane. The woman across from them in the plane, whose name was Elaine Goldsmith, was listening intently. She leaned over to pat Alex on the shoulder and found herself being slammed repetitively against the back of her lightly cushioned chair. Unaware of what was going on, she just jerked back and forth until she heard a *THOCK* and sat in her chair, dazed.

    Alex stood up from his chair, shook his jaw around and looked apologetically at Elaine, "Sorry, instinct. Sorta runs in my family. Sorry."

    "What go on back there, kiddie?" Dr. Chen called from the co-pilot's seat, Indy sitting next to him in the pilot's chair.

    Shaggy moved from the position he had been in to right hook Alex and kneeled over at Elaine, who had fainted.

    "Elaine, Elaine? Sweetheart, come on, talk to me," Shaggy said, nudging her shoulder and lightly slapping her cheek. When she didn't wake up, he yelled for Dr. Chen, who was in the cockpit. Dr. Chen started out of the cockpit, when he heard a second *THOCK*

    Elaine had just slapped Shaggy, with full force, too.

    "Uhn, what happened?" the amber eyed, Celtic skinned girl of nineteen cried, staring at the blurry figure of Shaggy Jones as Alex went into the cockpit to avoid anything awkward happening.
    "It was Alex, he was startled when you made a hand towards him, sweety."

    "Oh..." she didn't know what to say, so she played around with her long red hair and stared back at her book on Ancient Mexico. Shaggy moved next to her, a little bit allured by her so very, very American ways of rolling with the punches.

    "Hey, what'cha reading?" he asked, putting an arm around on her shoulder, and happy he wasn't slapped again.

    "I'm reading up on Chimelech, the city rained on by the local Aztec God."

    "I'm in the mood for a history lesson," Shaggy replied, leaning in closer.

    Elaine looked around, her eyes shifting around and her body starting to shake. Her high socks made her look a little out of place, and her hair-band went over her somewhat large ears. Her two front teeth were chipped from when she fell headlong off a horse in her early years, and the spirit of existentialism was not in her with any other subject other than ancient civilizations of Mexico, Europe and Southern Asia. She wore a khaki dress that hugged her hips and the bottom of her knee caps, and a blouse made to make her breasts and shoulders look bigger, but failed when she covered them all up with her Irish grandma's knitted woolen sweater, buttoned only with a single oyster pearl at the neck. When she finally rustled up the courage to speak, it was a studdered whisper, giving Shaggy an excuse to lean in closer so their faces were inches apart. He forced her to look him in the eyes. "Ah... Ah... Well, supposedly it's showered with, ah, gold, so it has some qualities of the, um, ancient city of, uh, El Dorado, except that the people there abandoned it, oh, ah, because once everything turned to gold, it was considered worthless and unusable. See?" She pointed to a picture of a man cursing the rain god by shaking a wand at the clouds. Shaggy shook his head, signifying he didn't completely understand. "Think about it: They can't use it to make food because it melts when hot, it's bad for using armor because it's easily pierced, and it shines brightly in the Sun, but they couldn't drink it, so it must be cursed by the Sun God. They high tailed it, um, into Teoti... Teotihuacan soon after, which is famous for it's pyramid to the sun. A, ah, coincidence you're Dad and I both find very unlikely to be a, um, coincidence. However, if we actually find the city, which I have no, eh, doubt will take years of struggle just to get a grant, a legend says that a map will tell us, ah, where the fountain is."

    "Fountain?"

    "Of youth. Isn't this exciting, Mr. Jones?"

    "Holy..."

    "Watch you're mouth, I'm christian, Mr. Jones."

    "Right, but one thing."

    "What?"

    "Don't call me Mr. Jones, call me Shaggy," he said with a coy wink as he leaned foreward, and closed his eyes, going in for a kiss. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around him, closing her eyes as well, waiting, but the plane shook and Shaggy was thrown back into his original seat, where he promptly put his seatbelt on, mumbling something about turbulance. Elaine's book dropped on the floor and she clumsily buckled her seatbelt, looking a little depressed at Shaggy.

    In the cockpit, things were not so lovey-dovey.

    "Luck never change when I with you, Docta Jones! You no listen me! You listen me," Chen was going off.

    "I know, I live longer! Alex, take a seat or get in the back. Damn!" Indy pounded his control stick while Short Round was flipping switches and checking measurements, "It's stuck! Uh oh..."

    "'Uh oh?'" Alex repeated, "'Uh oh!?' What do you mean 'Uh oh'?"

    Shorty peered out the window and pointed, "That 'Uh oh.' That one big 'Uh oh.'" They were headed for a wall in one of the Sierra Occidental's mountains. "Day ga voo, Docta Jones."
    "Shut up and help me out, Shorty. Alex, check for parachutes."

    "We have four parachutes and there are five of us," came a quick respond.

    "Rats. Shorty, get the kids out of here, if I make it, meet me in Teotihuacan. Tell Marion I loved her."

    Alex saluted and Short Round nodded, they both took the parachutes and went into the passanger chamber. Jones watched the four jump out. The wall was closer, and the control stick moved, it just didn't have any effect on the plane pitch or roll. He looked out the window and realized he couldn't perform the old rubber raft trick he had done last time. The wall was ever closer, now he could make out tiny crevices in the stone...

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Chapter 5

    Thirty feet from the wall. Indy shuddered and turned to the back of the plane. He quickly looked around and saw one of those little floatation devices. He grabbed it and looked to the open door of the plane.

    He took the rope that was on the end of the float and tied it to the bar connected to the door.

    "Holy shit…" he said in anticipation of what he was going to do. Then he jumped out the door, holding on tight to the float and hoping the plane wouldn't blow up.

    He fell down about ten feet, and the plane made contact with the mountain. In a huge blast, the plane exploded. Something heavy hit Indiana's head, and he fell down, down…

* * * * *

    Shaggy landed in a heap on the ground, and heard three others land beside him. He pushed the parachute off of him and ran to Elaine, who was still untangling herself. He picked her up and kissed her deeply.

    "Thank God you're okay!" he said to her.

    "What? I get no kiss?" Shorty said with a smile. Alex was slowly picking himself off the ground.

    Shaggy suddenly looked up sadly. He couldn't see the mountain from there because of the trees, but he could imagine what had happened. The other three looked up too, and they all stood there silently for a minute.

    "Now what do we do?" Alex said quietly.

    "Hello?" A voice made all four turn their heads. A tall young woman, about seventeen, stood about thirty feet away from them. She had on dark blue jeans and a light blue nylon jacket. She carried a bookbag on her back, and her light brown hair was pulled into a ponytail.

    She jogged towards them when she saw their parachutes.

    "Did you guys come out of an airplane?"

    "Yes, plane crash into mountain," Short Round said.

    "You're the only survivors?" she asked.

    "Well, there were only five of us on the plane," Elaine said, paused, and continued. "Yes, we're the only survivors."

    "Oh." She didn't seem to know what to say, so Shaggy stepped forward.

    "My name's Shaggy, this is Elaine, Alex, and Dr. Chen," he introduced.

    "Short Round," Dr. Chen corrected.

    "My name's Indigo. I was out hiking, my school was on a trip, and I kinda got lost. It's really easy to get lost out here, the place is so big. So, where are you headed?"

    "Well, we were heading to Teotihuacan with my father, but…"

    "We still go. I tell Docta Jones we meet him there, so we still go. Indy always make it out alive."

    "I'm afraid you may be wrong this time, brother," Alex said.

    "Well, I'm sure someone at my camp knows the direction there, it's just I don't exactly know the way to my camp…"

    Alex stepped forward. "We can help you." He felt someone kick him in the back of the leg.

    "Alex, we really don't need to burden her with our presence," Shaggy said through clenched teeth.

    "Oh no, it's no problem. Thanks a lot! It's just…you guys aren't serial killers or anything are you?"

* * * * *

    Indiana Jones opened his eyes and the first thing he heard was a pounding. Then he realized that the pounding was inside his head. He tried to sit up but his head was throbbing. So he moved his eyes around. He found he was sitting on a straw hammock, strung between two trees. He was outside, but under a tent. From behind him, he heard a voice saying…

    "Indiana Jones! Long time no see."

*************************

Chapter 6

    Indy sat up further and groaned, he could make the outline of a silver haired woman leaning in front of him, in tattered, vintage khakis.

    "Marion?" he asked outloud, his own voice making his head pound even more, "Am I in heaven, sweety?"

    "According to the Pagua, yes, but not to me. Don't you remember me Jones?" the figure asked.

    "I just fell out of a plane, my back aches and you look," he moaned in pain, "...like my wife through the bottom of an empty beer glass."

    "Wife?" she was suprised and shocked, "What do you mean wife?"

    "Marion Ravenwood. We have a kid and are married and have been in love for twenty years, but not all in a straight row."

    The woman's head sank and she walked out of the room, crying. Indy thought it over and started to go back to sleep so his head wouldn't explode. Then he had a thought, his eyes sprang open, and then immediately closed. He tapped his right eye. He was wearing an eyepatch for a reason. He cursed and forced himself up, ignoring the flaming dagger that scratched at the inside of his kneecap with every step and the hammer that came down on the small of his back that came with every hop. He found the old woman sitting outside the tent, still in tears. His face straightened out, his bulldog cheeks puffed up, and his hat sagged foreward. The grey stubble on his chin gleamed with sweat as he looked up in the sunless canopy and saw a very old plain. He mumbled something under his breath, and his lip quivered.

    "Deidre Campbell."

    She looked up with him with tears in her eyes; not that he could make them out, but he still sensed the emotion; "My poor, bereft husband Indiana Jones."

    "I am dead, aren't I?" he said, staring at his bloody right arm.

    "Almoost," she replied in her celtic accent, "Yo're in a plan where yoo moost choose, life..." she had a calm whisper in her voice, as if she was an angel echoing,"...or death. If you choose death, you can be young again and live with me here forever, we can adventure again, Indiana, like we did so loong uhgo," she looked whistfully at him.

    "And if I choose life, I'll go back to Marion and my son and being old and injured. Why the get-up, Deidre? Why not show yourself to me young, and myself in perfect condition?"

    "I was going to lie to yoo to gate yoo to stai with me, Indy, but I luv yoo too mooch," she gestured all around her, "I was never buried, my body never given last rights, this..." she gestured around here, "IS my life after death in limbo, only a step up from pergatory. I can't die here, but I control everything."

    "Sounds like a good deal to me, Deidre. Why don't you just dream up a new me and send me back to my life?"

    "NO!" she screamed with a flash of red in her eyes, the Earth quaking before she calmed herself down. She took a deep breath and said, "You doon't understond, Indy. This place is like being in a dream, I can't escape it, I can't wake up until God has recognized me dead. The only way to do that would be to find muy body and bury it with a priest. Why can't you see that it's impossible for me to be without you? This is my eternity, join me Indiana, I love you."

    "I promise I'll find you Deidre, but I can't stay here," he walked without any pain and held her in his arms, clearly seeing the auburn haired beauty he had left behind, "I have a family now, and Marcus' family to take care of. He died, too, Deidre, poisoned. I have a seventeen-year-old boy, and you should see him... He's got my eyes," he held her tighter, feeling young again, "And Marion... I love her and she loves me, we'll be together forever," Deidre's spirit was burying her face in his now burly chest, "Deidre, sweety, I promise, I'll send you to heaven. Don't cry, sweetheart, you know that I'll always love you."

    She made a cloud appear next to Indy with her hand and images of Marion in a hotel room rubbing a picture of her family and smiling were projected from it.

    "This is how I've watched you, Indy, I know this, but I thought that..." her voice trailed off.

    "That I loved you more?"

    "Yes. I loved you more than anyone in my entire life, and death, Indy. But you have to go, but be warned, Jones, if you leave me, there are so many dangers ahead. What's so important that you'd risk your life and myself being in purgatory?"

    "Not twenty years ago, I would've said, 'Fortune and glory,' but I just realized something Deidre. The only thing important to me is family. I'll never give up on you, Deidre, never."

    Deidre leaned her self on the tent and turned into nothing but a whisper of breath of her former self, and a sudden spiraling portal opened up before Indy. He ran through as his former self and woke up, bruised, tattered, and having horrible vision in his right eye. He noticed he was in a tent, and heard a voice say, "Hello, Indy, it's been a while."

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Shaggy or Indy's Girl, we are anxiously awaiting your Chapter 7! :)

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