Always loved this one. And yes, I did skip the Cloud People episode.
Fear Itself
Mogoca
"I thought you said you were going to Monaco," Jonathan complained, shivering in his fur-lined clothing in the icy town. "Who's even heard of Mogoca?"
"Evidently, Genghis Khan," Rick replied dryly. "This is where he decided to store all his treasure from years of conquest."
"Hopefully including the Scrolls of Thebes," Alex added.
"Well, I'll take beaches and baccarat over beasts with bad breath any day," his uncle crossed his arms like a teenager. A yak drooled over his coat. "I think I'll wait in the Zephyr, away from my adoring fans."
Evy and Jena walked up to the boys, accompanied by an elderly man, as Jonathan walked away.
"Yefim had agreed to show us the Genghis Khan artifacts," the Englishwoman said excitedly. "Come on."
While the O'Connells each wore a thick, lined coat, Jena was wearing at least three layers of heavy coats as well as a balaclava underneath her hat. Even so, she was hugging herself tightly and her eyes looked miserable.
"Are you cold?" Alex asked. "Under all those clothes?" Tut was sitting on his shoulders and hugging his neck like a hot water bottle, so he didn't have a problem with the temperature.
Jena glowered. "People were not meant to live in a climate like this," she said, her voice muffled by the balaclava covering her mouth.
They followed Evy into a moderately-sized hut, where Yefim took a blanket off a pile of objects.
"The treasures of Genghis Khan," he said proudly, but everyone's face fell. The pile consisted of a few ripped leather boots, some broken pottery, and half a quiver of arrows.
"I know one man's trash is another man's treasure, but isn't this just junk?" Rick asked.
"Genghis Khan ruled the largest empire history's ever known. It stretched from the Mediterranean to the China Sea. This simply can't be everything."
"Soldiers came, took rest," Yefim replied in broken English. "They say all belong to government now."
"Do you know where they took them?" Alex asked.
"Da. The Oktober Palace."
"That's near Leningrad – over two thousand miles from here!" Evy wailed.
"Um…" shivered Jena. "I thought it was just the cold, but…"
To continue her thought, Imhotep appeared in the doorway.
"Is it just me, or are these guys following us around?" Rick exclaimed.
Energy pulsed from the high priest towards the fire pit in the center of the room, and the flames rose to form a monster. They all skidded out of the way. Jena overbalanced, tripped by her many layers, and rolled to the wall.
"First rule of camping?" Rick asked Alex as they skidded over to some buckets of water.
"Always put out your fires!"
The two of them grabbed a bucket each, and threw them on the fire pit. Its source doused, the monster evaporated into the air.
Imhotep angrily approached them. Rick shoved Alex out of the way. "Go!" he called out.
Evy helped Jena to her feet, and they headed for the cabin's exit with Alex. Weasler blocked their path.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
Jena, now mad, took a couple of steps forward. She was pretty sure she was physically stronger than him, but her clothes prevented her from moving very fast. Raising a fist to punch the small man, he pushed her over with one hand. She overbalanced instantly and fell.
"I hate the cold," she muttered pathetically from the ground.
Tut leaped from Alex' shoulder onto Weasler, scratching at his eyes.
"Filthy little rat!" he cried.
"Takes one to know one," Alex replied.
When Jena saw his guard was lowered, she swung one leg into his ankles and, as she got up, jumped on him when he was down.
"That's why you don't mess with an arukatasu," she told him.
At that moment, the Manacle glowed and sent a burst of power towards the Mummy, who was wrestling with Rick and winning. The golden aura threw him across the hut and into the wall, giving Rick a chance to escape out the window with Yefim.
"Why did I not move to Pittsburgh with rest of family?" the Russian man asked himself.
Evy hailed them.
"Somebody call for a taxi?" she asked, riding a yak up to them. It was pulling a cart of hay, with the help of another beast. Alex and Jena jumped into the cart, while Rick rode the other yak.
Down the road to the Zephyr, Alex looked back to see the whirlwind. "We've got a Mummy on our tail!" he called to his parents.
Imhotep leaped out of the whirlwind, energy already swirling in his hands. Weasler fell to the ground, his glasses askew.
"It's okay, just… drop me anywhere," he said, not quite loud enough for the high priest to hear.
The Mummy landed on the edges of the cart.
"So much for hay rides being fun," Alex muttered, throwing straw in his face.
Ignoring the hay, Imhotep reached out. He missed Alex, but his clawed hand grasped one of Jena's coats. He raised her into the air, energy blazing.
Jena had been cocooned in the straw, and she had been happy about it. She was not happy to be forcefully dragged out of a warm place when the freezing air bit into her, and the aura coming from the high priest was so disgusting that it caused her pain. She turned her head towards Imhotep, her eyes glowing pale blue.
Fire exploded from her, throwing the Mummy backwards by about half a mile, and the very earth shook as the stone path threw up a trail of sharp rocks that snaked towards where he had fallen, encasing him in a small cavern that stopped him from moving.
Jena fell back into the hay, her eyes returning to normal.
"Warm," she murmured happily as she sank back into the hay.
Alex stared at her, making a mental note not to ever get on her bad side. Ever.
.
Leningrad
Rick cautiously opened the door to the old palace. Cobwebs gleamed under the light of his lantern, and boxes were piled and thrown everywhere.
"Looks like the whole place is just being used for storage," he commented.
"I guess with no more royal families, there's no need for palaces," Evy added, looking at an askew portrait of a Russian prince.
"It's humungous," Alex said in awe, swinging his lantern as high as he could. The entrance hall was easily bigger than the entire Zephyr.
"We'll have to split up," Evy said. "Jonathan, Jena and I will check things out down here."
"Alex and I will take the second floor," Rick agreed. "Meet back here in one hour."
As he and Alex walked up the unstable stairway, Jena shivered. "Why couldn't this place be nearer the equator?" she moaned.
"Keep an eye on each other," Evy called up to the two of them.
"You'd better keep two eyes on Uncle Jonathan," Alex replied with a grin.
Evy turned to look at her brother, who had taken a dirty golden cup out of its storage box and was subtly sneaking it into his coat. "Jonathan!"
Caught, he took it back out and set it down. "Now, how'd that get in there?"
They all searched, but the most interesting thing any of them found was a Russian doll. Alex was just about to open the last of them when his father called him away, and he left it back in its storage box.
On the ground floor, Jonathan was lost among all the items. "This place has everything but the kitchen sink!" he exclaimed as his lantern's light hit a ceramic bowl, a tap on the top of it. "I stand corrected."
Inside and protected from the wind and snow, Jena had actually removed one of her coats and was freer to move. "Something feels off," she said.
"What?" Evy asked instantly. She had learned to pay attention to Jena's bad feelings.
"The climate," the arukatasu answered dryly.
Her mother-figure smiled. "We'll be in a warmer place in no time," she said, picking up a small statue of a snow maiden.
A full-length mirror was in front of her, and she caught a glimpse of herself from the corner of her eye. The reflection showed an old woman, wrinkled and grey haired, in the exact pose that she was standing in.
The figurine in her hand slipped and broke as it hit the stone floor.
"What's the matter?" her brother asked.
Evy blinked, and her reflection was suddenly as it should be. "Nothing," she replied, moving away.
Jonathan passed the mirror on his way to the door, and paused to admire himself. "Hello there, you handsome devil," he said with a smile.
Jena was standing behind him. "Where?" she asked innocently, turning her head as if searching.
"Har-har," the Englishman replied sarcastically. In the next room he was examining a painting of a young Russian queen. He looked down at the vase of dead roses, sitting on the chest beneath, and when he glanced up again the queen was leaning out of the painting to grab him.
"Ah!" he scrambled backwards, and when he looked up the painting was just an image.
"Jonathan?" his sister asked in alarm.
"Uh – roses! I'm allergic. A-tchoo," he imitated an unrealistic sneeze and afterwards muttered, "Or maybe going insane."
Jena gave a cry from across the room.
"What is it?"
The girl shook her head violently. "Nothing. I thought it felt – nothing. It's the cold getting to me."
Evy held up an old piece of parchment. "This should make our search easier," she said. "Blueprints. Let's find Rick and Alex."
On the floor above, Rick walked out of the room and looked at the remaining corridor. It stretched before his eyes, until he couldn't see the end of it, and he gasped.
"Dad," Alex said, coming to stand next to him. "What is it?"
Rick rubbed his eyes and looked at the corridor again. It was completely normal, and the end was in plain sight – albeit several meters away.
"Uh – nothing. Nothing, son. All this running around the world is taking its toll, I guess."
The pair continued on to the next room, but Alex paused when he heard a noise. Tut said something in a chatter.
"I know what you mean," the redhead replied to his pet.
His father entered another door, and he heard another growl. Turning around, the redhead was horrified to see a foot-high brown creature walk down the corridor. It vaguely resembled a monkey, but its eyes contained a magenta glow that could only mean it was a gremlin of sorts.
"Please let me be imagining this," Alex said, backing away as it advanced. With a cry, he fell backwards as a hand approached him.
"Alex?" Rick asked.
"Dad, look out – behind you!"
Rick swung the light down the corridor, but found nothing. It was empty.
"I…" Alex began. "I heard a noise and got scared, I guess."
"Sounds like we could all use a rest," the American replied. They continued on, not seeing the gremlin quietly following behind them.
Evy found them quickly, and spread the parchment on the ground for them all to see. "It's a blueprint of the entire palace," she said.
"What's it say?" Alex asked, looking at the Russian writing.
"I don't know," his mother answered.
Jonathan took a look. "It's a list of Russian artifacts and where they're stored within the palace," he said.
"Since when do you speak Russian?" Rick demanded.
"I happen to have attended some of the finest universities in Europe," he replied importantly.
"That's because you kept getting expelled!" Evy added.
"Sounds about right," Jena said, pulling her third coat back on. It was getting colder.
"I prefer to think that I had absorbed all that those institutions had to offer."
"Does it say where the artifacts taken from Mogoca are kept?" his sister asked.
Jonathan examined the blueprints for a few minutes. "The attic," he replied with dismay. "But I say we leave. This place gives me the willies."
"Seconded," Jena added to everyone's surprise. She rarely, if ever, agreed with Jonathan. "We could come back in summer? In five year's time?"
"It's just an attic," Evy said, although she would have liked to leave as well. "What's there to be afraid of?"
At that moment, the arukatasu gave a sudden and ear-splitting scream before dashing towards Rick for protection.
"What? What is it?" he demanded.
Shaking and peeking out from behind his coat, she stared at a dark corner.
"I – I thought I saw a lizard," she stammered. "I guess I was wrong."
"You're afraid of lizards?" Alex asked.
At the word, Jena gave an uncontrollable shudder.
They were climbing the stairs, careful of rotten wood, when Evy shivered uncontrollably.
"Mom, are you okay?"
"A chill just ran up my spine," she said. "It feels like it just dropped 50 degrees in here."
"Welcome to my world," Jena replied, walking past her to catch up with Rick.
"It must be a draft," the woman continued, although she was unconvinced.
"Cold spots are a well-documented feature of haunted houses," Jonathan added grimly from a few steps below.
"There's no such thing as a haunted house!"
They continued up the stairs as he added quietly, "Just like there's no such thing as a mummy?"
Evy placed one foot on a step, and it crumbled along with three on either side. Before it could fall to the storey below, Jena leaped down, grasped the woman's waist, and then jumped back to Rick's level.
"Explain that, Miss. There's-No-Such-Thing-As-A-Haunted-House!" Jonathan demanded, pointing at the gaping hole.
"A rotten board – that's all!"
"Oh, yes? Well that's not the only thing rotten around here," he continued as Rick snapped his whip onto a beam in the ceiling, swinging the end to Alex so he could cross the hole. "A portrait in one of the rooms reminded me of a young lady I once knew. She tried to snare me in a web of matrimony. Of course, you can't blame the girl for trying – like all her gender she sensed my power and strength."
"Jonathan, the point?" Evy asked. Alex had crossed and let the whip travel back to his uncle.
"The painting came alive and attacked me," he finished, swinging across the gap. "This house is possessed."
"Normally I'd hate to agree with Jonathan," Rick said, retrieving his whip and twisting it up. "But something weird really may be going on. Earlier I was thinking how endless the search for the Scrolls was, when boom! The hallway seemed to stretch in front of me forever."
"Something strange happened to me, too," Evy confessed. "I was thinking I'd be wrinkled and grey by the time we found the scrolls. Just then, I saw myself in the mirror as an old woman."
"I was thinking how the cold was going to drain all my powers away before I can use them," Jena said. "Then I lost all sense of presence. I couldn't feel any of the energies that were there before."
"But you pulled me and jumped further than an 11-year old should be able to," Evy said in confusion. "So if your powers are gone – "
The girl shook her head. "It came back after a moment. But it was weird."
"See, I'm not so crazy after all," Jonathan said.
Rick thought. "So, something out there seems to be able to turn our own fears against us. But what?"
Alex remembered what he had seen. "Maybe a spooky little gremlin thing with glowing red eyes?"
He explained as they entered the attic at the top of the stairs. "I think it may have been inside some nesting dolls. At first I thought I was seeing things, but then it appeared again. And it was bigger."
"There's an old Russian myth about a creature called a Gogle," Jonathan said. "Growing in size and strength as it feeds off its victim's fears."
"Great," Rick said. "And we're its five-course meal."
"Wait – what if we only think happy thoughts? We'd starve the little blighter, right?" the Englishman turned to a suit of armor in time to see its visor lift. Inside was a painted white face with bright red cheeks and exaggerated lips. The armor leaned down and the face laughed at him.
He screamed and jumped backwards. "But I wasn't even thinking about clowns!" he protested. Another face popped forwards on a bouncing spring from another suit, and the first one joined it. There was one on either side of him.
Jena was confused. "They're just clowns," she protested. One appeared behind her, and she kicked it back without hesitating.
"Jonathan's been terrified of clowns ever since he was a little boy," Evy explained.
Alex felt something on his wrist and looked down to the Manacle, pushing his coat sleeve out of the way. The golden glow was getting brighter.
"Not again," he said. "It's out of control!"
Energy shot out, hitting the chandelier in the middle of the ceiling and causing it to fall and crash in the middle of the room.
"I was afraid this would happen," he said when they all ducked out of its path. "This thing is going to wipe out all of us."
"Hey, I have an idea," Jonathan said. "Let's all run as far away from this place as possible. Sound like a plan?"
"I'm with him," Jena agreed, suppressing a shudder.
"We can't leave," his sister protested. "What if the Scrolls are in one of these rooms?"
"What if the Gogle is in one of these rooms?"
"We'll have to take that chance," Rick said.
"Rick's right," Evy agreed. "As long as we're together, we're stronger than the Gogle. We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
"But I'm worried," Jena admitted. "If this creature is strong enough to take away my abilities – even for a moment – what else can it do?"
They walked into the next room, and Evy shivered again.
"It definitely just got colder," Rick stated.
"Good think I'm wearing my thermal underwear!" Jonathan said.
"That's one visual I didn't need."
As Evy walked into the middle of the room, the floor beneath her became glassy and slippery.
"Oh, no – ice!" she exclaimed as it formed slowly. She froze as it cracked under her feet.
"Don't move," Rick warned.
"Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts," Jonathan chanted, shutting his eyes.
Jena snapped her head around as the sound of growling became louder. "There!" she pointed to a beast in the corner. It was now over two feet tall.
Alex looked. "That's it; that's the Gogle!"
"No, it's coming true," Evy said as the ice continued to shatter.
"What is?"
Jonathan filled them in. "She fell through the ice in a big lake when she was a little girl. Ever since then she's been scared of the ice!"
"Evy, I'm coming," Rick said, but the ice had reached him and frozen his feet to the ground. "My feet – I can't move!"
Jena, shivering miserably, suddenly gave an exclamation. She stared at the doorway in shock, utter fear crossed her face.
A man entered the room. He had long black hair that gleamed green when it hit the light, and plated armor all over his body. A red sash was around his waist with an eye stared at them, but she was petrified by his face – or rather, his lack of it. Where eyes, nose and mouth should have been, there was only skin.
Alex recognized him. "I've seen him before – he's the guy who's attacked Jena in one of my visions, back when we first met!" he exclaimed.
Jena was backing away from him, but he floated over the ice towards her. She kept saying something in her own language – or possibly… Chinese? – shaking her head slowly.
"We've gotta stop the Gogle," Alex said to his uncle, but Jonathan suddenly jumped away from him with a scream as if he were toxic. He ran from the room.
Alex turned to the little gremlin by himself. "I'm not afraid of you, Peewee!" he said, but the Manacle glowed again. A cobra came out of it twisting up his arm and around his body. "The Manacle's alive!"
"Alex!" his father attempted again to move, but the ice had completely frozen his legs in place. At that moment, the shards under Evy's feet shattered, and she fell into a puddle of freezing water.
She swam up to the water's surface, but the ice had formed over the hole and she was trapped. She pounded the glass, but it was solid.
The faceless man snatched Jena's left hand. She didn't move, but let him pull her closer. He took a knife hidden between his armor and traced the blade up her arm, cutting off her many coat sleeves until her skin was exposed.
The cold air hit her suddenly, and she let out a scream.
Yue crashed through the roof, fire blazing in his hands.
The faceless man turned to him, and his countenance suddenly formed. He had cruel brown eyes with a black mark crossing through each of them diagonally, and his mouth was twisted into a grin. He looked Asian, but not quite all Asian.
Yue's eyes narrowed. "I fear no illusion," he said, the flames increasing.
A jet of fire shot from him, hitting the man until he evaporated. Then the arukatasu hurried to his petrified daughter.
"That's right," Rick said. "I'm afraid I won't be able to save the people I love, but I can't let that fear control me." Bending down, he began pounding at the ice that held his feet captive.
Alex grasped the serpent, and energy shot from its mouth. He aimed it towards his father, freeing him from the ice.
"Good shot, Alex!" Rick hurried to the spot where his wife had fallen.
Jonathan was running frantically through the palace. Clowns sprang from portraits and every dark place, startling him and making him feel like he was losing his mind.
"I'm not afraid of clowns, I'm not afraid of clowns," he repeated to himself. "I'm petrified of clowns!"
Running, he bumped into a tall figure. It was Imhotep.
"The Scrolls," he demanded, holding out one hand. "And I shall spare your worthless life."
Up in the attic, Rick stood over the ice where Evy had fallen.
"Evy, we need you," he said. "You've got to fight."
She nodded beneath the ice, gathered up her courage, and punched the ice again and again until it broke. With one hand in the air, Rick grasped it and helped her out of the water. Once she was in safety, the ice vanished and the temperature rose again.
Alex gave a sigh of relief, and the Manacle glowed. "Not again," he sighed, but it wasn't attacking him. It led him to a box that also had a golden glow. He opened it to see a ripped piece of ancient parchment. "Mom, is this what I think it is?" he asked, taking it to her.
Evy examined it. "I believe it's a piece of the Scrolls of Thebes!" she said excitedly.
"Finally some good news," Rick said in relief.
"Alright! Maybe I can finally say bye-bye to the Manacle," the boy was delighted.
Yue walked up to them at that moment, Jena cradled in one arm, and snatched the parchment from Evy to examine it.
"You only had to ask," she said stiffly.
Jena was hugging her father's neck tightly. She didn't seem the least bit afraid now that the illusions had vanished, and the sleeves of her coats that had been ripped were all repaired as if they hadn't been touched.
"Papa, who was that man?" she asked.
"Someone it is better you have no knowledge of," he replied.
Tut strolled across the floor, the now-tiny gremlin in his mouth.
"Have no fear – Tut is here!" Alex announced, opening the box the parchment had been in and trapping the Gogle inside it.
"The High Priest is coming," Yue informed them, returning the piece of the scrolls to Rick. He had already read it thoroughly. Rick rolled it up and hid it in his coat pocket just before Imhotep entered the room.
"Give me the Scrolls – now!" he commanded.
"Okay, okay, don't get your bandages in a bunch," Rick replied. "Give him the box, Sport. He deserves all that's in it."
Jonathan ran in from another door, yelling, "Imhotep's in the – " he stopped abruptly when he saw the Mummy already there. "Palace," he finished in a quieter tone. "So much for that news flash."
Alex set the box on the ground and slid it across the floor to the Mummy.
"Let's go," Evy said. "There's nothing else for us here."
The O'Connells turned and left the room with Yue and Jena, and began sprinting as soon as they were out of sight. They heard shouts and yells behind them.
"Couldn't have happened to a couple of nicer guys," Rick grinned as they left the old palace.
#~#~#
On the Zephyr, thankfully leaving that horrible place, Alex kept jostling his mother's arm.
"Is it the real deal, Mom?" he kept asking.
"It's a page of the Scrolls that you seek," Yue stated. He was sitting on the sofa, Jena lying with her head on his lap asleep. "But it won't help you remove Lord Osiris's bracelet."
"He's right," Evy agreed regretfully. "There is some kind of an incantation, though. But how can you read ancient Egyptian?"
"My father taught me as a boy," he replied, making sure his daughter was asleep and could hear nothing of the conversation.
"Who was that man Jena was afraid of?" Alex asked. "I've seen him in a vision."
Yue's head snapped to the boy. "You've seen him?" he repeated in astonishment. "That's impossible! He's dead!"
"Didn't look it to me," replied the redhead.
"How old did he appear in the vision?" the arukatasu asked urgently.
"Um… he looked the same as he did in the palace. Except he had a face."
"That's… impossible…" Yue repeated slowly.
"How come a face grew when you showed up?" Rick asked.
"The day The Destroyer's Apprentice tried to kill us was the worst day of our lives," he said, staring at the ground. "My daughter remembers nothing of it, nor of any of her life preceding that day. I am not so fortunate. I remember what he looked like, and what he did." He paused. "It was the 10th anniversary of her birth. It's been two years to the day since then."
"It's her birthday today?" Evy questioned in astonishment. "She never said anything!"
"I understand your culture gives gifts for such occasions," Yue replied. "We don't do that."
"But it was Alex' birthday a couple months ago, and she was there for the party. She – she even carved something out of a block of wood as a gift for him."
"It would have been unnatural for her to celebrate something so mundane."
"Mundane?" Jonathan echoed. "I'll have you know that a few years ago was the best birthday celebration anyone could have! We – "
Alex wasn't listening as he stared out the window. He may still be wearing the Manacle, but they had found a piece of the scrolls. And maybe the incantation on it could help him understand the bracelet better.
In any case, they were getting closer. Soon they would find the Scrolls of Thebes.
