Chapters 7-8 of Indiana Jones and the Insidious Fountain of Death

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Posted by Goodsport from adsl-216-102-199-185.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net on July 08, 2000 at 02:10:50:



Chapter 7


---by Shaggy


    Elaine was tired, her feet hurt, her body hurt, her head hurt, and she was sick of the tall woman who wouldn't stop jabbering about the most insignificant things while in the middle of what must've been the most horrible place in the world, filled with awful, evil... things and plants and large butterflies and what's more, the sun was setting, not that she could tell through the damn canopy of the rain forest. She swore that as soon as she had a match, she'd burn a million miles of the damn forest down, and salvage as many cocoa beans that she could.

    "See that bird over there? I think it's some sort of peraborinialimonisoson. Very rare, amazing thing," Indigo clamored on about some Latin somethingorother that nobody had the patience to translate, which was good, because every once in a while, it would just be gibberish.

    Shaggy's feet hurt, his head hurt, his body hurt, he was tired, and he was sick of the tall Russian nature jerk trying to get to first base with their apparent tour guide, and what's more, though the jungle was lush and life abundant, with a scorpion making Alex jump every few miles, he could see no sign of any tributaries or estuaries. They'd probably die from some strange jungle fever before they made it back to a decent airport. How the hell did they get so far south if they started from Britain, anyway? Shaggy really started to hate the Yucatan, except for its story. He thought about it for a second and chuckled. "What did you say?" he said, with the delightful tone of a personal joke, a little under his breath, and was met with a prompt smack to the back of his head by Elaine, who whispered "Don't encourage her, Jones."

    "I said that the spiders here are mostly dangerous, but if you ever are lucky to find one pregnant, you can use the eggs to make a delightful omelet," Indi continued to speak. Elaine didn't like that.

    Alex was invigorated, he breathed in the air and let out the air, he chuckled with Indigo and skipped and pranced about, trying to cover up his fear of scorpions in front of the lady. He hung onto every word she had spoken, tapping the scar on his face whenever he had no clue what she was saying, just as long as he got to watch her mouth move. He was sad that he was missing the Summer of Love back in the Cavitalishtic country of America, but he was okay with it, just as long as he was close to Indigo.

    "This is all fascinating, sweety, why don't you tell me more as we walk along?" he said, and was promptly smacked by two different hands.

    Dr. Chan kept walking while singing a dirty little Mandarin tune to himself about drinking and women with ping-pong balls. He wasn't tired, and he proved it by doing a cartwheel or some divine acrobatics every few feet. This annoyed Shaggy, who could understand bits of the song, but not every word, but he kept walking and thinking, and keeping Elaine on his shoulder, who's upper body decided it should take a break and flop onto him. Short Round chuckled, shuffled a deck of cards, and placed them in his coat again, so he could do a triple roll to be a few paces in front of Alex, who was just a few feet behind Indigo so he could admire her... rounded knowledge.

    Indigo was sure that they were absolutely lost and had no hope of ever getting to camp. She pointed out whatever she found interesting, except for Alex, to keep morale up. Then, a miracle happened, she found footprints. Upon closer inspection, she was delighted that not a one of them belonged to Shaggy's clodhoppers and began to run, though her long legs wouldn't have it under other circumstances. Meanwhile, Shaggy in his infinite strength, ignored the pain in his shins, ankles, feet, thighs, waist, torso, arms, neck, head and brain, scooped up Elaine and started jogging after Short Round and Alex, who were sprinting after Indigo, and a few sharp winces later and a deep kiss to keep him going, he found they were at some sort of camp. Indigo was immediately shunned by an elder woman in stereotypical khaki clothing, straw hat and all, and was ushered into a tent. Shaggy grabbed a blanket and set Elaine sleeping by the camp's fire to inspect the rest of the area.

    Shorty and Alex went up to what seemed to be a supervisor, told them their story, and were welcomed to stay the night. They bowed, thanked, smooched, hugged and praised, and were met with an odd smile and a strangely girlish blush, handed pillows and blankets for the crew, and were told to stay out of the tents, which were for Miss Synthia's School for Girls. They nodded understandingly, tossed a pillow to Shaggy who shared it with Elaine, and both slept a peaceful night, one thinking about Dr. Jones, and another thinking about his father.


* * * * *


    Jones came back to the river and brought back two heavy pales of water to a 38 year old Logan Simons and his lovely assistant, who must've been half his age, Jeana Teron. Jeana never really spoke, just did everything she could to make sure that her love's life was as good as possible. Logan was a magician who traveled the world seeking new tricks from ancient kicks. Indy traveled with him three years earlier, and they learned a lot about each other, but neither one believed the other at all. Until now.

    "Well, Doc, I have to admit, I thought you were bullshitting me on the train about that plane crash you avoided in 1936, but now I believe you. Completely, and utterly, I believe you. You shoulda seen the scrap made by that hunkajunk..." Logan said, Jeana nodding, stirring something in a bowl.

    "Oh yeah, kid? Whatcha doing way out here?" he asked, tipping his fedora back.

    Simons help up a single finger, took his lighter out in his other hand, lit his fingernail, causing the rest of the finger to catch fire.

    "Pretty neat, huh?" he said snickering, Indy shrugged.

    Simons held up another finger, it too caught on fire, followed by his thumb, pinkie and forefinger. He pulled back his sleeve and his entire arm caught fire, he stood from the table, held his flaming arm vertical, raised the other one, held them together, and set it on fire as well. Logan grinned at his hands, leveled his arms at a tree, took a step back, bent his elbows, and jerked his arms straight out, sending a stream fire similar to a hose with water straight at the tree, causing it to crash and burn amazingly quick while Logan's arms extinguished themselves.

    He pulled his sleeves back down, and showed his hands in perfect condition, clapped them together and a thick cloud of white dust filled the air. He sat and winked, leaned forward and murmured, "Their called chalore oxynitrates, they're the most burnable things in the world, concentrated pieces of oxygen float into a tree bark and is preserved for a long time, the bark turns into compost with the oxygen trapped inside, just spread it on what you want to burn really thick, and the flame will never touch it. It has to be the Tiusti tree, though, otherwise I may as well cover myself in a home made compost pile."

    "What about the tree you just cut in half?"

    "Simple physics."

    Indy grabbed the gin bottle, laughed a quick "Haha ha," and took a swig. From the higher mountains, Indy watched the sun set and the last embers of the tree stop. He stood and grinned, mumbling "Don't worry, I'll save you, sweetheart."


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


Chapter 8


---by Shaggy


    Shaggy tapped his feet on the cold, steel floor of the cargo liner heading straight for Satenio, Aedona, from there they'd take a train to El Ciudad de Viejo south of Manilinito and then a bus to Teotihuacan. Elaine was in the seat beside him and Alex was lying down in fetal position sleeping in an uncomfortable Indigo's lap. He smiled to himself, watching her try to lift his head off her lap, and then drawing her hand back in disgust when she realized the 4 travelers hadn't bathed in almost a week. She wiped the hair oil off on her blue catshire pants, staining and straining the material. He shook his head and stared at Short Round, who was no longer wearing his tattered brown suit that made him look like a stiff collered imigrant, and was now wearing an ancient Yankees baseball cap a blue vest, a vintage button up shirt which had had it's sleeves carefully torn off, blue pants the same shade as his vest and new Luna running shoes. The cap was pulled over his eyes and his jaw danced around, like he was chewing something while his hand patted his heart through his vest.

    Shaggy couldn't stop thinking about his father's death. He hadn't really had time to vent about it, and there were all these damned distractions. He bit his lip and looked out one of the two small windows in the secretary cabin of the rustic old HT14. Are you out there, Dad? he thought to himself, ...or are you... gone? Abner bit his lip, shook his head and grunted. Now was still not the time. He decided when he was in Teotihuacan, where the drinking age was somewhere around 12, THEN he would have his sentimental moment with his Father's ghost.

    This philosophy didn't last.

    He just couldn't believe he was gone. Henry Indiana Jones, Jr. didn't die like that. He couldn't of. He had gone up against Dinosaurs, Marduk, Soviets, the CIA, Mexican gringos and even God himself, and he won every time. He couldn't of died in a plane crash... could he? He bet that he could've saved him if he had stayed, but he jumped, just like Short Round and Elaine and Alex. He abandoned his father and let him die. Now he was going on the same cockamamy quest that had killed him? He didn't think so. No, the plane killed him, not the quest. But fate did have something to do with it... He was going back to New Jersey with his mother so that he could give up archaeology for good. No more treasure hunting, no more adventures. He made a few marks on the clipboard he held on his left arm and scribbled a few marks.

    Tic tac toe. He won against himself.

    When they got to Satenio, he explained his thoughts to the group.

    "You sure you Indy son, Shaggy?" Short Round asked, giving him a dirty look.

    "It's... It's... hopeless, Dr. Chen," Shaggy said, his voice cracking, "Dad is dead. There was no way he could've made it out of there. He's dead. You fools are going on a wild goose chase, the same one that killed him. If you're smart, you'll come with me," Shaggy replied. Elaine smacked him and got on the train. Alex and Indigo joined Shaggy as they went through U.S. customs unscathed, and each carried on with his or her life.


* * * * *


    "Sorry, Jones," Simons said, "but I can't help you out this time. We're not exactly in South America, anymore."

    "Huh?" a hat with a body attatched asked, sitting up on the hammock.

    "This is going to be amazingly hard to understand, I don't completely understand it, myself, but you've been on so many fool hardy adventures that I think you'll believe it," Logan said, "This realm is called the Shadow World. It's the same thing as the realm you're from, only..."

    "...everything is opposite and time flies by faster in one world than the other," Indiana stated with wide eyes.

    "You mean..."

    Indy stood up and walked out of the boat to have a look around. What earlier that morning had been a lush beautiful rain forest was a desert.

    "Yes, I've been to the shadow world before. That's why we left your wife back there. If she had come here and then back there, that injury would've killed her because of how long she'd had it in her arm." He looked down. The river was red.

    "The Shadow World is dying, Jones, because an Unworthy has drunk from the fountain of life," Logan said clasping Indy on the shoulder, "It is very much like your Holy Grail. Where it begets eternal life, the Fountain of Life brings eternal youth. It is here, in this realm, somewhere where the Aetherium Claus passes between our worlds," he said, holding up a glass of white wine in the hand that wasn't holding Indy back from jumping in the river and swimming for home. "When you landed in my tent, I knew that Jahovah had sent you to save my realm, and yours. Think about it, Jones, with your experiance and my dexterity, we can vanquish the Unworthy and restore the fountain to it's true power."

    "But I have 2 families to take care of. They need me," Indy said, staring into the river of blood.

    "My world Terra needs you, your world Gaia needs you. Do you think that I won't miss my wife? This conversation alone has passed half a day in your world. Damnit, Jones, you have to help me!"

    Indy looked up and scratched his chin, "I hate you for the decision you're making me make, Logan. And I don't give this idea any credence, but I'll do it. I guess... I've been on more far out tales."

    ****
    The priest was speaking more incoherent latin as Marion placed a felt hat and a kangaroo skin bullwhip on top of a large roman marble cross, reading

    HENRY "INDIANA" JONES, JR.
    JULY 1899-AUGUST 1967
    "BLESSED BE THE MORTALS;
    AND BELOVED BE THEIR HEROES"

    A hole in the clouds allowed the sun to shine brightly on the marker making it look like his soul was smiling down on it. She collapsed on her knees at the sight next to her adopted niece, Elsa Brody, her face ready to explode with tears. The entire Brody family came to pay their respects to the "late," great Dr. Jones. A man in a white shirt and black tie tapped her shoulder and helped her up, and behind the raven and silver haired woman were 200 people. Some were students, some were friends and contacts, and a few were extended family only showing up out of respect. Marion fell on her knees again and cried, and looked at the grave of her husband. Shaggy kneeled next to her and hugged her. He decided that now was the time to vent.


* * * * *


2 years later, Xi'kon Nem, Vietnam

    Shaggy cocked the Geres and Jakobs IM-17 Sniper rifle on top of the bell tower of the small village, looked through the scope, and fired. He looked through the scope and waited for another person to move.

    "We're growing tired of asking you people," First Lt. Mario Genore yelled in Cantonese Chinese, a dialect somewhat similar to the one that that natives spoke, from the center of the village, "And your town population has already been cut in half. Now I expect that each of you want to go home and sleep tonight, but we are NOT putting up with any more of your bullshit. Where the Hell is the P.O.W. camp?"

    "Ask them where the Dragon's tooth is," one mercenary called out in English.

    Another civ moved. Shaggy did his duty as a hired gun. Major Steven Jenners ran into the camp yelling something about a trap and the land below him exploded.

    "Fire at will! The bastards booby trapped the place! No Vietcong are to be left alive!" Genore screamed at the top of his lungs in english, pulling out a Hawken semiautomatic and shooting whoever he could.

    The barage of the 15 mercenaries, not including Shaggy, with nearly infinite munitions against a civilian town was overwhelming. Shaggy lined up an old man who was raising his hands up and screaming, "I'll tell, I'll tell!" in perfect english in his scope. He pulled the trigger and reloaded. He moved his site over to a crying baby who's mother was dead, and fired. He muttered a prayer for the little one, and reloaded.

    Mario was having about as much fun as he could. He was a cynical bastard who had an avid belief that you should try to kill as many people as you could before you died. Unfortunately, the only way to legally do that would be to join the government, fortunately, the government's idea of a perfect attitude came in the form of Genore and he had made it through basic training with flying colors. His new philosophy was that Everyone Was the Enemy. He hated missions where he had to take no prisoners and that sort of complete bull. He was running out of mms fast and there were still people scattering. What was worse was that he was in the middle of the battle and subject to friendly fire. A man with a knife came up from behind him and raised his flabby arm high into the air. Mario looked him in the eye and watched him fold as the only sniper in the corp had just blown a window in his skull.

    Shaggy reloaded.


* * * * *


    Indigo raised the glass shard up and peered at it through the university microscope.

    "Ah... Mid 19th century, possibly from a church window or elaborate vase," she corrected her peer.

    "Very good," Dr. George Sacul said, nudging her with his elbow, "you just may make a fine archaeologist yet. You get an A for analyzing it accurately, and a minus for the hesitation. Send the next 2 in."

    Indigo and Lesly walked out of the small archaeological department at Barnhart College.

    "Damnit, I hate you, Indi," Lesly said, grinning, "It feels like everything is a contest with you."

    "Maybe it is. What do you care?"

    "I care because I always lose."

    Indi stopped in her tracks.

    "Ah... Lesly, could you excuse me for a minute, I think? I have to go say 'hey' to an old friend."

    "Hey," Lesly said, "He can't be more important than me."

    "I let him sleep in my lap once."

    "See ya."

    Alex walked up to Indigo, winked and hugged her.

    "We need to talk, sweetheart," he said.

    "Wow, you've changed," she said, taken back by his appearance. He was now bald and donned an eye patch on his left eye, making his scar look even more threatening.

    "Uh huh," he said, "Shaggy's in trouble, he got suckered going with my Dad's old buddies. Can you ditch class?"

    Indigo nodded, "But why do you need me?"

    "Because, sweetheart," he said, dragging her by the arm, "There's a very sacred item that belongs in a very rich museum called the Dragon's Tooth Saphire that he went after."

    "And if they find it first, it will end up in some collection."

    "Yeah. I HAVE to save Shaggy, I don't want him to end up like my father, and YOU NEED to steal the Dragon's Tooth from them before they can put it up on the black market," he stopped, "Are you in?"

    Indigo nodded again, smiling that after eight quarters of classes, she'd finally get some field work and a crack at an adventure.


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





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