A piercing scream came from an Aztec warrior, who got whammed in the head with a crowbar. "That was the last of it!" Izzy cried from the blimp.
"Just stay strong, and hope Rick is on his way!" Ardneth yelled, so tired he could barely keep his mind in focus. He was still going on with the battle with the ruthless killer. As much as he wanted to let his guard down, he couldn't disappoint his men. As the leader of the Medjai, it was his destiny.
The sound of hissing air filled the ship. Izzy looked up in horror to see a hole the size of a mango blown right through the sails. The Aztecs finally got a hold of their cannons, and were aiming them right at him. "Ship down! Ship down!" he yelled, preparing for the hard landing. "Can't say this never happened before," Izzy laughed strangely.
"You're all mad! Mad I tell you!" Jonathan yelled from behind a tree.
"Please? It'll work!" Evi said, trying to pull him from the tree.
"No! I'm not going out there looking like a buffet!" he pouted, reluctantly coming into view. He was wearing about thirty prices of meat, and covered in sauce. "Is this junk supposed to appeal to mangy animals?" he asked.
"Yes. Now get your butt out there and get us something!" Rick laughed.
Jonathan gave him a glare as he snatched another piece of meat from Rick. "At least I can leave with my dignity in tact," he grumbled, placing it on his head.
"Sure, whatever," Evi smirked.
"Hey. You're not the person who has meat on his head! Give the poor boy a break," Rick sighed.
Jonathan strode off into the deep forest, feeling like a hero. It wasn't long before he spotted his first victim. He thought he could make out a small animal. "Here piggy piggy," Jonathan whispered, moving closer to the bunch of leaves. He threw his arms forward blindly, hoping to catch the creature. Instead, a tapir at least four feet tall leapt past him, sniffing the meat instantly. "Ha... Big piggy," he stammered, looking into its fierce eyes. Then it charged, hooves beating on the forest floor. "AHH!" Jonathan screamed running back to the others. "Help!" he wailed, pushing the leaves out of his way. "What'd you do?" Rick sighed hopelessly, seeing his horrified expression. The pig squealed loudly, tearing through the underbrush. "RICK!" Evi screamed, seeing the pig charging at him. "Whoa!" he jumped, getting knocked down by the beast. He fought back from its sharp tusks, trying to get a hold of them. "Here!" Lin yelled, throwing him a sword. The last squeal uttered out of the tapir as he fell over, blood dripping from the wound. "A simple thank you Jonathan would be nice," Jonathan smiled.
"Thank you Jonathan," Rick mumbled, "for once again almost killing me!"
"Oh forget that, we have the sacrifice, all we have to do is say the spell!" Alex said encouragingly. "Let's get to it then," Evi grinned.
"Give up! Your army will never be able to defeat mine!" Coatl urged, getting tired of the same thing going on for hours. "You may have numbers, but you'll never have the strength and courage of the Medjai," Ardneth said, finding the strength to continue on.
Izzy was surrounded by the Aztec soldiers; only having the protection of his broken airship. "I don't know about you, but I'm not the nest sword fighter in town!" Izzy yelled.
Ardneth tossed him a curved battle sword, aiming right at his face. "Watch it!" Izzy scowled, taking a look at the cruddy thing. "I think it still has army of Anubis guts on it!" his thoughts quickly changed when the first warrior charged at him. Luckily, they didn't have very much armor on. Izzy shut his eyes and swung the sword back and forth. He looked at his wreckage, seeing the soldier fall over onto the sand. "I did it! I did it!" he said triumphantly, waving the sword in the air. "Now make me happy and kill two hundred more!" Ardneth shouted, hoping to stop his annoying outbursts.
Alex slowly placed the tapir carcass on top of the stone altar. "Hey," Alex said over to Acalan, "I know what I'm doing,"
"Just say the spell and hope it works," Evi sighed.
"Sangi- lanka, rang, lesam!" Alex said, hoping it was loud enough for the sun god to hear. Everyone turned to Acalan, hoping he said it right. He gave an uncertain thumbs up, learning it from his new friends. "Nice," Jonathan laughed, "now all you need to know is how to talk back to your parents!"
"Why didn't it work?" Lin asked.
"Maybe the sun god is taking a break," Rick suggested.
"Yes, the lord of the sun is taking a break," Evi smirked.
Acalan said something over to Jonathan, who repeated it to the rest of the gang. "Long distance. Should respond in a few minutes,"
A thunderous clash of lightning hit the nearest tree, making it flame up instantly. "Or maybe he's feeling real energetic today!" Jonathan whimpered, moving behind Rick. "What do you ask of me?" he roared from the sky.
"We've come to enter into the future to exactly..." Acalan began, looking towards Jonathan for the information. "1953!" he added.
"And what would be your purpose there?" the sun god demanded.
"To stop Coatl from taking over the world would be nice!" He grinned.
"You can't be proper; even when you're talking to the most important God in Aztec history?" Evi growled.
"No, now let me continue." Jonathan said annoyingly. "We need to be able to stop him, and the only was to do that is to send us and this village to London so we can get back to our lives!"
"I see you are not from this time, I will grant your wish,"
Everyone blinked, then were surrounded by familiar surroundings.
"The movie theater!" Evi yelled, seeing she was in the same seat she was in before the movie started. "We got to find him!" Rick said, helping her up. They ran out of the building, only to see rubble and destruction. "Looks like he's already been here!" Lin gasped.
All the villagers tentatively followed, not believing what they were seeing.
"Well this is London... Kinda," Evi announced, seeing the mess around them. "Just stay here and DON'T touch anything!" she said hurriedly, joining back up with everyone else.
Rick started towards a distraught family, looking for answers. "What happened?" he asked.
"It was so weird! This man walks out of the theater along with hundreds of soldiers, all wearing creepy costumes! He destroyed everything! All our homes, everything!" he gasped.
"Well we're going to stop him, that's for sure!" Rick said confidently.
"You better," he smirked, starting to pick up bits of his house.
"How are we supposed to know where he is now?" Evi said, breathing a sigh of disappointment. Acalan went over and picked up a tattered piece of newspaper, showing it to her. "Strange army travels southward across Europe," she read, thinking about what it said. "Wait a minute, what do we know that's south of here?" Rick asked.
"Steak n' Shake?" Jonathan grinned.
"Try again, this time, put some thought in it!" Rick persisted.
"It can't be," Evi gasped, not believing her ears. "Yes. It looks like they want the book of the dead," he finished sullenly.
"Let me guess, he wants to resurrect more people for his army to take over the world," Jonathan said blandly, "whoop- de- do!"
"How are we supposed to get to Egypt from here?" Lin asked.
"I don't know!" Rick panicked.
"You're Rick! You always have a plan!" Evi yelled, beginning to panic herself.
"Well... I might have an idea," Alex said slyly.
"Thank you!" Evi said, more than relieved. Her smile turned into a horrified gasp as she saw what her son was looking at. A huge military plane was only thirty feet away from them, keys in the ignition. "No, no, no, no! I will never go on anything that flies ANY more! That ship sailed a long time ago! With me dangling off the side!" she yelled, begging for Rick to back her up.
"Well... It's not a bad ide-"
"-RICK!"
"I mean horrible idea! Bad, the worst!"
"Common, how are we supposed to get there?" Alex demanded.
Even though she didn't want to, Evi, along with everyone else, boarded the plane, hoping to make it to Egypt alive.
"Would you like me to hold your hand?" Rick asked, trying to be nice.
"No, and I'm not your co- pilot either!" she scowled, folding her arms.
"Why can't I be the co- pilot!" Jonathan complained.
"Because you didn't almost fall a thousand feet from a wooden balloon!" Evi yelled, feeling sick. "Fine," he grunted. Rick had cleared out the whole back of the plane for the rest of the Aztecs, who've never been in a plane before in their lives. The room was big enough to hold everyone snuggly.
"Okay, Alex, take Lin with you and supervise them," Rick ordered.
"Supervise? Common dad, you can do better than that!" Alex whined.
"Just do it, behave for your wife," he grinned, seeing his face grow red. "We will be happy to do it!" he smirked, turning around in a huff. "Happens a lot?" Lin laughed.
"Still same old Alex!" Rick smiled, returning to the controls.
"You know how to fly this tin can?" Evi muttered. "I used to fly all the time in the foreign legions," he reassured.
"Whatever," she said, "I'll blame you if we crash,"
"Love you too honey!" he grinned, starting the engine.
The O'Connell's spent hours traveling through the air, making their way south to the Middle East. Rick could hardly keep his eyes open. Evi was quietly dozing next to him, praying nothing bad would happen.
Alex and Lin were entertaining the anxious crowd by teaching them how to play cards, which is hard to do when only one person can speak their language. "And what is the purpose of this activity?" one of them asked curiously.
"To impress women and win money!" Jonathan replied proudly.
"Hey! We don't need you here! I thought you're supposed to be supervising the controls!" Alex said, trying to herd him out.
"That's boring!" Jonathan whined, "It's not like we're going to crash or anything! Ricks operating the thing!"
Alex looked at him pointlessly. "You're right, I'll supervise," Jonathan said, realizing the trouble they were in.
"Rick, are we there yet?" Jonathan complained, making Rick's head jerk up.
"We get there when we get there!" he yelled annoyingly. "I'm hungry!" he continued, waving his arms in front of Evi's face. "Go away!" she muttered, pushing his arms away. He annoyingly flicked her on the head, making her whirl around angrily. "Why don't you be stupid somewhere else?" she shouted, throwing her drink at him. He caught it and threw off the lid. Then, he splashed the water inside it, aiming at his sister. She dodged the water, which instead, hit the floor with a splash. The cup then flew out of Jonathan's hands and out the small window. They thought everything would be fine, up till the point where the plastic cup jammed into the planes left engine.
The three of them just stood there, shocked at the rising of smoke coming from the wing of the plane. "I told you not to open that window!" Rick said to Evi.
"I needed some fresh air!" she said defensively, "and I didn't throw the thing out there!" she yelled, pointing to her brother.
"There really isn't anything in there?" Rick sighed, looking straight at Jonathan.
"How can you be that stupid?" Evi shouted.
"Well, you threw the cup..." Jonathan sighed.
"Never mind that! Get Alex and Lin out here NOW!" Rick yelled, pushing him out the door. "What now?" Evi asked.
"Well right now we're almost over the Mediterranean sea," Rick explained, "let's hope we get over it before we go down,"
"You mean we're going to crash?" Evi shouted, grabbing onto him tightly.
"If you put it like that!" Rick yelled back.
"Well what do we do?"
"Scream, yell, and shout I guess,"
"No really, there has to be something we can do!" she persisted.
"We can check up with the supervisor in control panel," Rick said.
"You mean Jonathan? We might as well throw ourselves off this flying jail!" she wailed.
"Mom! Dad! What happened?" Alex yelled, seeing the mayhem in the cockpit. "We're CRASHING that's what!" his mother screamed.
"Not if we have anything to do with it!" Rick yelled, grabbing her hand. They all ran out for the control room. "JONATHAN!" Alex shouted towards his dozing uncle. "Help us here!"
Jonathan got up, looking flustered and confused. "the manual says you have to unclog the debree or else the engine will fail to operate," he sighed.
"YOU read the manual?" everyone shouted in shock.
"Well, the first page anyway," he confessed.
"Someone has to go out there," Rick said, shaking his head. "I don't know if there's anything we can do Evi,"
"Oh don't say that!" Evi smiled, trying to make him feel better.
"Well someone has to go soon, because right now we're falling out of the sky!" Alex shouted.
"Ok. I'm the father here, I'll go." Rick said strongly. "I got us into this mess; I'll do it," Evi sighed.
"I helped make the mess happen, I should be the one that goes." Alex mumbled.
"I didn't help at all during this nightmare, I shouldn't go!" Jonathan grinned. That last comment started an instant uproar from everyone.
"It's not your birthday!"
"Mummies don't follow you everywhere you go!"
"I can do it dad I'm not a kid anymore!"
"Oh, all of you, stop it!" Lin yelled annoyingly, making the whole room grow silent. "I have the most experience with these things, I shall go," she said, determination glowing in her eyes.
"Lin, I can't let you do that!" Alex cried, coming to her side.
"you know I have to Alex!" she persisted.
"But, you're not immortal anymore!"
"I've picked up a few things about flying. The Wright brothers stopped by almost fifty years ago!" she smiled, kissing him.
"Alright. Just be careful okay?" he whispered, letting her go. Even Jonathan was completely solemn faced as their own Lin O'Connell carefully opened the side hatch of the plane.
"Just hold on tight!" Evelyn yelled over the wind.
"I got that part figured out!" Lin reassured sarcastically. She gripped the sides of the wing of the plane, edging forward towards the left engine. "Almost there!" she said, reaching her arm outward. "See, you're doing fine!" Alex laughed, his fears leaving him. "Forget you're hanging thousands of feet in the air!" Jonathan added gleefully.
"What was that?" Lin yelled curiously. "He said you're going great!" Evi grinned, giving Jonathan a threatening look. Just as Lin was about to grab the cup, a piercing beep came from the control room. "What now?" Alex sighed, running to see what the problem was. He came back with a horrified expression on his face. "we're only 200 feet from the ground!" he shouted.
"Well," Evi said slowly, "maybe we'll get lucky," she replied, hugging her son close. "Mom! I'm like 25," Alex said, trying to wiggle free from her grasp.
"Alex, we're going to die anyway, why can't we be together like a family!" she said quietly, tears stinging her eyes. "We're not a family without Lin!" Alex sighed, going over to the hatch. The smoke was getting thicker and thicker around her, sending Lin into a coughing fit. "LIN!" Alex yelled, threatening to go after her. She was about to launch another attempt when flames leapt out in front if her, blocking her view. The ground was so close to them they could make out the sand dunes for miles.
"Jonathan! Go to the villagers and talk them into jumping off this thing!" Rick yelled. "Uh... Me?" he stammered, walking tentatively to the giant room.
"Ok!" Jonathan grinned, clapping his hands together, "pick someone to hold onto and take this door here!" he instructed, trying to pull it open. "Sometimes these things get stuck!" he said defensively. "Whatever! You figure it out! Jump off or blow up into a billion bits of guts and other stuff like that!" Jonathan yelled running back to his family. He left a confused ancient civilization behind him.
"How did that work out?" Evi asked, not wanting to turn around behind her. They could all hear many loud screams, then a soft thud when they hit the sand. "looks like they're doing fine!" Rick reassured, "but there's no time! Jump and pray you don't break anything!" Rick shouted, grabbing Evi, who was already with Jonathan by then. "what about Alex?" Evi cried, wanting to go back. "he can handle things on his own!" Rick said, holding her closer.
"Ready?" Rick whispered, looking down.
"No! I swear Rick-"
"Go!" he yelled, pushing them both out.
"RICK!" Evi screamed, holding tightly onto Jonathan's shirt.
Rick gave one final look at his only son, giving him a faint smile.
"Go after her," he whispered, jumping out of the hatch.
Rick landed in the sand right on his back, only a few feet away from where Jonathan and Evi did. Jonathan was laying face first in the sand, with his sister right on top of him.
He helped her up, leaving his brother in law just the way he was. The plane crashed into a nearby sand dune, sending bits if broken pieces everywhere. "ALEX!" Evi yelled, running to the crash. Rick was right behind her, running his fastest. They both started moving the debree out of the way. Buried under feet if rubble, Alex was lying face up with smoldered clothes and burnt hair. His mom quickly pulled him up and checked him over. "Are you okay? Anything scarred, broken, or injured?" she cried, inspecting him head to toe. "Only my dignity," he stuttered.
Rick looked back to the pile to see Lin completely unharmed. "If it weren't for Alex, I wouldn't be alive right now!" she sighed. "Oh, well it was definitely worth it," he said, hugging her with his last strength. "Aww..." Evi smiled, looking at Rick. "You do know he gets it from me, right?"
"Oh, I know alright!" he grinned, taking her hand. He cleaned the sand out of her hair and looked deeply into her eyes. Jonathan destroyed the moment by stumbling over to them, breaking the two apart. "If you EVER do anything like that again Evi, I'll... I'll...!" he screamed, spitting out sand. Evi went over to him and gave him a hug. "Thanks for letting me use your body to break the fall," she smiled.
"How's everyone doing over there?" Rick asked the Aztecs. Acalan went over to Jonathan and shouted words at his face. "He says the people are really mad at us and would rather go home and one slaves than with us losers!" he replied.
"Great. Well you just tell him that they have no choice, we're already here!" he smirked, looking around. "Already where? For all we know, we could be miles away from Coatl!" Evi said doubtfully.
"You're right; it could take weeks to find him!" Rick sighed, "We don't even have food, or water, supplies..."
"Found him!" Jonathan grinned, standing on top of the wreckage. The rest of the gang caught up to him and stood there, gaping at the battle scene in front of them. "Wow!" Alex whistled, "That's convenient!"
Rick went back down to the remaining supplies and opened his chest of many guns. He divvied them out to everyone, keeping the best for himself. Jonathan stood wide eyed at the shotgun he gave him. "and what am I supposed to do with this?" he demanded, shoving it in Ricks face. "I know! I gave Jonathan a big boy gun! Just don't hurt yourself, okay?" Rick laughed, giving him a slap on the back. "Okay! Ardneth and his men seem to be holding them off pretty well, we just need to finish off Coatl," Rick said. The scene the O'Connell's saw next blew them totally off guard. "Ahoy! You and your crew finally made it, huh O'Connell?" Izzy smirked.
"Izzy! What are you doing here?" Evi and Rick asked at the same time.
"I was flying through when I decided to help Medjai boy over there from getting his butt kicked!" Izzy laughed, "Then those blasted South Americans blew up my ship!"
Rick immediately got his plan into action. "Evi, you take Jonathan and Izzy over to the left flank of the army; Alex and Lin can take on the other one. Anyways I gotta settle this thing with Coatl," he yelled over the noise. "Oh yah, we brought friends!" Jonathan added, gesturing to the huge crowd of villagers. Rick brought up his gun and took a deep breath. "Um, may I do the honors?" Izzy asked eagerly.
"Whatever, hurry up before I shoot you," he said under his breath.
"Very funny!" he glowered, raising his own gun. "ATTACK!" he shouted, sending the Aztecs out onto the battle field.
They charged forward to their designated areas, quickly getting into the action. Rick spotted Ardneth and Coatl, and eagerly joined in the fight.
"Happy to see some things never change!" Ardneth grinned; relieved to see his trusted friend could make it. Rick turned surprisingly around to see Acalan right next to him. "Uh, maybe you should go with the others!" Rick yelled, not wanting the young boy to get hurt. He pulled away, narrowing his eyes at the sight of his sworn enemy. "You wish to challenge me, peasant?" he spit the word out like poison. "I'll be the one that sees you rot in the underworld!" Acalan replied strongly.
"This is his fight, my friend," Ardneth said simply.
"Fine. I'll just go somewhere else! Fine!" Rick yelled, slowly walking away. He returned back to his wife, Jonathan, and Izzy by the broken airship. "How's things going over here fellas?" he sighed.
"Well..." Evi started, in the middle of fighting another one of Coatl's soldiers, "okay I guess, what happened to you and the boss man over there?"
"They kicked me out," Rick sighed, looking miserable. "I would give you a hug sweetie, but if you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a civil war here!" she said, handing him his gun back. "Go out there and kill as many as you can," she smiled.
"Will do!" he laughed, heading out into the mass of people.
Evi looked sadly at her brother. "You can stop swinging that thing around and help us," she said, walking over up him. "You know I can't Evi!" he sighed, "I can't do anything right!"
"Oh! Yes you can!" she laughed, trying to perk him up.
"No, I can't. From the second you were born, everything I did was wrong! I rake the yard, trim the hedges, clean the house, and you draw a picture of a pony and win attention for a whole day!" he yelled, dropping the gun. "You remember all that?" Evi gasped, realizing what he was talking about. "All the time; watch over your sister, she's younger than you, drop what you're doing and help Evelyn, make sure she doesn't get hurt!" he went on. "I tried so hard to watch over you, then mister perfect came along and I'm stuck living with you!"
"What do you mean tried?" she smirked, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You were there when I almost got sacrificed by a mummy! You were driving that bus filled with minions of the mummy! When Alex was gone, whenever I need you... You were there!" she choked, remembering every moment they were together.
"It's always Rick though, never me,"
"Forget about Rick for a moment. I love him, but I love you to, just in a different way. You were with me ever since I can remember, and even though most of the memories I have of us as kids aren't that great, I will always remember the good ones we had together," she cried, giving him a hug.
"But-"
"No buts! You're the five times fox and hounds champion, aren't you?" she grinned. "I guess I am!" he laughed, finding his strength. "One more thing. Did you mean what you said about selling me?" Evi asked tentatively.
"What? Me? No, that was the food poisoning talking!" Jonathan laughed.
"You will always be my little sister Evi. I remember when you were just a baby, with the same curly hair and everything!" he recalled.
"Well I can remember you being the nerdiest kid in high school!" she laughed, "You're just lucky Rick doesn't know every little embarrassing thing about you!" she grinned, dodging an arrow that whizzed right in front of her face. "We should probably get back to fighting, don't you think?" Evi gasped, looking around.
"Wait. Before you go, I need to tell you something." Jonathan said seriously.
"Okay... What?"
"I'm telling Rick that you don't like him!" he yelled, running off through the sand. "Jerk!" Evi shouted after him. She couldn't keep herself from laughing.
"Same old Jonathan!"
Ardenth and Acalan crossed their swords with the cursed ruler. "Are you sure you can to this?" Ardneth Bay asked wearily.
"I've trained all my life for this and today will be the day when he falls!" he replied.
Ardneth shrugged, having no choice but to believe the boy.
