Part 15 C

 Yes it's been a while since the last part.

#rainbowsparklepowerfriends 

We'd move every few weeks to avoid too much trouble. During one of the skips I heard this singing, " she held up her hand, "from the back of a travelling merchant's wagon. We hitched a ride with them to the market in the next town. I gave them a memory that left them totally out of it for a few hours, I grabbed the stone and we both ran out of town. We went back along the route he'd come on until we found a jewelry maker. I apprenticed with him, cleaning and doing small bits of work on the hand. I talked him into getting some iron and used some iron and gold.

I smelted the iron with some hair like the Vikings used to make it into steel, those childhood trips to Yorvik came in really handy, as did Angel's brother's role play books. I forget which one it was but there's a thing that has iron, silver and gold alloy." She held up her sapphire hand, "from the back of a travelling merchant. We hitched a ride on his wagon, to the market in the next town. I gave them a memory that left them totally out of it for a few hours, I grabbed the stone and we both ran out of town, travelling back along the route he'd been travelling until we found a jewelry maker. I apprenticed with him, cleaning and doing small bits of work on the hand. I talked him into getting some iron, I used some of that, smelting, with some hair like the Vikings used to make it into steel. Those childhood trips to Yorvik came in really handy, as did Angel's brother's role play books. I forget which one it was but there's a thing that has iron, silver and gold alloy, so I borrowed that idea. Using the steel and my half remembered anatomy lessons I got him to fashion an arm, he inlayed the silver and gold and as he did that I put any and every shaving from the sapphire into the recesses. It worked and I had a functional arm and hand, over time we've refined it and it's as good as I remember my hand being. I've had others here ask about it and blagged them with the iron, silver and gold alloy story and the magic it brings. I've even had to make copies, there's spares of everything, just in case something went wrong. At first I thought it was luck but now I know it's the energy that flows through it that's kept it from breaking all these years." Morven looked back the way they'd come, the road had shifted to more an east west with a few small changes in direction with the overall heading being westwards. The trail of trampled grass they were following clear enough for anyone to see where they'd been. They didn't see anything more than the trail all that day.

The next morning the crows were back, one of them bouncing about the camp and sticking it's beak in everything, when it saw Morven it started cawing "treinta grados! treinta gradostreinta gradostreinta grados!"

"Is that how many we're chasing?" She asked it, the crow bounced once, "And this is how many Vencejo told you she'd seen?" It bounced once again.

"37 sounds manageable." Beatrice grumbled.

"Hang on a second, if this is a shadow of the 180D road, it's 2 lanes, the trees in the middle and 2 lanes going the other way. " Emilio said looking at the trees,"Has anyone looked to see if the other lane is there?" The English and Americans hadn't even thought to, and the locals with them weren't actually that local, they hadn't thought to push through the scrub.

"Jesus you haven't taken your drone above the tree line?" Claire asked.

"err no, I was flying down the lane not up."

 Beatrice pushed through the trees, "Oh shit. We might have a problem. There's a trampled path over here and it's wider than the one we've been following, we could be facing about 100 of them."

The party looked worried, Claire looked around at everyone, "We'll be fine. Hand Morven a pistol."

Michael drew his side arm and handed it over to Morven who looked at it, flicked the safety off and drew the slide back to chamber a round, "Now what?" Morven asked.

"Shoot me, in the chest. Just let me stand with my back to the trees. " Claire said moving away from the group and standing with her back to the trees.

"You sure about this?" Morven asked.

Claire nodded, "In the chest preferably."

"Because a sucking chest wound here is going to be better than a head wound?" Morven asked, looking concerned.

"It'll be fine, we don't have anything that get through this armour."

Morven turned and walked back a few paces turned and looked at Claire, then walked back several more. "Back up everyone." she repeated herself in Seelie. When everyone had backed up Morven stood side on and aimed the pistol at Claire, "You sure about this?"

"Positive, just get it over with and shoot me." Morven let out a breath and pulled the trigger, the pistol cracked loudly. Everyone was focused on Claire and saw the lightning arc over the armour from the impact point. The bullet slid down and landed on the floor, Claire let out a big breath. "So glad that worked. Right there's an example the weapons we're going to be facing can't hurt us, so the odds don't matter." Beatrice muttered something to Morven and Morven looked at her and replied in Seelie, the pirates in the group looked horrified by what they'd said to each other.

Araceli spoke up, "That's not an expression I like the look of. What are they saying?"

Morven looked concerned, "Well that might not be 100% accurate. In 18 years we've faced a few warlords that have had what they call demon weapons. They seem to work in similar way to your weapons. How many was it again?"

 She asked Beatrice, who held up 4 fingers, "4 of them." she replied.

Morven did the maths, "So roughly 1 every 4 years. So rare."

Beatrice coughed, "And the other thing?" She asked.

"Okay yes, the other thing. As we're facing cultists there is a chance we we could be facing some that have been, for want of a better word blessed by the gods. We faced more of those than the weapons but it's still less than 12 in 18 years but as we are facing the remaining survivors of several murder sex cults there is a chance that a few of these guys will have been... blessed."

"Murder sex cult?" Someone asked.

Morven nodded, "That pretty much sums it yes." She answered.

"They'd made musical instruments out of several sacrifices." Beatrice said.

"Willing sacrifices too, " One of the pirates added and Morven translated for the horrified real worlders,"and don't forget the orgy."

"There isn't enough alcohol to forget that." Morven replied after she'd translated. The party carried on until they reached a large break in the trees with plenty of new breaks on the trees, these breaks came from the other lane and went off into the forest. A quick look at the other lane showed the party on that side had all followed the group on this side of the division into the trees as both crushed grass trail ended abruptly.

"Jesus can you send the drone down there, please?" Michael asked, looking into the trail.

"How far?" Jesus asked.

"As far as you can, an advanced guard will follow, reach the drone and the following party can catch up. When we reach the first sign of them we form up and send the drone up to get an over view and form a plan.

They skipped the drone into the trees several times before the trail broke out above a sink hole, Jesus brought the drone back as soon as he saw the water on the screen, he hadn't spotted any posted guards in the brief view he'd had. He called Owens over and showed him the screen. The forward group waited for the trailing group to join them and they all moved closer to the sink hole.

Jesus flew the drone up and over the shadow of Chitchinitza, they spotted a few groups of cultist, not looking particularly interested in their surroundings scattered around the ceremonial way, but importantly for the attackers not looking remotely co-ordinated.

"Right we'll spilt into 3 groups,"Col Owens started, looking at Morven who started to translate for him,"the locals will cover and guard the path to the sink hole, one group goes west and attacks from behind the temple, the other fire team heads east and strikes from the pillars, our aim is to drive them back to the pyramid. They've already been beaten once they might not have much fight left in them. Team 1 will be 2 Knights of Sol Arwen, 2 Knights Jaguar and Claire, the other team will be the same again with Morven and," he paused and looked up at Beatrice,"I'd like it very much if you could stay with the pirate group and translate for us?" He asked her. He reached into a bag and pulled out the radios and handed them around, they'd only brought 10 sets with them, so Morven went without one so Beatrice was in the loop, it took some effort to get the ear piece to fit into her bovine ear but she understood how to use the radio well enough after she'd had it explained to her. "We transmit when we are in position, and good luck." Everyone slinked off into the trees in their respective directions.

Morven saw the stone pillars come into view through the trees, they circled around them until the long pyramid was on their right and quietly made their way to line of pillars that they knew was in front of them. They reached a wall and could hear a regular clanging as of someone striking stone with metal. The 5 of them looked at the wall that was taller than each of them, scouting along it they found a hole that had been made in the wall with what looked like a shadow of a path running into the trees behind them and around the wall, Araceli went up to the gap in the wall and glanced around, spotting 2 guards doing sword drill on what in the real world was a priceless artifact. She wasn't able to see anyone else from her position. She switched sides and looked in the other direction but couldn't see anyone through the pillars, see motioned for the group to join her at the wall. Araceli mimed what she'd seen.

"The radio picks up whispers, that's the advantage of a throat mike." One of the Knights of Sol Arwen, Thomas Hill, broadcast.

"First time," Araceli replied over the radio she looked around the group, Morven in her leather and mail with a number of weapons, Emilo Ruiz in his gold armour and daggers that arced with energy, Hill carried a shield and a spear and the last member, Nahim, wore the silver armour that the knights of Sol Arwen used with a sword and shield. Her own Dacian Falx, a long cured sword with a 2 handed curved hilt wasn't the best weapon for this area. She pointed at Emilio and Morven and motioned over the wall.

Emilio smiled under his helmet,"Are you suggesting we go over the wall and take these 2 out?" He asked on the radio.

"Yes." She replied, the helmet hiding her blushing as she's forgotten the radio again.

"East team in position." Hill radioed, they waited for the west team to reach their position and roughed out a plan between the 5 of them. Morven and Emilio would go over the wall once they've taken the guards out the others would go through the gap in the wall and then use the cover of the pillars to see what was happening in the clear area in front of the pyramid and form phase 2 of the plan.

"West team in position" Owens radioed. Emilio tapped Morven on her shoulder and boosted her up the wall, once on top she held her arm out and helped him up and the pair waited, dropping down when they heard a clang so it would hide the noise they made.

"East Team engaged." Emilio radioed, then threw one of his daggers just as the guard bent down, the dagger hit the pillar behind him. It looked around at the noise, muttering the local version of "what the hell?" And saw the dagger, it's eyes widened in shock and it stepped towards the dagger and reached to pull it out and through it back, as it's fingers brushed against the handle it tensed up painful as electricity arced from the dagger through the creature and into the ground. Emilio tugged on a teather that only he could see and was pulled towards his blade, body slamming the stunned watch creature, Morven had dispatched the other guard and wiped her knife clean on it's clothes, they spotted the others advancing in close order through the pillars and moved to join them. There were some more trees between them and the open area they moved into them listening hard, a boom sounded from the other side of the open area followed by a fawoosh and several cracks of gun fire from the tree line nearest the sink hole. They ran through the copse of trees and burst out onto the open ground, the temple of Kukulcan on their left. Several groups of cultist in front of them where looking at the west end of the plaza and the trees on one side and now the 5 of them. Some drew weapons, some threw themselves on the ground. Of those standing most rushed towards the 5 of them, some headed to the trees and a few ran towards the long pyramid, either fleeing or to use it as an anchor for a defensive position. Araceli took a half step back and held the sword behind her resting on her leg, both hands on the heft. As the first few cultist were a few feet from her she brought the sword up and swung it around a circle, her leg out to counter balance her as she lent back and the sword flashed over her body, and golden wave was generated by the sword and hit them in the stomach doubling them up. Nahim hit them with a blast from his sword, convulsing them on the floor with chain lightning. Emilio hit one with a thrown knife and pulled himself towards it, a second knife in hand he rammed into him electricity arcing to earth around them, he pulled both knifes out and threw one at his next target.

 Hill advanced behind his shield, spear blast after spear blast taking targets down in quick succession. Morven was a a constantly moving auban blur, her sapphire hand and a different weapon in her other hand for every kill. Soon the only cultist left alive were already face down or had fled to the pyramid. Beatrice and some of the pirates emerged from the trees as more cultist fell back from the west side of the field, some threw down their weapons seeing the 2 groups facing them, armed with exotic weapons and an unknown number of prisoners already, while a few headed to the trees opposite where Beatrice and her company had emerged from.

Claire flared in on a lightning bolt, "Most of them have thrown down their weapons a few are ," she looked as the last few cultist ran into the trees," possibly heading for what looks like a hotel behind those trees, there's no sign of Vencejo on that side of the plaza." She paused, waiting to see if the east team had found her.

"We've not checked everywhere in the pillars or the pyramids but there wasn't any guards that we saw." Morven answered.

"The Hotel is the most likely place then, as I only saw a small group on the long pyramid and they look like they're going to run. Beatrice?" Claire said into the radio, in the distance the minatour looked around confused by hearing her name, Claire waved," can you take your team over to the pyramid and ask those guys if they really want to fight or would they rather come over here and sit with their friends. Tell them we won't kill them or make them into instruments." She nodded her understanding and led some of her company towards the hold outs at the pyramid.

The West team arrived escorting a large group of prisoners.

"What the hell are we going to do with all of them?" Someone asked.

"Did you see Venecjo?" Morven spoke over them looking for Michael and Claire.

"No she's not here, Neva, Jesus is there anything else in the real world near here? Something that might have a shadow here?" Claire asked them. Neva spoke to Jesus in Spanish pointing beyond the trees.

"There's a hotel," She said making an up and over motion at the trees, "beyond the trees. Family holiday long ago." She added more in Spanish, Claire asked a few questions which Neva answered, Araceli added a few details, as did Emilio. Jesus jumped back to the baggage and grabbed his drone, striking down a little bit away from the group and setting the drone up and getting it in the air as fast as he could.