Hanging upside down, with several assholes pointing weapons at him, Mick Rory should be pissed or at least burning something. But no. The tension he had been carrying in his chest had lifted and he all he could see was the women in front of him.
Lady Lenore Beatrice Horrington (now just Lenore Flowers). Her red hair was shorter and tied in a ponytail, her skin was more tanned and a burst of freckles had exploded across her nose and shoulders. Though, like the last time they met, it was her sparkling hazel eyes and beaming smile that captured and held Micks attention.
"Umm hi" he spluttered out, after staring at her for what felt like ages.
"Hello, Mr Rory, sorry Mick" she chuckled back, reminding him of when they first met, he smiled and went to say something
'Oomph' he landed in a crumpled heap at her feet, someone had cut the rope
Lenore took a step forward to help him up.
"Lennie!" a male voice called
She turned leaving Mick on the ground, embarrassed and disgruntled. He looked passed her to the man who had spoken. The guy was early thirties, sandy blonde hair tied up in a stupid top knot to go with his dumb pretentious beard, he was wear a tight green t-shirt, presumable to show off very muscular arms, which, were now around Lennie's shoulders .
Mick frowned; a rumble came from his throat, though this was ignored.
"Lennie, you okay?" the man asked, glancing nervously at Mick and the others
"Ross, its fine. These are my friends" she patted the man's shoulders
"Friends?" the man looked around bemused
"Yeah, me and Lennie go way back" Mick almost growled as he stood and brushed himself down
"Is that Lenore?" Ray called, still in the pit he fell in.
"Hello, Mr Palmer" Lennie replied
The guy, Ross, rushed over to the pit gesturing for some others to help. Sarah and Amaya had been let down, they walked over to them joined by Zee.
"These guys" Mick gestured to the group of men who had been threatening them a few moments ago "they're with you?"
"Yes, thank goodness" Lennie replied, before she could say anymore the guy Ross came back over, supporting a mud cover Ray.
"You okay?" Sarah asked eyeing him over
"I'll be fine" Ray seemed extra cheerful, this usually meant he was hiding something
"He's twisted his ankle, I think" Ross said with a frown, seemingly annoyed and confused at their presence
Ray grinned sheepishly at the team in response , Mick rolled his eyes.
"This is Ross Ackles, Ross these are my friends, they, um" Lennie paused trying to find some reasonable explanation as to why they were here " are in private security business" she finished
"That one way of putting it" Sarah said drily, turning to Ross "Sarah Lance" she pointed to herself then the others "this is Mick, Amaya, Zari and the dumbass you're supporting is Ray"
"Are you here to rescue us?" Ross asked
The Legends looked at each other
"Do you need rescuing?" Sarah asked
The two looked at each other, seemingly hesitant to answer
"What is it?" Sarah asked with narrowed eyes
Lennie and Ross glanced at each other again a silent conversation passing between them
"You wouldn't believe it" Ross said breaking the silence
"Try us" Mick said
Ross looked helplessly to Lennie it looked like she had to make the decision
"We need to get back to camp; we can fill each other in on the way"
Ross nodded and turned to Mick "Okay, could you" Mick realised he was asking him to take Ray, he grunted, but let the dumbass shift his weight on to his shoulders.
"Thanks buddy" Ray murmured
The guy nodded to Lennie and turned to what Mick assumed where natives, who had been standing around watching the interaction carefully, almost on guard. Speaking in a language Mick couldn't understand, the men picked up their weapons and headed off to a trail that led up the mountainside.
"Come on" Lennie said heading up the same trail.
"So you think this Malleus is here?" Lennie frowned as she walked with Sarah; they were ahead leading the party. Mick was behind Amaya and Zee, with Ray slung over his shoulders. The people that Lennie referred to as the Wila Masi where a couple of feet either side of them, again in some sort of guarding formation. The guy, Ross, was at the rear of the party.
"Yeah" Sarah nodded "or heading this way at least"
Lennie paused and looked back at Ross, then looked back at Sarah.
"Does this Malleus, I mean" she looked at Ross again "can he control water?"
"Water?" Amaya's head jerked up
They glanced between the two, both had solemn expressions
"Alright time to explain" Sarah said, neither of them responded "Spill now" she order sharply
"This was my idea, this expedition" Lennie stuttered out, then gathered herself "Ross here is our photographer and equipment guy. There were four others, six of us on the expedition, to start with anyway"
"Plus two guides" Ross added
Lennie sneered and continued
They had been excited about this expedition. Jubilant they had started at Machu Picchu and followed the Urubamba River down. The guides seemed to know what they were doing and fitted in to the group. A few days in they had paused for a rest from the hike. June, the other botanist, wonder away from the group, Lennie just thought she had to go to the bathroom, but then they heard a scream. Rushing to where the crying was and they found June lying there, leg at a funny angle, blood everywhere and bone exposed. She was in too much pain to give much of an explanation as to what happened, not that any of them had asked, Lennie ponder in retrospect. They almost emptied their med supplies and all their collective energy to get down to the river and get a medevac. Milo their security expert had gone with her. That left her, Ross, their other security guy Jarred, and Hans their Anthropologists. They discussed going back and abandoning the expedition, but the stakes where to high, especially for Lennie, and they agreed to go on. They ploughed on trying to make up for the lost time, they were making good progress, but little did they know they were being watched. Until Hans had his accident.
"He's not making sense" Jarred said as they nursed over a confused Hans, "he's saying that he was attacked", "By locals?" Lennie asked, Jarred shook his head "He said it was a women made of water" "What?" Lennie went pale and bit her lip. It was impossible sure, but then so many things were, like a women born in 1870 leading an expedition such as this in 2017, but Ross shook his head "He fell and knocked his head, he's running a fever as well, he's not in his right mind", "You think?" Lennie asked hopefully, "Sure, I mean" Ross gestured to the tablet Hans carried with him "he reads so many local myths and legends they must got all jumbled up in his brain" she looked a Jarred, he shrugged "One down that's back luck, two is a little suspicious, but you guys pay me, so what you say goes, if you want to go ahead..." he left the question in mid air "We get Hans back to safety first before anything else" Lennie said determinedly, they all nodded in agreement. "I can't get any radio signal or satellite, there's some sort of interference. We'll have to go back down to call for help" Ross said, Lennie sighed and looked at Jarred "Right" Jarred said standing "It's getting to dark to make any move tonight, we'll have to camp here and start first light" he looked " You two take turns looking after Hans, I'll arrange with the guides to take watch." He frowned "Where are the guides anyway".
The guides had left them. Jarred and Ross and taken turns to watch. Lennie camped with Hans, occasionally checking on him. He mummed in his restless sleep, about a women, about water,but still made no sense. In the early hours of the morning Lennie has succumbed to exhaustion , she woke to find Hans gone and screams coming from outside. She emerged from the tent, only to stumble over Hans's lifeless body. Ross came running up towards her, grabbing he arm "Go, we have to go" he said frantically "Ross what's going on?" she yelled "Come on" he dragged as she protested, it wasn't until she saw them she understood. It was a woman. Not particularly tall or menacing, until you saw the look in her eyes, she had a cold, steely determination that left Lennie's stomach twisted. She was holding Jarred at arm's length, except her arms weren't arms, they were water, sparkling in the light of the camp fire, flowing up and into Jarred's nose and mouth. Lennie screamed. The women looked over dropping Jarred's body like a doll, and she stalked towards them. "Run!" cried Ross as the women caught up with them. She did glancing back to see the women do the same thing to him as she did Jarred. NO! Lennie thought and turned around. The women had been focused on Ross not paying much attention to her. She managed to skirt around the camp site unnoticed and rushed at the water women, catching her off guard and knocking all of them down. The women's' head gone into the campfire. As she screamed and clawed at her face, Lennie had pulled a spluttering Ross away into the relative safety of the dark dense jungle.
"Lennie saved me" Ross said pulling the red head to him in an embrace.
They had come to the camp, a clearing with a central fire and loose collection of tents and temporary shelters circling it. Strange things hang from the trees and tents that Mick was sure he didn't want a closer look at. More of the Wila Masi were here all staring at them curious to their presence. As he placed down Ray, Mick notice an old wizened guy paying particularly close attention to them.
"It was luck" Lennie whispered with hoarse emotion, burying her face into Ross chest, upset from reliving the experience.
Ross held her more tightly and looked at the group
"We ran into the Wila Masi the next day. They helped us and brought us here. We still think that water women is out there"
"Kuasa, her name is Kuasa" Amaya said with mixed emotion
"She works for Malleus" Sarah filled
"She's being manipulated" Amaya shot back defensively
Ross shot Amaya an evil look, obviously not sympatric.
"Why you?" Mick asked breaking the tension
"What?" Lennie's head snapped up and towards him
"What does Kuasa, Malleus or even you want in the middle of this godforsaken jungle" he spread his arms wide
Lennie smiled faintly
"Luludja" Lennie said by way of explanation, she looked at the puzzled group and sighed " let's get Mr Palmer seen to and I'll show you"
"It stinks" Mick said, as he pulled up his t-shirt to cover his nose and mouth, the others were doing similar, or covering their faces with their hands.
"I would say you get used to it, but that is very untrue" Lennie said through the scarf that she had covered her face with.
"Okay so this is why you're here, this" Sarah gestured at the thing "flower?"
"It's more than just a flower" Lennie stated firmly "for the start, it's the largest flower in existents, larger than the Rafflesia arnoldii, or will be when's it's in full bloom."
"This isn't all of it?" Zee asked eying the white blossom which, from Micks estimate, was at least a foot and half tall and just shy of a foot wide.
Lennie shook her head
"My theory is it will bloom fully under the full moon. Which is tonight"
"Okay, it's pretty, even if it stinks of ass" Mick coughed "but what does a guy like Malleus want with it?"
"Well I may have a theory for that too"
Lennie gestured for them to step away; they head back towards the camp, once they got away from the smell she removed her scarf. And took a couple of deep breaths.
"Have you guys heard of Harold Giernalczyk?" they shook their heads collectively "He was a Polish amateur plant collector in the early 1900's, he spent some time travelling before settling in Metropolis. He donated his journals to the local library, that how I came across them."
" Take it he's the one who found out about this plant?" Sarah asked
Lennie nodded
" He spent some time in Indian collecting specimens for his private collection when he heard a story from the locals about a plant they called the Moons eye that grew in the mountains, that was meant to have magical properties. Now on hearing on this Harold remembered a similar story that his Romanian Nanny used to tell him about a flower called Luludja."
"So he what, believed the stories were connected and went looking for it?" Zee asked impatiently
Lennie nodded again
" Until the war forced him to move to America, he lost most of his money and had to take up teaching, but he continued his research the best he could and even wrote a couple of papers on it"
"But wait! It's a long way from Romania to Indian" Zee said
"Even longer from Indian to Peru" Sarah chimed in
"Harold's theory is that Luludja expels it seeds with such force that it goes into the atmosphere and the high winds carry it around the worlds. That's why it only settles on mountains."
"Lucky you found it" Mick said as they came back up on the camp.
"Luck had nothing to do it with, it was all Lenore" Ross beamed as he walked up to the group accompanied by a hobbling Ray and the wizened old man Mick had spotted earlier
"Well" Lennie blushed "it was nothing really"
"She took the last confirmed location of the plant calculated its trajectory and convinced the committee of the Metropolis university to fund this expedition. That's not nothing" Ross said
"Yeah, she's smart alright, and determined" the last comment got a small chuckle out of Lennie, Mick smiled at the sound, realising that there several eyes on him he continued "Um, what does Looloodi mean anyway?"
"Luludja?" Lennie frowned "if I remember correctly it means Life Flower"
"Wait!? Life flower?" Amaya eyes went wide
"You've heard of it?" Lennie asked, as all eyes turned to Amaya
"It's said that the totems where carved out the seeds of the flower of life" Amaya fingered her necklace.
"So if Malleus gets his hands on the seeds…" Sarah faded out with the horror of realisation.
Amaya continued "He could create his own totems and..."
"End the world as we know it" a smug familiar voice finished