Indiana paid no mind to the thought of walking through a graveyard at nighttime. After clambering through the catacombs under Venice, and having to navigate through a burial chamber of the Well of the Souls in the dark, Chauchilla Cemetery was more pleasant to be in. He ignored the general discomfort of those around him, and blocked off the whispers of thoughts that he picked up from them. Out here in the middle of nowhere he would be happy risking taking off his hat to hear the other thoughts around him, but he didn't. In the middle of the busy marketplace he had made the fatal error of taking off his fedora once. An old lady had invited him into her house as she looked for something, and out of respect he had taken it off as he crossed the threshold. The tidal wave of thoughts that hit him almost sent him to his knees. Only through hurriedly running through Charles' lessons and exercises kept him on his feet, and from then on he kept his hat firmly on his head.
"Grave robbers will be shot!" Mutt translated the sign illuminated by lightning for the rest of the group.
"Good thing we're not grave robbers," Indy called back cheerfully over the loud wind.
The storm had been a surprise to all of them, even the locals. However they were used to how temperamental the weather could be and had battened down the hatches to weather the storm out. Few had been about to even see them heading up the steep hill, which Indiana had been grateful for. Although he had been projecting cheer, he knew just how badly desecrating graveyards went down in every culture. As he looked around he could see how the graves had been strip-mined, revealing the bodies below. However, that was likely done by locals and that was considered an insult enough, and they were probably related to those buried below. If they were caught, as outsiders, there was no chance they would leave the graveyard alive.
Whilst he knew the likely risks of going through a very old graveyard he wasn't in time to tell the others about all of them, plus it would have taken till sunrise to list them all. So as a learning exercise he left the other five to make whatever mistakes they would.
Mystique and Charles were spending a lot of time staring down into the pits, horrified yet fascinated at the revealed skeletons. Havok was uneasily watching the lightning, and Erik and Mutt were ignoring it all in favour of keeping up.
"This way down," Mutt energetically jumped onto a ladder.
He barely made it three steps down before the ancient weathered rope gave way and the ladder disintegrated beneath his feet. Indiana hid a smirk and leisurely strolled down the longer but safer staircase path.
At the bottom he generously offered his hand. "This way up?"
"Yeah," Mutt muttered ruefully.
"I think I saw something move!" Havok called nervously.
"The longer you stare the more shadows start to move," Indiana shouted back over the wind. "Keep up, or stay outside of the graveyard."
Unsurprisingly the lagging three were almost immediately by his side once more. He lead the way down further, looking for a likely looking pit or tunnel to head down.
His decision was taken from him eventually though as they headed towards the deepest sections of the graveyard. Havok just moved his hand from a support beam and had stepped down the flight of stairs the others had descended when a dart buried itself into the wood.
"Down!" Indiana called urgently.
The other five dropped to the relative safety of the ground. Indy scurried back and plucked the dart from the wood to quickly inspected. He quickly sniffed it and looked at the design. "They're poisoned."
"How can you tell?" Erik asked.
"Experience," Indiana wryly answered.
"What do we do?" Havok searched the area desperately for their attackers. Of all the mutants he was the happiest to not use his powers unless it was life or death, so he felt rather vulnerable facing a seemingly invisible foe.
"Keep heading down, then are using passages to attack us," the archaeologist pointed out a few of said passages. "If we enter the lower burial chambers they might not be able to get us there."
"This is the last tunnel," Mutt had used the brief pause to search ahead, and reappeared from the deepest hole.
"Then we start there," their leader started manhandling the others so that they would get the hint and hurry down into the safety of the tunnel.
Being immediately closed it, cut off from the wind and lightning, caused a few of them to pause at the sudden change. Wary of the danger still behind them Indiana gently pushed them onward and down the winding corridor deeper into the earth. Near the entrance they had picked up a couple of shovels and lanterns and as they walked they lit the lights to better see the way.
It didn't take them long to reach the apparent end of the tunnel, festooned with protruding roots and wispy cobwebs. Odd lumps hung from the spider's work, meals long left and had grown solid.
"Dead end," Havok looked around them.
"Maybe," Indiana shuffled past the wedge of humans and felt around, looking into every crevasse with one of the lanterns.
"What's that?" Erik pointed to where the light failed to light up a section.
With the lantern put closer they could all see a cobweb faintly moving in front of a skull. Mystique shuddered as Indiana irreverently poked a thumb and finger into the eye sockets, and a couple of fingers under the chin, and lifted it from its recess. Behind sat a rather well maintained rope, which he grabbed and yanked.
The wall to one side opened, revealing a further passage.
"Neat," Mutt grinned and followed right on Indiana's trail to see what lay beyond.
Despite being built on a cliff edge the tunnel still headed downwards, now with the aid of steps cut into the stonework too.
"How far down does this go?" Mystique voiced the thought everyone was sharing.
"Why would they dig so far down to start with?" Charles added.
"Safety, there's less chance of your dead being disturbed," Indiana called back, his voice echoing slightly in the stone passage. "The more important people got better burials too."
After a while they started to encounter skeletons neatly arranged in alcoves in the stairway walls, and most of them stopped to stare at the body.
"Look at its head," Havok said in horror.
"Her," Indiana said after a pause.
"What?" Havok managed to tear his eyes away to look at the archaeologist.
"Her head, you can tell from the jaw and hips," Indiana lectured.
"Screw her jaw, what about her skull?" Mutt agreed with the other young male.
"Infant head binding was a cultural tradition amongst many tribes, from ancient Mayan civilizations to Nazca Indians. Some saw it as a sign of beauty, others a tribute to their Gods," Indy shrugged.
"God does not look like that," Mutt gestured to the skeleton.
"Depends on who your God is," the eldest carried on. "Kali, the Goddess the Thuggee cult were worshiping, has four arms."
Whilst the others slowed to stare at the long dead people they passed Indiana trotted further down the stairs to the bottom. Where it leveled out there was a way forward, but the floor started to level up towards the ceiling. Used to the weird hidden pathways often incorporated into ancient structures he carried on until he was on his knees, then crawling on his belly. Behind him he could hear the clattering of feet as the others finally started to carry on down, but soon it was drowned out by the sound of grating stone. A few shouts warned him that his disappearance wasn't taken well, but Indiana wasn't worried as very rarely was a passageway only one way. He quickly shifted forwards to check that the route was still heading the way they wanted, then crawled back to tilt the passage the right way.
"Come on then, I can probably shift this with two more people on it," Indiana waved his hand to beckon the first two.
Charles and Mystique gingerly mimicked him, and the disc slid over once more, then Indiana went back to fetch the other two.
Finally, after what felt like hours of winding stairs and paths to those unused to adventure, they reached what seemed to be a much larger, open area. Dusty steps lead downwards to the centre of the area. A quick glance around showed no further tunnels.
"Don't touch anything," Indiana warned.
He didn't pay attention to the responses of the others, instead focussing on the immediate area. He gestured downwards to the steps, "footprints."
"Two sets, the same size," Mutt studied them. "They look about the same size as Ox's feet, it could have been him twice."
"Good thinking," Indiana smiled.
"Hey, are these bodies?" Havok called over.
The two leather clad men walked over to see what the others had found. Seven huge lumps of bandages formed human shapes and were dotted around the room. Surrounding each lump was a large pile of coins, and golden plates or cups. Mystique looked seriously interested in some of them, but Charles held her back warningly. She huffed but aquiesced, letting the archaeologist go ahead first.
"That one's open," Erik pointed to one of the seven lumps which had been shredded.
They gathered around it, and Indiana was the one to lean forward and shift the bandages to the side. The body underneath wore ornate gilded armour reminiscent of medieval styles found in Europe. Indiana whistled appreciatively.
"Conquistador design, perfectly preserved by the wrappings," he explained. "Orellana's men may have gotten out of the jungle in the end."
"But why did the local's wrap them up and bury them here? They weren't natives," Charles asked the expert.
"Perhaps they paid them off, or they may have hoped it was seen favourably by the Gods?" Indiana shrugged. "Or as outsiders at the time they may have been regarded as favourites of the Gods."
"Why is he wearing a mask?" Mutt gestured to the face that Indy had just revealed as he spoke.
"Orellana was known as the Gilded man, his lust for gold was greater than any other man alive at the time. Perhaps this is the man himself?" Indiana searched for more clues.
Gingerly he picked up a few coins and checked the detailing, fiddling with them as he muttered to himself. The others stood back a little as he looked around. He huffed and turned to them again. "These coins are five hundred years old, they fit the time period when Orellana was here. Someone's been here recently but left everything where it was, so what were they looking for..."
He trailed off as he saw the gold coins in his hand suddenly shoot off and stick to the breastplate of the long dead Conquistador. With a grin he bent back down and heaved the armoured skeleton forward, letting out a shout of triumph as he spotted something.
"Hold this," he said to no one in particular and shoved the body in their direction.
Mutt was the one closest, and soon found himself with an armful of desiccated human. He scrunched his nose up in disgust but dutifully held it whilst the archaeologist retrieved something. Only when he saw the older man move away did he dump the body back in its resting place and fervently start brushing his jacket down in an attempt to clean it.
"Look at it," Jones breathed, catching Mutt's attention and he looked around at what everyone else was looking at.
Indiana couldn't tear his eyes from the skull as he gingerly moved it around to admire the workmanship. "Cut across the grain, even with today's machines it would shatter. Who could have carved this?"
No one answered, and they all gathered around to look at it. Mutt pointed at the back of the skull, "It's elongated, like those skeletons."
"Perhaps they brought it from Akator, a prize beyond comparison," Indiana theorized. "They head for the coast but become ill, or get to squabbling. The locals find them, and bury them. Few hundred years later Oxley stumbles across them and takes the skull, but can't find Akator and returns it here?"
"Return, like on the walls of his cell," Erik says questioningly.
"He brings it back to where he found it... I don't think this is where he meant it should be returned to though," Indiana shook his head.
As he turned to better put the skull in the light of the lanterns, some of the nearby coins on the ground jumped and stuck to the skull. Perplexed, he peeled them off and watched them jump back to the crystal from his loose fingers.
"Gold isn't magnetic," Mystique said in confusion.
"Neither's crystal," Havok continued.
"What the hell is that thing?" Erik summed up for them all.
"Whatever it is, we need to find Akator next. Hopefully if we finish what Oxley started it might help us find him on the way," Indiana decided.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
It was day by the time they reached the surface again, the air was still once more as the storm had apparently blown itself out a while ago. However they didn't have the chance to stop and admire the scenery, or the Nazca lines below them, as they were immediately faced with a row of guns. Behind the guns were tall, pale skinned men in green uniforms wearing matching grim expressions. Then from behind them another man appeared, wearing a panama hat and light coloured clothes.
"Hello Jonesy," the man said with a cocky smile.
Indiana didn't reply, merely he threw himself forward at the man, letting out a snarl at the same time. The others behind him didn't react quick enough to catch him, although they too surged forward once they realized what was going on.
He barely made it half way when something hard connected with his neck, bringing him to a crashing halt on the dusty floor. He groaned in pain and tried to get up, out of the corner of his eye he saw the large rock that Dovchenko was wielding. However he wasn't quick enough, and soon the object hit his head again and everything went black.