A/N: Hey everyone! Welcome back to the story as well as the big October story arc, which I personally like to call; "The Mesoamerican Arc". As you can probably tell by that title, we're gonna be covering not just the Mayans, but a good swath of Mesoamerican culture this month. So, I felt it only necessary to name this chapter something that I'm pretty sure we've all heard at least once or twice in school. Now, without any further ado, let's get into it! This is…

Chapter 25: Yucatan with the Mayans

…..

"…I'm still not sure if this is an entirely sound idea." Carl couldn't help but stare on as he watched his son and the girls all gather their bags in the living room, with Sandra, Raven and Tai all standing with him. The other adults were all feeling equally as uncertain as he was after hearing about Ben and Yang's plan for the weekend. Sure, a weekend long trip to Mexico wasn't a BAD idea, especially since they could all fly down there for free. But… when they heard about what they were intending to do when they GOT there… that was another matter entirely.

At the moment, Ben and Team RWBY were making sure they had everything they needed, and they had changed into clothes that would be more suited for the place they were going to. Ben and Yang were donned in their adventure gear that they had gotten earlier in the day while Ruby was in a black t-shirt and red shorts, Weiss wore a similar ensemble as her partner but in pale blue and white, and black was in a pair of black jean shorts, had on a white undershirt, and over that she had on a black jacket that was unbuttoned and had the sleeves rolled up. All of them wore proper hiking boots as well, as they'd be needing them. …And of course, Ruby kept her hood and cloak.

However, it was also very early in the morning, as the team had resolved to fly to Mexico at the crack of dawn so they could arrive before noon. If anything, that made Carl all the more concerned with what their intentions for going were. "So you're telling me that you kids are headed down to Mexico… in order to search for God?"

Ben let out a breathy chuckle, his voice a bit shaky as he explained to his father. "Hehe, no, no, dad, we're not searching for capital "G" God, far from it. Besides, we're not chasing after the metaphysical. No, we're searching for gods, as in the plural kind. Ya know the kind that were worshipped WAY back in the day, like Ah Puch, Ek Chuaj, those ones."

Sandra crossed her arms and sent a worried gaze to her son. "…That doesn't really make us feel any better, Ben. Besides, aren't ALL gods metaphysical?"

"Heh, not the one I punched."

"Wait, what?" both Sandra and Carl uttered.

"Oh yeah, Ben told us that he and Gwen went down to Mexico with Max one time during that summer that he got the Omnitrix." Ruby piped up, bringing everyone's attention to her. "He said that Max was trying to protect an ancient sword that belonged to a Mayan war god from a group call the Forever Knights, and that the Mayan god of death was the one guarding it."

Sandra and Carl both slowly trailed their eyes back to Ben… who only now realized that they had never heard this story. "…Why is this the first time we've heard of this?" Sandra demanded with a fierce gaze. "Your grandfather said nothing about a brief excursion to MEXICO of all places all those years back."

"Hehe… well, would you have believed us if he had told the truth?" Ben sheepishly laughed.

Carl pursed his lips and sighed. "Well, probably not, but the point still stands." Carl placed his hands to his hips, his expression softening to his son. "Ben, we just want to make sure that you know what you're doing. What if that "god" you fought was a hoax? Heck, what if that sword that your grandpa tried to protect was a hoax?" He stepped forward and placed his hands on his son's shoulders. "We just don't want you to head out on a wild goose chase, son. Otherwise… you may be disappointed."

Ben let out a breath and nodded at that. "Yeah, dad, I get where you're coming from. But…" The hero raised a determined fist. "I can feel it in my gut on this one. I think we might be on the trail of something big." He extended his hand toward Team RWBY, who were all quite determined as well. "And these guys here feel the same way I do. Right, girls?"

"Well, yeah." Weiss shrugged. "I mean, if OUR gods from Remnant are real, then who's to say that the ones from your world aren't?"

Sandra blinked multiple times at that and Carl had to do a double take. "I-I'm sorry, what?!"

"Oh yes." Raven nodded. "The Gods of Light and Darkness, the ones who are responsible for creating the world of Remnant, are in fact real."

"How do you know that?!" Carl exclaimed.

"A magical genie told us." Tai stated, earning dropped jaws from Sandra and Carl. "…And now I realize that makes us sound like crazy people, but I swear that it IS true. Remind Gwen to introduce you guys to Jinn sometime…" The blonde man and Raven both went up to the group as well, focusing on Yang and Ruby in particular. "Now, I hope you two have everything you need over the weekend."

"Of course, dad." Yang assured as she began taking stock of everything on her fingers. "We've got a few changes of clothes, our weapons, gear, toothbrushes, bug spray, sun tan lotion, bathing suits…"

Raven immediately held up her hand. "Wait, wait, what were those last two? I thought you said you were going god hunting."

"Well, considering that Mexico apparently has some awesome beaches, we decided that Sunday's gonna be a beach day." Blake elaborated. "Today is going to be all about searching for gods." She pointed up to the clock, which read 6:30. "It's the whole reason why we're headed out this early, remember?"

"Hm… I see." Raven hummed before she gave Ben the side-eye. "Well, if that's the case, then I hope you all have fun… but no funny business, is that clear?"

"CRYSTAL, MA'AM!" Ben saluted.

"Good, now I suggest you leave. Your flight is due to leave soon…" Raven and Tai both reached out and grabbed a hold of Yang and Ruby in a hug. "We'll see you girls when you get back, alright?"

"And make sure to stay safe." Tai stressed. "I don't wanna get the news that one of my girls got eaten by a god or something."

The sisters gave a laugh at that before Ruby squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Don't worry, dad, we'll be careful."

Ben himself then went up to his parents and hugged them as well, which they were more than happy to return. "Well, I'll be off, guys. Wish me luck."

"Oh, of course, Ben." Sandra said with a sympathetic smile.

"And even if you end up not finding anything, I hope you kids have a fun time down in Mexico." Carl said with a wink. "And hey, if ya do find something, then you'll be able to say that you proved us wrong!"

The Omnitrix bearer laughed as he picked up his suitcase, slinging it over his shoulder as the rest of Team RWBY did the same with theirs. "Hehe, thanks dad. I'll keep that in mind. We'll see you on Monday!" Ben then faced the girls and pointed to the door. "Alright, ladies, adventure awaits!" The girls all followed Ben with a cheer out the door, ready for whatever awaited them on this new quest.

…..

By the time the group had arrived at the airport, the others had already arrived, and were all waiting for them on the runway by the Rustbucket III. They pulled to a stop… and were immediately met by Nora running right up to firmly plant her hands on the hood. "GUYS!" The group all shouted at once, Nora's manic, yet excited grin shocking them all. The redhead was also wearing a white t-shirt with a pink heart in the center, along with a pair of hot pink shorts, an equally pink backpack strapped to her back. "You're FINALLY here! We've been waiting for half an hour!"

The five all did a double take at that, with Ben sticking his head out the window. "Wait, what?!"

"Well, yeah." Gwen affirmed as she approached as well. She was dressed in a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a pale blue button-up shirt, and she was sporting quite a large hiking pack of her own. "We wanted to make sure we got here on time." Gwen placed her hands on her hips as Ben and Team RWBY got out of the car. "But I'm honestly surprised that you arrived fashionably late, Ben. This was your idea, after all."

Ben put up his hands and shrugged. "Hey, I wanted to make sure we had everything we needed, okay? I'm sure you can understand that, especially with that mountain you're carrying."

"…Touche." Gwen conceded. She saw Team RWBY circle around the car and greeted them with a smile. "Hey girls! So, you all ready to head out?"

"Oh, are we ever!" Ruby exclaimed with a pump of her fist. "This weekend is gonna be AWESOME!"

Suddenly, a whistle came from off to the side. "Hey, Weiss!" The heiress perked up at her name and she spun around, smiling at the sight of Rex coming straight toward her. The EVO was dressed in a red polo shirt and a set of cargo pants, along with a pair of black, fingerless gloves to boot. He sprinted up and instantly picked Weiss up to spin her around, causing her to laugh in surprise. "Haha, WOO! I hope you're ready, Ice Princess!" Rex set his girlfriend down and gave her a hug. "Because let me tell ya, if you liked the restaurant then you are gonna LOVE the real deal."

Weiss wore an ear-to-ear grin at Rex's enthusiasm. "Hehe, I probably should've guessed that YOU would be the most excited for this trip, Rex."

"You kidding? I'm THRILLED!" Rex snapped his head to Ben and raised his fist to him. "Ben, dude, I have no idea where this spontaneous trip idea came from, but I am REALLY glad that you thought it up."

Ben returned the fist bump and gave him a nod. "Heh, no problem, Rex. Though honestly, if you should be thanking anyone, it's Yang." He craned his head over to the blonde and gave her a wink. "If it wasn't for her reminding me of what I wanted to do, we probably wouldn't be here right now." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Leave it to my girlfriend to have a better memory than me."

Yang felt her cheeks heat up at the compliment. "Aw, Ben! You're too sweet." The blonde's eyes trailed over to see the rest of Team JNPR approach them, and all of them were in very different attires than they were used to. Ren was in a pair of long, black cargo pants and a green t-shirt, Pyrrha had on a pair of brown khaki shorts and a red button-up shirt, and Jaune was in a pair of blue jean shorts and a yellow button-up, which was actually unbuttoned to reveal a white undershirt. "Well, hey guys!" Yang greeted.

"Good to see you all seem ready to head out into the wilderness." Blake commented.

"Hm, well, we weren't exactly expecting this last-minute trip…" Pyrrha admitted. "But thankfully we DID buy some proper clothes on our last shopping trip." The Invincible Girl clapped her hands together with a big grin. "But in all honestly, I am VERY excited for this. To think that we'll be able to see the wonders of a foreign country on in our very first week on Earth!"

Jaune nodded wholeheartedly. "Yeah! Bellwood's cool and all, but it still feels kinda… samey compared to Vale, ya know?"

"Yeah, I get ya." Ben nodded. "After going from Patch to Bellwood, something tells me that Mexico will be a good change of scenery."

Just then, Penny suddenly popped right up in between them all, causing them to let out a collective shout. "And I could NOT agree more! Salutations, everyone!" The redheaded android gestured to her attire, which consisted of brown cargo shorts and a pale green V-neck. "I hope my attire is appropriate for an adventure such as this!"

Ruby chuckled and went up to her friend, putting a hand to her shoulder. "Hehe, yeah, it's definitely appropriate, Penny…" However, Ruby's eyes then trailed over to see Ilia walking up to them… and the chameleon girl didn't really have any significant changes in her wardrobe. "Oh, hi, Ilia! …Uh, hope you don't mind me asking but—"

"You're wondering why I'm not in any kind of "adventure gear", right?" Ilia finished, making Ruby nod. "Well, it's honestly because I think what I have on right now is perfectly fine for what we'll be doing tomorrow."

"Yeah, same here." The girls' attention was drawn to Sun, who also went without any major changes to his wardrobe, aside from exchanging his sandals for hiking boots. He gestured to his chest with a very self-assured smile. "Besides, why in the world would I wanna cover up this?" Poke! "Ouch!" He peered down to see Blake having poked his chest, digging her nail into his pectoral.

"That's why." Blake said with a quirked brow. "Do you REALLY wanna get eaten alive by bugs, Sun?"

Rex waved a hand over to him. "Yeah, dude, and knowing Mexico, there's a lot of WORSE things down there that can seriously mess you up if you stay open like that. I suggest ya button up."

Sun sighed and relinquished to their advice. "Alright…" He began buttoning up before stealing a glance at Blake. "And here I thought you liked my abs…"

"I do, but I'm gonna be seeing them and more on Sunday at the beach." Blake whispered before winking at her boyfriend. "So just be patient, Sun."

All at once, Sun's grin returned and he put an arm around Blake once his shirt was buttoned up. "Hehe, now THAT I can look forward to…" He craned his head around and called out for his best friend; "Yo, Neptune! How ya doin' over there, bud?"

Over by Kevin's car, the blue-haired boy in question had just finished loading a bunch of luggage into the trunk, with Kevin right by his side. While the Osmosian hadn't changed his own clothes either, Neptune was in a blue polo shirt and a pair of maroon cargo shorts that matched the shade of his usual jacket. He also had his goggles hanging around his neck rather than on his forehead. He whipped the sweat from his brow and called back to his partner. "We're all good here, bro! Ready and waiting to board!"

"And we'd better do it quick, too!" Kevin added. "If we wanna make it by sunrise, that is."

"WAIT!" Nora suddenly popped up right in Kevin's face, making him yelp and jump back a couple feet. "We can't leave! Cooper, Coco and the others still aren't here yet!"

Ruby's eyes widened at this. "Wait, really?" She set her sights over to Gwen curiously. "I thought you said we were the last ones here?"

Gwen shook her head, though. "No, I didn't say that. I said that you guys were fashionably late, not the last ones here. That honor would go to Team CFVY—" HONK-HONK! But just as those words left her mouth, Gwen was silenced by the sound of a loud car horn, leading everyone to turn their attention to a pair of headlights coming right at them. Sure enough, it was Coco's roadster… which was towing some sort of pod on wheels behind it. "Huh… ask and you shall receive, I guess."

The roadster pulled to a stop and the doors opened up, with Team CFVY all stepping out onto the runway. Yatsu and Fox were still dressed in their usual Huntsman gear, but Coco, Velvet and Cooper were decked out in proper adventure attire. The blonde genius was in a pair of cargo shorts, a light, button up jacket with pockets on the pectorals, and a purple undershirt. Coco meanwhile wore a pair of brown shorts and a black tank top, having forgone her barrette in favor of a brown crush hat. And finally, Velvet was in a cream-colored V-neck t-shirt that had brown trimming, along with a pair of white shorts.

Yatsu was the first to greet them all with a wave. "Evening, everyone! Been waiting on us?"

"Pretty much." Ren shrugged. "You guys are pretty much the last ones to arrive."

"Oh, sorry!" Velvet apologized with a bow of her head. "We had to drive from Cooper's house all the way to Bellwood and then pick up the suit from the base."

Ben blinked at that last part. "Wait, Coop, you're BRINGING the suit?"

"Heh, well duh." Cooper replied sarcastically. "I mean, the thing's nearly done, so I'm taking every opportunity I can to finish it. The only reason I'm not staying behind to finish it is—"

"Because I'm making him take a beach day." Coco finished as she took hold of Cooper's shoulders, giving them a firm shake. "After all, hon, you've been working on that armor almost non-stop since you got here and you NEED some R&R. I don't care if I have to chain you to a post you ARE going to have fun on the beach."

With a heavy sigh, Cooper's shoulders slumped a bit. "…Yes, dear."

Coco rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses before poking her boyfriend's arm. "Hey, look at it this way;" she whispered to him with a sly grin. "I'm gonna be wearing my best bikini, and you're gonna be showing me those muscles of yours, so we're both gonna win on Sunday."

The blonde broke out into a blush and coughed into his hand, trying to regain some composure. "Hah, uh… w-well, I certainly can't argue with that."

Back over near the others, Fox had stepped up and set his blank white gaze in Ben's direction with a questioning look. "So, just to remind me, what the heck are we searching for again on this trip?"

"Lots of things!" Ben explained, counting them off on his fingers. "Gods, monsters, maybe a few artifacts from the ancient past, that kinda stuff. Basically, after seeing how Remnant's gods are real…"

"Which I STILL can't believe is really a thing…" Fox jumped in.

"…I remembered how I pretty much fought a god of death at a very young age." Ben went on. "Sure, it was years ago, but I'm thinking that if we head down there, we might be able to get some answers."

Off to the side, Rex crossed his arms skeptically. "Yeah, and maybe we'll see if these "gods" really are who they say they are." Everyone's focus shifted to him as he explained himself. "I know I'm probably beating a dead horse at this point, but I'm gonna stick to my guns here. Gods like that are cool from a myth standpoint, but when it comes to real-life and science, I'm not sure how they hold up."

"Says the guy who briefly wielded god-like powers." Ben countered.

"Emphasis on god-like." Rex stressed. "And again, I got those powers thanks to nanites, which are, of course, scientific in nature."

Gwen felt the need to jump in. "Well, yeah, of course, Rex. But you have to remember, too, that our planet is much more magical in nature than yours is." The redhead procured her spell book from her backpack to prove her point. "In that sense, the idea of mystical gods that control nature and other aspects of the world at large isn't so farfetched."

"Maybe, but we'll see." Rex shrugged. "This "Ah Puch" you encountered could easily just be an alien, but I'm ready and willing to be proven wrong."

"Well, who knows, Rex?" At the sound of another familiar voice, everyone craned their heads around to see Max come walking down the entry ramp of the Rustbucket 3, wearing a knowing smile. "After all, we don't truly know EVERYTHING about our world, so there is always the chance that something unknown can pop out at you at any moment. That's one of the reasons why I loved traveling so much in my younger days."

Ruby smiled back to the old man. "And will you be joining us on this expedition, Max?"

The Plumber's features grew slightly saddened as he shook his head. "Ah, unfortunately, no. As Magister, I have a ton of work to do this weekend. The Magistrata's called me up to the Plumber's main HQ to evaluate what exactly happened to us while we were in Remnant, so THAT'S gonna be a fun time." With that sarcastic remark, his smile grew earnest once again. "But I hope you all have fun down in Mexico. And hey, if you do see anything mystical, make sure you take some pictures for me, okay?"

"Will do, grandpa." Ben came up and gave Max a hug, which he returned.

"Good to hear. Oh, and you'll need this." The two separated and Max handed Ben a Plumber tablet. "This contains a map and the exact coordinates of the Temple of Ek Chuaj. I'm not sure exactly what you're going to find there, though. The place has been nothing but a mountain of rubble for years at this point."

Ben bobbed his head to the side. "Yeah, but hey, we gotta start somewhere, ya know? Still, thanks, grandpa. We appreciate the help here."

"You're welcome." Max gave his grandson a pat on the shoulder. "Good luck, Ben." He then set his sights on the others as well. "And best of luck to all of you, too. I hope you all find what you're searching for." After exchanging their goodbyes, the gang all moved their vehicles onto the Rustbucket III before the hatch closed behind them. Max stepped far away from the massive jet as its thrusters activated, and before long, it was moving along the runway at high speeds before taking off into the early morning sky.

Max put a hand over his eyes as he watched the plane leave, giving a chuckle as it left. "Those kids… it's always some sort of adventure with them."

"Indeed."

"AH!" Max let out a shout and spun around, his eyes widening at the sight of a bearded old man and a large horse standing directly next to him. He wore a grey, wide-brimmed hat with a matching duster jacket, held a walking stick in one hand and the reigns of his horse in another. And, sitting on each of his shoulders, were a pair of ravens that were staring directly at him.

The old man, however, was still staring up into the sky, where the Rustbucket III had since disappeared. "You have to give the youth of today some credit, they're very persistent."

"Who… who are you?!" Max yelled as he reached into his pocket, ready to call the Plumber's for back-up if necessary. "A-And when did you get here?"

"Oh, Maxwell, I've been here for quite some time." The old man chortled. "And I must say, this has become quite the interesting development…" He stroked his beard in contemplation. "I do wonder how the children will fair on their little excursion to the south. Perhaps I should keep a further eye on them…"

Max's eyes widened in shock, finally taking in the man's features and recalling a similar description. "You're… you're Orson, aren't you?"

Orson pursed his lips and furrowed his brow to Max. "Yes… though it's probably best that you don't remember this little encounter." At the snap of his finger's, Orson cast a spell, making Max's eyes go blank for a few moments. The old Plumber's body seemed to relax slightly, with Orson nodding in approval. "Good, now, in five seconds, you will not remember any of what just transpired. And as for me…" Orson tapped his walking stick on the ground, making himself, his horse and his birds all disappear into thin air, leaving Max by himself.

Max's eyes then cleared up and he woke with a start. "H-Huh?! What? …What just happened?" He rubbed his eyes and let out a groan. "Ugh, maybe it's that stuffed muskrat I ate earlier. Better make sure that was still fresh…"

…..

Meanwhile, onboard the Rustbucket III, the team were strapping themselves in for the flight ahead of them, with everyone taking a seat in the cargo hold. The only one who wasn't in there was Kevin… since he was flying the plane. "Krrrzzt—Breaker, breaker, this is your captain speaking!" the Osmosian announced over the intercom. "We are now directly on course for the Yucatan Peninsula, so everyone buckle up and enjoy the flight. Also, some shut-eye is highly recommended."

"Ha! Flag that!" Ruby dismissed as she bounced up and down in her seat. "I wanna know more about just where we're headed!"

"Yes, so do I." Pyrrha concurred, her gaze settled on Ben, Gwen and Rex. "I know that you all have been really hyping up this locale since this trip was announced, but we would like to know more." The Invincible Girl raised a hand to the Omnitrix bearer. "For example, Ben, you keep saying this "Ah Puch" character is a Mayan death god, but who exactly WERE the Mayans anyway?"

Ben chuckled a bit and rubbed the back of his head. "Hehe, well, in all honesty, ancient history isn't really my forte. I love to learn about it, but I'm not as good at retaining info in my head about it as their myths and stuff. But…" He gestured over to his cousin. "That's where she comes in. Gwen?"

The Anodite rubbed her hands together eagerly. "Ooh, I've been WAITING for an opportunity to flex my historical knowledge! Gather round, everyone, it's time for a history lesson!" Once everyone set their attention onto Gwen, she began her little lecture. "Okay, so basically, the Maya are one of the oldest civilizations in Mesoamerica, right up there with the Olmecs and whoever built Teotihuacan."

Weiss' face scrunched up at that last word. "Teoti… Teoticha… what?"

"Teotihuacan, Ice Princess." Rex repeated. "It's probably one of the most important ancient cities in the entire country of Mexico, if not the whole continent of North America." The EVO waved it off and relinquished the floor back to Gwen. "But that's more in the Aztec area of things, so please, keep going, Gwen."

"Thank you." The redhead settled in and continued; "So basically, the Mayans, while ostensibly old, were probably one of the most well-developed civilizations in the entire ancient world. They had amazing agriculture, great cities with impressive architecture, and probably one of the most innovative writing systems ever for their time." Gwen brought up a tablet and searched up some Mayan hieroglyphs to show her point. "See, instead of your regular alphabet, the Mayans used a more pictographic style of writing, using a combination of logograms and syllabic glyphs."

Weiss perked up at the word "glyph" and leaned in for a closer look. "Really now?" As she and the others peered at the tablet, they saw what appeared to be ancient pictures depicting things such as people, animals and objects, along with several small symbols that surrounded them. "Wow, this is actually quite impressive!"

Yang nodded in agreement. "Yeah… I can't make heads or tails out of it, but it's still pretty cool."

Gwen couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Hmhm, yeah, they are, aren't they? These were pretty much everywhere in the ancient Mayan world, too. Inside their temples, outside the temples, on their staircases, you name it." She raised a single finger to the group. "But wait, there's more!" She slid her finger across the screen, changing the picture to what appeared to be a large, round slab of stone that had several more images on it, accompanies by tons of glyphs. "Because not only did the Mayans have their own writing system, they also had their own calendars as well. And get this; these calendars would often extend several THOUSANDS of years into the future."

The group were all stunned by that. "Woah! That's insane!" Sun exclaimed. "…But why the heck would they need a calendar that does that?"

"Yeah, seems kinda… unnecessary." Jaune admitted. "Can't imagine the counting that must go into that."

"Well, to answer that, we'd have to go into a LOT of technical jargon about how Mayan astronomy worked." Gwen explained. "See, the Mayans had many different cycles that they went by, including a 260-day one that was merged with a traditional 365-day year to create one single cycle, which was known as a "Calendar Round". From there, we—"

"BORING!" Nora belted out, her voice echoing throughout the ship. "Could we get back to the more interesting stuff please?"

Gwen deadpanned at that, a bit miffed that she had been so rudely interrupted. However, one glance around the room told her that she was losing interest fast and that she probably should change things up. "Well, alright, but before we move on, I'd be neglectful if I didn't mention the whole debacle about what happened some years back because of one of these calendars." She slid her finger across the tablet again and showed the group a picture of what appeared to be more Mayan hieroglyphs. "You see, back in the year 2012, one of these Mayan Long Count calendars was due to come up on the end of its cycle, which lasted for over five-thousand years. Some saw this as an event to be celebrated, especially in countries where the Maya once lived. …But, by many others, this was basically seen as the end of the world as we know it."

"Wait… really?" Neptune uttered. "You're saying that people ACTUALLY believed that just because a Mayan calendar was ending, that meant it was the end of the world?"

"Eeyup." Ben nodded. "You would NOT believe how many doomsday "profits" came out and proclaimed that December 21st would be where all of humanity would come to an end. But the thing was, there was no clear-cut answer as to WHAT would happen on that date."

Gwen picked it up from there. "Many saw it as a date where the human race would undergo some type of transformation, but clearly, that hasn't exactly happened."

"Well… not in YOUR dimension." Rex jumped in, causing everyone to shift their eyes to him. "I mean, the Nanite Event DID happen in my world, so you could say that the humans on my Earth kinda went through a sort of transformation."

"Did it happen in 2012?" Gwen asked.

Rex smiled proudly at that. "Actually, yes! …It happened before December 21st, but it still counts!"

Gwen hummed a response. "Hm, sure, I suppose so. But, moving on, there were also plenty of wack-jobs that thought the world would end in some way. Including, and I'm not making this up, all of us getting sucked into a blackhole or a mythical planet called "Nibiru" colliding with Earth. But, as you can plainly see, almost a full decade later and we're all still here." The redhead placed a hand to her forehead and sighed. "Seriously, I have no idea how people can be this dumb."

"You're telling me." Blake commented, with the team giving a collective nod. "That all just sounds like big elaborate hoaxes to me. But anyway, what more can you tell us about the Mayans?"

The Anodite's smile returned and she went on with her lecture. "Well, a couple neat things about the Mayans and their agriculture; they actually used a technique called "slash-burning", where they'd cut down a whole bunch of vegetation and leave it out to dry so they could burn it later, thereby helping to fertilize the soil so they could grow their crops better." Gwen then swiped her finger along the tablet until she came upon a picture of what appeared to be a large cave with a hole in the ceiling and water in its basin. "Also, the native lands of the Maya didn't have a lot of freshwater rivers, and often. So, they got their water from these awesome natural sinkholes called "Cenotes"."

"Ooh, very interesting!" Penny clapped her hands together in anticipation. "Do you think WE will come across one of these on our excursion?"

"Maybe so. There's still plenty of Cenotes that are still accessible to this day, after all." The Anodite then swiped the tablet again, switching the picture over to one of several ruined Mayan temples. "Unfortunately, though, the Cenotes weren't susceptible to drought, and over the course of time, the Mayan civilization declined until it ultimately collapsed."

"Aw, well that's disappointing to hear." Ilia frowned before tilting her head to the side. "But what about their myths and stuff? After all that IS the whole reason we're going on this expedition, aren't we?"

Gwen was quick to give Ilia a knowing wink. "Oh, I am one step ahead of you on that one, Ilia. But before we cover some of the myths themselves, I think it's important that you guys have a basic understanding of ancient Mayan religion." Once again, Gwen went to her tablet and brought up a new picture, that of an ancient stone sculpture that appeared to be of some stylized humanoid being. "You see, cycles are a pretty big commonality in the Mayan civilization, which is reflected not just in their calendars and such, but in their religion as well. They believed in a cycle of creation and destruction, which extended to life and death as they believed that a human soul went through the heavens and the underworld before being reincarnated back into the living world."

"Ooh, neat!" Ruby smiled. "Sounds like a pretty cool way to look at things—"

"Which is one of the many reasons why the Mayans had absolutely no problems with human sacrifices." Gwen finished. The Anodite's words gave the entire room a long, silent pause, with nearly everyone utterly stunned. The only ones who didn't seem fazed by this were Ben, Rex and Cooper, the former two staying silent as they let Gwen's statement sink in while Cooper was still hard at work on his armor near the back.

With a shake of her head, Coco broke out of her trance and lowered her sunglasses to Gwen. "I'm sorry, but could you repeat that, because it sounds like you just said they performed HUMAN SACRIFICES!"

"Oh, they did." Gwen reassured. "And believe me, there were LOTS of them. Gotta appease the gods somehow, ya know. And giving them blood is probably the most potent ways to do so." She switched the picture on the tablet to that of a stone sculpture that was depicting a sacrifice in the form of decapitation. "And believe me, they had a LOT of methods. Decapitation, removing the heart, bloodletting, heck sometimes they even sacrificed animals instead of—"

"STOP, STOP!" Ruby covered her ears and snapped her eyes shut, moving to an isolated corner of the room. "Don't say another word!"

Penny was actually doing the same as well, though she was expressing her distaste a lot louder. "I am not listening! Nor am I attempting to even THINK of what you're suggesting!"

Velvet tapped her fingers together awkwardly and glanced from side to side. "Erm, yeah… Gwen, could we maybe skip past this part? I don't think any of us want to hear about sacrifices this early in the morning…"

"Speak for yourself!" Nora said with a big grin. "I'm FULLY invested in this kinda stuff! …But don't read too far into that, seriously."

The redhead sighed and waved her hand. "Alright, alright, I understand. Still, it's pretty much a quintessential part of all ancient Mesoamerican culture, so you might want to get used to it." Gwen smiled and let out a little chuckle. "Hehe, but uh… if you want a little funny spin on the concept, get this; in the Aztec religion, if you're a soldier that dies in battle, you'd get reincarnated into a hummingbird!"

"Aw, that's super cute!" Nora cooed. "Also, very morbid."

From the back, everyone heard a snicker, and they all turned to see Fox holding a hand over his mouth. The blind warrior felt everyone staring at him and he held up his hands. "What? It was kinda funny!"

Next to him, Yatsuhashi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure." He shook his head and implored Gwen to move on. "Well, in any case, what about some of these gods that you guys have kept mentioning? Ben, you keep saying you fought a death god, but who WAS this death god?"

"Oh, well that's easy." Ben replied. "His name is Ah Puch." Once again, though, Fox couldn't help but snicker at that, to which Ben sent him a deadpan stare. "…Really?"

"Dude, his name is "Ah Puch"." Fox argued. "How the heck am I supposed to take that seriously?"

Ben responded by folding his arms and furrowing his brow at Fox. "Okay, well then I'd like to see you try laughing about it right to the Death God's skull-shaped face and see where that gets ya." All at once Fox's features fell and he grew pale, sealing his lips as Ben nodded in approval. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Trust me, as someone who's fought him, he's pretty tough."

Gwen eyed her cousin warily. "Yeah… also I remember you calling him "Rat Puke", so I bet he won't appreciate that if we see him again."

Now THAT got everyone laughing again, with Ben's own features growing pale before Yang put a supportive hand to his shoulder. "Ah, don't worry, Green Boy. Like you've said before; you were a stupid ten-year-old who had no idea what he was doing back then." she said with a reassuring smile. "I'm sure Ah Puch will… hopefully understand the circumstances."

"Yeah, sure, thanks Yang." Ben shakily uttered before getting back on track. "W-Well, all that aside, I'm pretty sure you can figure out Ah Puch's whole deal from his description. He's the god of death, darkness and the underworld, and he's NOT one to be messed with."

"And oddly, he's also the god of childbirth." Rex added, putting a hand to his chin. "Which is honestly kinda odd since it's been said that he's often butted heads with lots of fertility gods, but hey, somethings are bound to get lost in translation over the centuries…" But as he trailed off, he noticed that everyone was now staring at him almost as if he had sprouted a second head. He quirked an eyebrow and asked; "What?"

Ben scratched the back of his head. "Well, uh… to tell you the truth, dude, I just didn't expect you to know THAT much about this considering you've been pretty dead-set on the gods not being real"

"Hey, just because I'm firm in my stance doesn't mean I don't know ANYTHING about these gods." Rex leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms. "Especially since they're from my home country, ya feel me?"

The Omnitrix bearer raised his hands up and conceded to the EVO. "Hey, don't worry dude, I get it, trust me. That said, if you know so much about Ah Puch, you wanna take things from here?"

"…You know how ironic this is, don't you?"

"Oh, I know, and that makes it all the better." Ben said with a victorious smirk.

"Oy, fine." Rex rolled his eyes and took over from there. "Alright, guys, gather around and let Uncle Rex tell you all about the tales surrounding the Maya's death god."

"We will if you never refer to yourself as "Uncle Rex" again." Weiss deadpanned.

Rex smirked and winked to his girlfriend. "I make no promises, Ice Princess." With that, he settled back into a chair and began to tell the group all about the god in question. "Okay, so Ah Puch was often described as a sort of skeletal being with rotting flesh and a bloated physique that often indicated that a body was decaying…" He moved his sights over to Gwen and Ben briefly. "That sound anything like the thing you fought all those years ago?"

The cousins nodded to him. "Oh yeah, almost to a T." Gwen affirmed. "He had a skeletal mask with pale yellow skin along his chin area, while the rest of his body was a dull grey. No protruding ribs, though, which I hear is another big descriptor for Ah Puch."

"Did he at least smell bad?"

Ben's face scrunched up and he waved a hand in front of his nose. "Oh yeah, his stench was god awful. I think I even still remember what he smelled like. Think of a skunk but five times worse."

"Heh, not surprising. One of the names he was known as was "The Stinking One", given that he was associated with… well, to put it lightly, farting."

The entire group of teens all let out a disgusted sound at that. "Ugh, charming." Pyrrha cringed.

Rex could only shrug. "Hey, a dead body's gotta let out the access gas when it dies, so what'd you expect? But anyway, the legends say that Ah Puch lived and ruled over Xibalba, the city that was nestled in the lowest point of the underworld." He then raised his arms over his head for emphasis. "There, he would watch over the dead as they entered this lowest point, which was often reserved for the worst of the worst."

"Makes sense." Coco shrugged. "I sure as hell wouldn't wanna get sent down to the lowest point of anything when I die."

"Oh, believe me, Coco, you definitely wouldn't, especially if Ah Puch was the one watching over you." Rex asserted. "Heck, people were so afraid of him that it was believed that he would skulk around the houses of people that were sick or injured, waiting for them to die so that he could bring them down to the underworld himself."

Velvet let out an "eep!" and pulled her backpack up in front of her, hiding behind it as she trembled fearfully. "…I-Is that right?"

Rex chuckled and shook his head. "Well, if you ask me, it was a whole bunch of superstition. But to the Mayans back then, Ah Puch was like the bogeyman, so they made sure to drive him off at any chance they could." He raised a single finger as he made his point. "In fact, they'd often purposely mourn someone's death loudly so that the noise would ward off Ah Puch, making it so that he wouldn't claim anymore victims."

"That's… actually kind of clever." Ren said with a hand on his chin. "Though you would think that Ah Puch would be USED to loud noises given how he lives in the underworld where people are no doubt suffering for their misdeeds."

However, Nora just shrugged. "Eh, with gods, ya just never know, Renny." She went back to Rex with an excited smile. "So, anything else about Ah Puch you know about, Rex?"

"Well… there is ONE thing." The EVO scratched the back of his head. "See, what's notable about Ah Puch is that, because of him ruling over death itself, he was also heavily associated with lots of war gods. Since, ya know, people tend to die in war a LOT."

Ben's eyes widened as a realization dawned on him. "Huh, so I guess THAT'S why he was guarding the Sword of Ek Chuaj." He glanced over to Gwen for a reminder. "Grandpa Max said that Ek Chuaj WAS a war god, right?"

"Yep, he did." Gwen confirmed. "Though oddly enough, I think he's also the Mayan God of Merchants, which is a bit weird. You don't really often see merchants and war associated with one another."

Ben pursed his lips at that last part, though. "Uh, Gwen, don't you remember when we went to that planet of warring blue and red people? And that Kevin and Argit were literally selling weapons in order to keep the war going?"

Gwen's eyebrows rose up at the memory, as well as how quickly Ben had proven her wrong. "…Huh, I stand corrected."

"And let's not forget!" Rex interjected. "Ek Chuaj was ALSO the god of cocoa." His hand quickly snapped up and waved over to Coco. "And no, I'm not talking about that one."

Coco rolled her eyes beneath her sunglasses. "Didn't think ya were, Gear Head. I can only guess you're talkin' about cocoa beans, right?"

"Yep! Because Central and South America is basically where the cocoa bean gets its roots from." Rex said with a proud smile. "If you wanna thank anyone for your coffee and your chocolate, it's the ones who gather the beans down here to make it all."

"And Ek Chuaj, let's not forget him." Ben added.

"Huh, that's pretty cool, actually." Neptune piped up. "So, what did this "Ek Chuaj" guy look like?"

Rex decided to jump back in and answer that one. "Well, he was often depicted as an old man with a HUGE nose and a stark white beard, and on top of that, he was covered nearly head to toe in black and white war paint." He held out one fist and put his other one near his shoulder, almost as if he were mimicking something. "And in several art pieces, Ek Chuaj is often seen carrying a spear in one hand and lugging a satchel over his shoulder with his other one. Really shows off the duality of his character there." He then crossed his arms and sent a knowing grin over to the Tennyson cousins. "But of course, these descriptions are all pretty much hypothetical."

Both Ben and Gwen sent him skeptical looks right back. "Oh, come on, Rex." Gwen retorted, slightly miffed. "We all know how you feel about the subject, but could you at least keep an open mind?"

"Hey, like I said, I'll believe it when I see it." Rex asserted. "But until I do, I'm gonna remain skeptical, thank you."

Ben smirked and shook his head, letting out a slight chortled. "Hehe, okay, okay, we get it. But don't be surprised when you end up getting proven wrong, Rex."

"Really? Well, I'll take you up on that bet." Rex extended a hand and proclaimed; "Fifty bucks says that these gods aren't real."

"Oh, you are SO on!" Ben thrust his hand in and clasped Rex's with a powerful shake, the duo sharing an intense stare-down with one another. "You are SO going to regret taking this bet, Rex, I guarantee it."

Rex clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Tsk, tsk, sorry Ben, but it's YOU who's gonna wish he hadn't taken this bet."

As the two opposing heroes chuckled at the thought of their own victories, Yang and Weiss stood off to the side, watching their boyfriends' competitive spirits burn. Weiss gave another eyeroll and sighed. "Ugh, boys, am I right? Can't resist measuring each other up."

"I think it's awesome!" Yang smiled. "Some good competition oughta do them some good." The blonde rubbed her hands together with an excited grin. "But man, after hearing all of this awesome stuff, I can't wait to get down to Mexico and get this expedition started! …How long until we get there, by the way?"

"Hm, good question." Gwen stood up and pressed the intercom button, speaking into it loud and clear. "Kevin, how long until we land in Mérida?"

"Kzzzt—Should be about… three and a half more hours, babe." A dissatisfied groan was heard throughout the cargo hold, which Kevin responded with; "Hey, don't think I don't hear you guys down there. It's either we go at the standard airspeed or we get hounded by air traffic control. We're already walking the tightrope as is, so suck it up and pass the time, huh?"

Ruby huffed a little, but decided to not make too big of a deal out of it. Instead, she turned to Nora with a small smile. "Well, if we're gonna be on here for three hours…" She reached into her pocket and pulled out Gwen's Nintendo 3DS. "You wanna play some Pokémon, Nora? We have Wi-Fi access now, so we can FINALLY battle!"

Nora gasped in realization and quickly pulled out Ben's 3DS, opening it up eagerly. "Yes, please! I've SO been waiting for this!"

With that, the two set off to do their own thing, with Ilia, Penny, Neptune and Ren all joining them to see how the battle would go. Meanwhile, Blake had pulled out the copy of "The Wind and the Willows" she had brought with her, only to be met with a certain monkey boy peering over her shoulder. "Ooh, what's that book, Blake?"

"Oh, it's called "The Wind and the Willows"." Blake answered, opening up to the page she had left off on. "It's actually a rather charming book about animals that live in a woodland village, though it mostly revolved around a rich toad that gets himself into trouble."

"Huh, sounds neat!" Sun reached around his girlfriend's waist, pulling her into his lap as a small "eep!" escaped her lips. "Mind if I share this reading experience with you?"

Blake couldn't help the redness in her cheeks as she pushed against the monkey boy's chest. "You are a TOTAL dork, you know that?"

"Yeah, but I'm your dork."

With a roll of her eyes, Blake relented and got cozy, snuggling up to her boyfriend's chest as she brought the book up. "And don't you forget it."

As that was happening, Jaune and Pyrrha had decided to get in a little early morning training in off to the side, the two squaring off with their blades in a secluded corner of the room. That left Ben, Yang, Rex, Weiss, Gwen and Team CFVY all to themselves… along with Cooper who was still hard at work on the armor. It actually surprised the group at how intently the blonde genius was working on the suit, having been working non-stop since the moment they took off. At the moment, he was using a buffer on the armor, its royal purple and gold paint shining the moment he pulled away from it. The teens all glanced at one another before Coco stepped up, giving Cooper a tap on the shoulder. "Oh Tech Head?" she whispered sweetly. "You home?"

"Hm? Oh, heh, sorry!" Cooper turned around and reached into his ears, pulling out a pair of earplugs. "Did I miss something?"

Everyone felt their jaws drop at what he just did. "Cooper! Were your ears plugged this ENTIRE time?" Gwen asked incredulously.

"Well… yeah, sorry." Cooper apologized. "But hey, better than going deaf from heavy machinery, right? Plus, I'm this close to finishing my armor, so I wanna work on it as hard as I can."

"…Wow, I can see why Coco wants to get you on the beach." Yang commented.

"RIGHT?!" Coco exclaimed before wrapping her arms around Cooper's own arm. "Tech Head, you know I love you, but you seriously need to take your time with your projects. You've been hard at work on this armor pretty much non-stop all week, so when the beach day comes, don't bring any work with you… please?"

Staring down into her deep chocolatey brown eyes, Cooper was quick to relent to her wishes. "…Yeah, you've got a good point, Coco. I promise, I won't bring any work with me to the beach." He bent down and pecked his girlfriend on the lips… only for her to grab hold of the back of his head and turn it into something MUCH more passionate.

The rest of the group felt their cheeks heat up and they all turned away, with Weiss letting out a breath. "Hah… dear lord, Coco is NOT shy about public displays of affection, is she?"

"Oh, we all learned that a LONG time ago." Velvet murmured, with Fox and Yatsu silently nodding in agreement.

Rex shook his head and placed his hands on his hips. "Well, all that aside, we've got about three hours until we land in Mexico, so I gotta ask… what ELSE do you guys wanna do after this expedition is over?" The group set their sights on him with their interests piqued. "After all, there's plenty of stuff to do down there other than visiting ancient temples and awesome beaches."

Yang put a finger to her chin. "Hm, good question. I mean, I guess getting some Mexican food is a no-brainer, but…" Her eyes trailed over to her boyfriend, wondering if he had any ideas. "What do you think, Green Boy? Anything you wanna do?"

"Well… there IS one thing…" Ben said sheepishly. "I've never really experienced a full-on Lucha Libre show, so—"

"Say no more, amigo!" Rex interrupted, his face having burst into a wide grin at the suggestion. "You and I are actually on the same page with this one! If you want Lucha Libre, then by god, you'll GET Lucha Libre!"

The boys cheered and shared a fist bump as the Remnant natives could only stare in confusion, aside from Yang who seemed to be VERY excited at the prospect. Gwen, meanwhile, put her hand to her forehead, though she couldn't stop her smile as she shook her head. "Oh boy, THIS ought to be an interesting mini-vacation…"

…..

Back in Bellwood, or more accurately, down in Undertown, a rather secluded building that hadn't been touched in over a year was about to be disturbed. The inside of said building was pitch black, that is until the massive garage door on the front of it was pulled open by a pair of hulking brutes. The bigger of the two saw it fit to shove the garage door all the way up, causing his compatriot fall over with a yell and the door itself to slam against its rails, making them rattle and creak.

"AH! Skull, would you be the hell more careful?!" Thunderhog said indignantly as he stood up, glaring at his friend behind his glowing visor. "We don't need this whole place comin' down just 'cause you pushed somethin' too hard!"

"Whoops! Sorry, Hog." Exo-Skull apologized, the rhino mutant rubbing his head sheepishly. "Still tryin' to keep stuff like that in mind."

The pig mutant crossed his arms and scoffed. "Pfft, yeah, our fridge back home would like to say hi, too."

Just then, another figure appeared in the entry way, her three multicolored eyes shifting between the two as she held her hands up to both of them. "Alright, boys, boys… this is not the time for fighting, non è vero? So please, do not fight." Subdora implored as Cinder's team, Animo and Khyber all came striding into the building as well. "Remember, we are all here for a reason."

The two mutants fell into silence at her words, before both of them looked to one another. "Ah, she's right." Hog relented, extending his hand to his friend. "Sorry for bustin' your chops there, bud."

"Hey, no prob." Skull assured as he accepted the handshake. "And I promise, I'll be more aware of myself in the future."

"Eccellente!" Subdora cheered as she ushered the two to come with her, leading them in after the others. "Now come, we have work to do."

"Indeed!" Animo concurred. "But first…" The mad scientist raised his hands and clapped them together twice, bringing on the lights as well as several machines within the place. Once the room had brightened up, the group of villains could finally see that they were in one huge laboratory, one that appeared to be ripped straight out of some early horror flick. Tesla coils, test tubes and beakers filled with different colored liquids and several strange machines and blue prints were scattered all over the place, leaving everyone surprised at the sheer amount of equipment in the place. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my laboratory!"

As Rojo took in her new surroundings and hummed to herself. "Hmm… yeah, pretty much exactly what I pictured when it came to your place. So, where's this little project that you said you needed to get?"

Animo steepled his fingers together and gave an eager laugh. "Ahaha, oh yes, I left them in the testing room. Come, follow me, I'll show you…" The scientist couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he had the others follow him to a sliding door on the other side of the room, which opened up into a long hallway that they began to walk down."

"Hmph, this had better be worth it." Mercury grumbled, smacking a fist into his open palm. "We could be out there beating down those heroes by now, I swear."

"Do you have any semblance of patience, boy?" Khyber remarked as he passed Mercury, giving him a side-long glare. "Or have you forgotten about the old saying about good things coming to those who wait?"

Mercury's lips curled into a snarl and his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white, feeling his anger growing by the second. "Grr… I'll give you a reason to wait…"

Emerald raised a brow at him. "Really? THAT'S your retort?"

"Hey, I'm trying to one-up him here—" ZZT! "AH!" Mercury was taken off-guard by the sound of another nearby door opening, the silver-haired assassin having stepped too close to it. This made Cinder, Rojo, Emerald and Neo all stop as he stepped away from the door, the four girls wearing humorous smirks at the easy scare.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but what was that about one-upping Khyber?" Cinder remarked as Neo snickered behind her hand. "Perhaps you would do better to get your wits about you before trying that."

Mercury grumbled again and flippantly replied; "Ah, go to hell, Cinder…" But, just as he was about to move on, something caught his eye in the open door, which led into a near-complete darkened room. There was a single source of light coming from inside, and it made Mercury's eyes widen when he saw what it was. "Woah… the heck is that?"

The girls all peered into the room themselves and were all similarly surprised by the sight. "Woah… I dunno…" Rojo said before glancing over to the other villains, only to see that they were well ahead of them by this point. Her smirk returned in full force and she headed right into the dark room. "Let's go check it out!"

"Oh god, I can already see this ending horribly." Emerald commented as she and the others followed the redhead's lead, the quintet all stepping through cautiously before the door closed behind them. "You really think Animo WANTS us to be in here? I mean… just look at that… that… whatever it is!"

Indeed, what the five of them had stumbled upon was quite the interesting, if unsettling sight. It was a huge, clear tube that was filled to the brim with glowing green liquid, which gave the entire room an eerie glow. The tube itself was elevated off the ground by a large, mechanical base that had a computer panel on its front, one that displayed what all of them recognized to be vital signs. And why was that? Well, given the fact that there was a VISIBLE BODY inside of the tube, they could only conclude that the vitals were for it.

Thankfully, the body appeared to be limp inside of the tube, unmoving aside from it floating up and down slightly. Still, that didn't stop it from being quite intimidating. Whatever this thing was, it was about seven or so feet tall and very muscular, with large hands and feet that were clawed on their ends. It had a broad chest with equally broad shoulders, and it was evident that it was covered almost head to toe in course hair or fur. The hair was longer near the head of the figure, as it floated upward in the tube as well. Other than that, though, they couldn't make out any other features.

"Ah, c'mon, Em." Rojo said with an unrelenting grin. "Where's your sense of adventure? Don't you wanna know what this thing is?"

"Not really." Emerald muttered, her gaze transfixed on the being floating in the tube. "Whatever it is, it looks like it could kill us." Suddenly, though, everyone heard the snapping of fingers from a few feet away, and they all saw Neo ushering them over toward something that was set up next to the tube. "Hm? What is it, Neo? What did you find?"

Neo pointed at the object of inquiry and the group couldn't help but stare in disturbed confusion. What stood before them was a clothing stand that displayed a full black suit that seemed like it could fit the massive being inside the tube. It was accompanied by a pair of long, white gloves and a dark grey cape that was embroidered in white, plus a pair of big, black boots. But, what unnerved everyone the most… was the mask that sat atop the stand, staring back at them blankly with its dark eye holes. It appeared to be made out of pearlescent white stone, and the eye holes were triangular in shape, molded into a glare. The nose hole was V-shaped, giving the mask almost a skull-like appearance. Finally, the mouth had a pair of molded in teeth on each jaw, with the ones on the upper jaw being more visible with the jaw closed.

All in all, it made for a rather creepy sight. "Woah… think these are his threads?" Mercury wondered.

"Maybe…" Rojo placed a finger to her chin as her face scrunched up, her eyes focusing on the mask. "You know… there's something strangely familiar about these clothes, though…"

"Well, if they are for whatever's inside that pod, then Animo must be planning to frighten people very well with it." Cinder said as she leaned in closer to the mask, staring deep into its eye sockets. She then directed her gaze back up to the figure in the tube, narrowing her eyes at it in contemplation. For some reason, she could almost feel the being inside giving off some sort of energy, though what it was, she couldn't tell. "In fact, I think this thing might be—"

But just then, the lights turned on and before they knew it, Doctor Animo was screaming bloody murder at them. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!"

The group of five jumped and let out a yell, with Emerald immediately trying to cover for them. "D-Doctor Animo! W-We were just… uh…"

"The door opened when we were walking by." Mercury explained as the doctor stormed into the place, and he quickly pointed to Rojo. "And before you snap at us, just know that it was HER idea to come in here."

"Oh, sure, just throw me under the bus, Merc!" Rojo snapped before facing Animo. "Listen, doc, considering what you have in here, you really can't blame me for wanting a peak—"

"Enough!" Animo shouted with a swipe of his hand. "I don't give a hoot about what you want! This area is off limits and no one but myself is allowed in here!" The bounty hunter wasn't really intimidated by his words, though, and Animo was left to pinch the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Ugh… do you wish to know what is in that tank?"

Cinder and Neo both glanced to the massive pod, the figure inside still obscured by the green liquid. "Well, it WOULD be prudent to know." the Fall Maiden admitted. "Whatever is in there appears to be rather strong, so it could be something that Salem would find useful…"

Animo sighed and went over to the main console. "Oh, I have no doubt about that…" He typed in a few commands and brought up a new screen, one that had a sort of loading bar that was almost full, along with an indicator that read "97%". Animo tapped his chin and let out a surprised hum. "Hm, well, I must say that he's coming along fairly well. At this rate, his body should be complete in no time and we can begin collecting the necessary life force to bring him back…"

The group tilted their heads at that. "Uh… bring WHO back, doctor?" Emerald asked.

"…An old friend." Animo simply answered before ushering the group toward the door. "I will explain in due time, but for now, we are on a tight schedule. Come, let us get what we came here for."

The villains all followed his lead, though before she exited the room, Cinder stole one last look at the tube, along with the white stone mask that sat upon the clothing rack. It gazed back at her lifelessly, almost as if it was staring straight through her. It slightly unsettled her, but also served to pique her curiosity. All the same, though, she stepped away from the door and allowed it to close, leaving the room to its silent solitude once again.

It wasn't long before they caught back up to the others, the pair of aliens and mutant duo standing in front of yet another door patiently. "And just where did the five of you wander off to?" Subdora asked slyly as they returned.

"None of your concern, 'Dora." Rojo shrugged off as Animo proceeded through the door. "We just got side-tracked, that's all."

"Hmph, yeah, good story." Skull scoffed as everyone followed the doctor inside… only to be hit with a rather musky smell that hit them all like a train. "Agh! Oh god, the HELL is that smell?!"

Hog, along with many others, plugged his nostrils and nearly gags. "Ack! Oh sweet mercy! It smells like somethin's been takin' a dump in here for ages an' no one's picked it up!" He watched as Cinder, Emerald and Neo all ran out of the room entirely, the former two expressing their distaste immediately.

"It smells like a damned zoo!" Cinder belted out. "Animo, what in the… what?"

The moment Cinder took a second glance inside, she saw that there was a pretty good reason why it smelled like a zoo… and that's because it pretty much was. It appeared to be like a petting zoo, one with farm animals like horses and cows, along with more wild ones like deer and raccoons. There were even several tanks on the opposite end of the room that held reptiles and amphibians as well. Animo had absolutely no problem walking into the place as he smiled proudly, seeing that everything seemed to be well taken care off. "Ah, excellent, seems the help have been keeping their end of the bargain!"

"Help?" Emerald piped up with her nose still plugged. "What help?"

"Oh, a few aliens that I hired to keep my animals fed and cleaned down here." Animo waved off, going up to a horse to pet its muzzle. "Best thing about it is that they work for free so long as they get a cut."

Mercury felt compelled to ask. "A cut of what, exactly?"

"The animal feed, of course!" Animo picked up a bag full of grain and scooped some out of it, feeding it to the horses and cows. "The particular aliens I hired simply love this stuff, almost as much as the animals themselves!" The group of villains couldn't help but cringe at that, aside from Khyber who kept his usual angry appearance. "But that's beside the point. Come, let me show you what my plan entails, hehe…" The mad doctor went over to the tanks on the far wall and reached up to the very top, pulling a large glass case off of the wall before coming back over to the others. With a victorious smile, he presented the case to them with gusto. "THIS, my compatriots, is what will give us the edge we need!"

The villains all stared at the glass case in bewilderment, thoroughly unconvinced that Animo could be serious about this. What he had just showed them was… underwhelming, to say the very least. "An… ANT FARM?!" Cinder screamed. "You think that the way we're going to bring down those heroes is through ANTS?!"

"Gotta admit, doc, this sounds kinda bogus." Rojo agreed. "I mean, what the hell can ANTS do?"

Animo let out an offended scoff at what the two women had to say. "Ah! What can ants do? I will tell you EXACTLY what they can do; they are capable of lifting up to fifty times their own body weight, can create colonies of massive size and dig through dirt with relative ease, AND they are technically the world's most dominant species!" He raised a single finger as he explained. "Did you know that for a single human on this planet, there are about a million ants?"

Mercury folded his arms, clearly not impressed by the trivia. "Okay, so what does any of that have to do with them helping us?"

"The answer is simple, really." Animo held his head up high as he pat the top of the ant farm. "You seem to forget; these ants may not be anything too impressive right now, but when I am through with them…"

"…Oh, yeah, right." Emerald remembered.

"Exactly." The doctor brought his ant farm up to eyelevel with a manic grin plastered across his face. "Just you all wait, when my plan comes to fruition, those heroes will not know what hit—" Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Animo was suddenly cut off when a loud beeping began to resonate through the room, catching everyone's attention. "Hm? What is that?"

Without a word, Khyber reached down to his belt and pulled out some sort of device with a round, green screen, one that lit up as soon as he hit a button. The beeping stopped as Khyber stared at the screen, only for his eyes to widen slightly before speaking up. "All of you, we need to get to my ship NOW. The Omnitrix is on the move."

"Wait, what?!" Cinder was at full attention after hearing that. "How do you know?"

"This is a tracker that one of my benefactors made for me." Khyber elaborated as he gestured to the device in his hand. "It is honed in directly on the Omnitrix's unique energy signal. Usually I prefer to use my tracking skills, but since Tennyson is always on the move, the good doctor felt that this would be useful…" The Zaroffian went back to the tracker briefly and took note of where the Omnitrix seemed to be headed. "Hm… strange. It says that Tennyson is… flying south toward the Gulf of Mexico."

"Mexico?" Rojo scratched her head, confused as to why the hero would be going there. "The heck is Tennyson going to Mexico for?"

After hearing that, though, Animo couldn't help but grin at the thought. "Well, I certainly don't know, but I WILL say that the Mexican desert is the perfect place to set up my little experiment!" With that, the mad scientist began sprinting back toward the entrance, yelling back to the others; "Come! Our enemies await!"

The others all stared awkwardly after them before Exo-Skull gave a shrug. "Eh, what the heck? I'm up for a little trip."

Thunderhog wore a wicked smile as he pounded his fist into his palm. "Hell yeah! Especially if it means we can get some payback on those idiots for makin' fools out of us!"

"Hm, very well then." Cinder nodded. "Let's go, then." As the villains all began headed back toward Khyber's ship, though, the Fall Maiden couldn't help but have a nagging feeling in the back of her mind, almost as if something was amiss. 'Why do I feel like something strange is going to happen?'

…..

After a three-hour flight and some final preparations, the team had finally made it to Mexico, ready to do some myth hunting. Once they had gotten off the Rustbucket III, however, Gwen suggested that they should split off into two separate groups to cover their ground better. Gwen and Kevin had taken Teams JNPR and CFVY into the city of Mérida to do some more research on the local myths and find more clues on how they could possibly find them. Meanwhile Ben, Rex, and Team RWBY, along with Sun, Neptune, Ilia and Penny, had all ventured into the jungle, progressing slowly but surely toward the location of the fallen Temple of Ek Chuaj.

…And Cooper had chosen to remain behind to work on his suit. "I promise that I'll join you guys later!" he had promised with an apologetic bow. "Please, I'm just so close to getting it done! Then I'll be yours for the rest of the weekend!"

Coco had made sure to get her point across to him, poking him in the nose with a serious expression. "You'd better hold to your word, mister! You NEED some change of scenery."

And thus, off the two teams went, with half of them headed into the city while the other half went into the Mexican jungle. And at the moment… "AUGH!" BAM! …Things weren't going so well for a certain white-haired girl. Weiss let out a pained whine as she picked herself up out of the dirt, her cheeks covered in grime as a pout formed on her features. "This is SO not fair. I can't believe the others aren't making this gods-forsaken trip with us!"

"Yeah, can't blame ya for feeling like that, Ice Princess." Rex reached down, moved Weiss' foot out of the root she tripped on, and then helped her up. "But hey, on the bright side, Gwen said that she'd teleport all of us back to the Rustbucket once it was time to leave. Doesn't that make ya feel a bit better?"

"No, not really." Weiss deadpanned. "If anything, it makes me feel worse since THEY can just teleport out here and not HAVE to endure this torture…" The former heiress glanced down to her clothes, sighing at how dirty they were already. "And I just bought these… ugh, well, guess there's not much I can do about it now."

Rex couldn't help but raise a brow at that as Weiss pressed on, following after the others. "So you're good to keep going?"

"Well, yeah, what kind of Huntress would I be if I just gave up?" Weiss questioned. "I may complain, but I'm not a quitter, you know."

The EVO smiled and raised a determined fist. "Haha! Hell yeah, good on ya, Ice Princess! Let's keep going then."

Weiss beamed back at him and gave a small chuckle. "Hmhm, thanks Robo-dolt."

A bit further ahead, Penny and Ilia had taken point, the duo having taken out their blades weapons in order to cut a path through the foliage before all of them. Penny was using the saw configuration of her Floating Array arm blades to their full effect, while Ilia was whipping through the overgrowth with her Lightning Lash like a hot knife through butter. Neptune had also joined in, cutting down any large branches that were in their way with Tri-Hard.

"Man… hah, this jungle is dense!" Neptune said as he cut down another huge branch. He glanced back toward Ben, Yang, Sun, Ruby and Blake, the latter five eyeing the hero's map. "Yo, Ben… hah… just how much further… do we have to go?" he panted.

"Not much further!" Ben called up. "About another thirty yards at least!"

Ilia immediately stopped and spun around to him wide-eyed. "THIRTY YARDS?! Do you know how long we've been trekking through this jungle?!"

Penny stopped as well, the android visibly quite red in the face. "Yes, I feel as if my systems are overheating!"

Ben and the others came to a stop, with Blake turning to Ben with a nod. "Yeah, they're right, Ben. It HAS been a while since they switched places with you, me and Ruby. Maybe we should take a break."

Yang pulled out her scroll and took a glance at the time. "Yeah, we've been out here for about an hour now, and I think we could do for some rest."

"…Yeah, you girls make a good point." Ben agreed, putting away the Plumber pad before sitting down on a nearby rock. "Let's rest here for a bit and get our bearings before we move on." The gang all gladly sat down, with Ben and Yang removing their hats as everyone all pulled out their respective canteens for a drink. After taking a big swing, Ben sent his gaze skyward, his smile returning at the thought of almost being at their destination. "Man, I'm really excited guys."

"Yeah, we're almost there!" Ruby cheered. "What do you think we'll find when we get there?"

"More than likely just a big pile of rubble." Rex said with a shrug before focusing on Ben. "Seriously, I'm really not sure what you think we'll find at a temple that's been nothing but rubble for years."

"Hey, we gotta start somewhere, right?" Ben shrugged. "It's pretty much the first and ONLY place I've ever seen an actual god, so there's gotta be something there."

Sun, who was hanging upside down in a tree and chowing down on a banana, piped up. "Hey, makes sense to me. I—" Eek-eek-eek! But then, Sun cut himself off when the sound of chattering graced his ears, something which everyone heard as they perked their heads up. "Woah, the heck was that?"

"It… sounded like a monkey?" Weiss guessed.

Ben nodded at that. "Wouldn't surprise me, there ARE monkeys that're native to Mexico…" Just then, the tree that Sun was in began to rustle in its upper branches, making everyone gasp before a small, dark figure came falling down. In the blink of an eye, a rather sizeable primate was now standing on the branch Sun was hanging from, its fur mostly dark aside from the lighter shade on its underbelly. "Ah-ha! What'd I tell ya? It's a spider monkey… one that DOESN'T have extra limbs."

"Woah, where'd it come from?!" Yang exclaimed, the others all staring at it in shock.

"If I had to guess, it must live around here." Rex pointed to Sun's banana, which the monkey seemed to be staring at. "And I think it must've smelled Sun's lunch, hehe…"

Blake blinked in surprise. "I'm actually kind of shocked that it showed itself. Usually, monkeys don't take to people very well."

Sun wore a smile as he thought of why that may be. "Heh, well maybe it doesn't feel nervous around a Monkey Faunus like me." He pulled himself up onto the branch and sat across from the monkey, reaching to break off a part of his banana. "Here, bud, we can share my lunch if you—" EEEEEEK! "AAUGH!" All of a sudden, the monkey bared its teeth and tackled Sun, yanking the banana out of his hands while shoving him right out of the tree. The simian then scampered right back up the tree, wooping and hollering as it retrieved its new lunch.

The entire team could help but smile awkwardly, a few of them even laughing at the scene. "Hehe… well, so much for that theory." Ruby chuckled.

"Grr… HEY!" Sun kicked up and headed right for the tree. "Give back my lunch you little cretin! I oughta—" Grrrr… "Huh?"

Blake's ears went up in alarm and her eyes widened, the cat girl standing up abruptly as she stared into the jungle. "Guys, get up… we've got company."

The group did as she asked and set their sights to where she was looking… and from the darkness of the jungle, they began seeing several pairs of glowing eyes. The group felt a chill go through them as the amber orbs pierced into their very souls, and before long, they could clearly see what was stalking them…

RAAAAOOAAAARRR!

Through the overgrowth came a huge pack of large, predatory cats barring their fangs as they leapt through the tall foliage and into the clearing. These felines came up to about their waists and all of them were yellow in color, with black ring-shaped markings all over them. The heroes all let out fearful shouts as they stepped back. "Ah! A-Are those… ch-cheetahs?!" Weiss screamed.

"Incorrect!" Penny said in her usual cheerful manner, taking everyone aback. "My newly-acquired internet database says that cheetahs are native to the vast savannas of central Africa. Rather, these tributaries are home to—"

ROAR! One of the big cats suddenly leapt at Ben, the hero dodging to one side with a yell. "Jaguars!" Ben finished as he went for the Omnitrix, transforming on the spot. In a flash of green light, the hero had transformed himself into… "TERRASPIN!" Without hesitation, Terraspin entered into his flight mode and his head popped up from his shell. "Quick! Everyone who can, hop on and let's get outta here!"

Two more Jaguars roared and jumped straight for Yang and Ruby, the sisters diving away from them before sprinting right for Terraspin along with Blake. "No need to tell us twice!" With that, Terraspin flew up into the air and began headed in the direction they were all initially headed, with Yang calling back; "C'mon guys, follow us!"

As more Jaguars began to pounce for everyone, Rex snapped his head over to Penny. "Pen! Let's get everyone out of here!"

"Aye-aye!" Penny saluted before activating her Air Heart Jetpack. In a single swift movement, she scooped up Sun and Neptune in her arms and blasted off into the air, both boys letting out a loud holler. "Come on, boys! Let's get out of here!"

"AAAAH! Penny, slow down!" Neptune and Sun cried as they surged through the jungle.

And with that, Rex activated his Boogie Pack, holding out his arms for Weiss to jump into. While she would've made a remark about this, the fact that there were giant cats trying to kill her made Weiss think twice, so she took her place without argument. Finally, Ilia jumped onto Rex's back, the EVO eyeing the two before take-off. "Alright, everyone ready?!"

"YES, NOW PLEASE GO!" Weiss insisted.

"Before we're cat food, please!" Ilia added.

"Right, here we go!" Rex flew up just as another Jaguar was about to claw him in the face, making it fall flat on ITS face instead. This got a laugh out of him and the girls before they flew off after their teammates, catching up to them in no time. "Woo! Haha, man that was WILD!"

Everyone exchanged excited smiles, their adrenaline now that they had outrun the large cats. "Man, I don't care if we find these gods or not, but getting attacked by Jaguars is something I'll NEVER forget!" Yang said as she pumped both fists up into the air.

Weiss let out a breathy laugh of her own. "Hehe, yeah, that was… wait." The former heiress deadpanned as a realization hit her. "What we're doing right now; flying right to the temple… we could've just done this from the very start and avoided ALL of that, couldn't we?"

As her words slowly sunk in, the group began to feel more and more silly with each passing second, before Terraspin gave out a nervous chuckle. "Ah, hehe… so we could've. B-But hey, at least we got quite the experience out of it, huh?"

Ruby sweatdropped at the turtle alien's point. "Heh, yeah… yeah, we did." She glanced away and, in her head, added; 'Still, would've been nice to NOT try and get eaten by Jaguars…'

"Hey, over there!" Neptune pointed out through the jungle as the trees began to give way to a small clearing… as well as a massive pile of stone rubble in the middle of it. "Ben, is that it?!"

Terraspin smiled at the familiar location. "Haha, yes, this is it! Alright guys, prepare for a landing!" The group of Omni-Hunters came in and landed directly next to the rubble, with Penny and Rex putting away their builds. Terraspin's rear flipper changed back into his stubby feet as he stood up straight, craning his head up to the rubble. "Wow… it really hasn't changed a bit…" He faced his team and gave them a nod. "Okay, we all know what we're here to do, and that's find some trace of Ah Puch or anything he may have left behind. Are we ready?"

"Well… I guess." Sun rubbed the back of his head with a questioning expression. "Though, uh… where exactly do we start?"

"Simple." Terraspin reached up and slapped the Omnitrix, transforming himself into Armodrillo. "We're gonna go through this rubble and see what we can find."

Ilia furrowed her brow and placed her hands to her hips. "Are you sure that's wise? I mean… it's been years since this thing collapsed. What if some kind of animal's made this place its home?"

Armodrillo gave a chuckle as he reached for a stone slab. "Heh, Ilia, name one animal that could possibly live in this—" Munch! Armodrillo's eyes widened as he felt something bit into his hand, though it didn't hurt thanks to his thick hide. He brought the hand up… and saw a large black snake attached to his hand. "…Huh, I stand corrected."

"AAAAAAAGH! SNAKE! SNAKE!" Ruby screamed as she his behind Neptune… who then proceeded to hide behind her. The duo kept this act up as Ruby shouted; "Ben! Throw it away!"

"Okay, okay!" Armodrillo reached for the snake's head and gently removed it from his hand. "Sorry little guy, but you need to GO!" He moved to the overgrowth and tossed the snake in, the serpent slithering away with a terrifying hiss. The alien moved back to Ruby and eyed her inquisitively. "Huh, never thought you'd be one to be scared of snakes, Ruby."

Ruby glared at Ben with her eyes tearing up. "Ben, those things have no arms or legs, and they're poisonous! They are FREAKS of nature!" The young huntress sighed as she leaned against the rubble. "Could we maybe PLEASE not try to do that agai—AAH!" All of a sudden, though, the broken slab that Ruby touched began to glow, taking everyone aback. "W-What the heck?!"

"Ruby?!" Yang reached out in concern, coming to her sister's side. "W-What did you do?!"

"Nothing, I swear!" Ruby said as the rubble began to glow more intensely … and it began to shake slightly. "It… it just started moving by itself!"

"You don't think… it has anything to do with your Silver Eyes, does it?" Blake questioned. "Do you feel any weird sensations?"

Ruby shook her head vehemently. "No, not a thing! I swear, I'm NOT the one doing this!"

Just then, Rex piped up. "Uh… guys? You may wanna see this…" The group all turned back around… and were left slack-jawed at what they saw. The massive pile of rubble was now glowing all over, and more astonishingly, it was moving by itself. Piece by piece, the stone began to reshape itself and reassemble, forming back into something that had once loomed over the jungle for centuries. "Okay… some weird mojo is definitely going on."

"Oh, you THINK, Rex?!" Ruby cried back. After a few more moments, the rubble had finally stopped moving… and had rebuilt itself into the once fallen Temple of Ek Chuaj. The teens all stared at it in awe as it stopped glowing, leaving them all completely dumbfounded to how that just happened. "…Okay, how the HECK did this happen?!"

Penny was going over every single calculation inside of her head, but all the same, she couldn't pinpoint anything that could have caused this. "That's what I'm trying to figure out." She scratched her head, completely stumped. "But so far, I am not having much luck."

"So… what do we do?" Weiss asked.

Neptune raised a single finger high into the air. "We do what anyone would do…" He then immediately turned around and began marching toward the jungle. "We go back before something bad happens!"

The whole group face-faulted at that, but before anyone could admonish the blue-haired boy, the entrance to the temple suddenly opened on its own, leaving everyone to stare in shock. But, if that weren't enough, a low, growling voice called from within, making everyone shudder. "…Who goes there?"

The entire group fell silent at the voice, but Armodrillo quickly got his wits about him and transformed back into his human form. "This… This is Ben Tennyson, hero of Earth. Who are we speaking to?!"

Rather than an answer, though, a stone staircase began to appear, leading down into the temple itself. The teens stared at it in awe before the voice came back. "…Proceed."

"What is this, the Cave of Wonders?" Yang remarked.

"Dunno, but I think we should do what it says." Ben ushered for the others to follow him and they proceeded downward… with Sun and Yang having to drag Neptune in behind them. As they went further down, the more Ben recognized the place, almost as if the temple hadn't been destroyed at all. Finally, they made it to the main chamber, where Ben immediately recognized the altar and pedestal that the Sword of Ek Chuaj had been. With a deep breath, the hero stepped forward and called out; "Alright, we're here! Now whoever you are, show yourself—WAAAGH!"

Ben was forced to take a step back as a pillar of fire suddenly erupted in front of him, before it then extended out and began to travel up the steps toward the pedestal at the top of the altar. A huge chasm then opened up where the flames had emerged from… and at the top of the altar, a hand emerged.

From there, a rather large, intimidating figure pulled itself out, and the group all felt themselves go numb the moment they saw it. It was about nine feet tall and wore a traditional ancient Mayan garb, one that was blue with gold trimming and designs all over it. The figure had mostly grey skin with several bandages wrapped around its limbs, accompanied by gold bracelets on its wrists and ankles. Its fingers and toes all had claws on them and there appeared to be leaves hanging from the being's tunic as well. Its face, meanwhile, was a pale, rotten yellow, with its upper half covered in a skull-like mask. The beings' ears were pointed and it had large hoops in its earlobes as well. Finish it all off with a pair of gleaming, glaring red eyes and before them stood a figure that instantly intimidated every single one of them.

"No… no way." Rex muttered as the fire began to die down.

"Well Rex, you wanted proof." Ben muttered. "…There it is."

Ah Puch being glared down at the teenagers that stood before him, his gaze focused right onto the hero in front. "Ben Tennyson… so you dare to return to my domain." The Mayan God of Death narrowed his eyes at Ben with a low growl. "Now tell me, to what do I owe the displeasure?"

…..

A/N: Oooh… I don't think it's EVER a good sign when any death god remembers you. But indeed, our heroes have only just begun their expedition and already they've come across their quarry; Ah Puch, the Mayan God of Death. And yes, I know that he didn't talk in the original series, but c'mon, he's a god, I'm sure he IS capable of speech. Of course, one has to ask; why did the temple suddenly just rebuild itself after all of this time? What caused that? Well, you'll find out in the next chapter, believe me, and the answer may just surprise you. Also, something tells me that Rex will be eating ALL of his words pretty fast.

But of course, that's not all that happened in this chapter, as the team did get a little history lesson on the ancient Mayans courtesy of Gwen, and it seems that Animo has some plants concerning… ants. I think you all know where THAT might be headed soon, but for now, our villains are keen to follow the gang to Mexico and see what's up. But ooh… even MORE hints at what's to come. I think you can ALL guess who's in that tank, and trust me, when HE'S out of there, it's gonna be quite the doozy…

But that's a story for a later day. Because for now, NEXT TIME! We catch up with Gwen's group as they head into the city of Mérida for some further research into more gods… including probably the most important Mesoamerican god of all. But not long after, they get the call from Ben's group telling them to get to that temple ASAP. After all, the God of Death doesn't like to be kept waiting… and neither does one of his closest compatriots. All that and more next time, folks, so I'll see you all then! Thanks for reading guys, and as always, stay safe out there!