Off to Mexico (8)

Spyral -- HERE WE GO!

The Aztecs stared in awe as the rockets exploded above the sacrificial altar. The explosions echoed throughout the village, the detonations bouncing off of the stones buildings and reverberating across the ground. Then as Sweetie swept into view, the morning sun shone over the mountains, casting the birds shadow long and tall across the ground.

"QUETZACOATL!!!" the name rose up on the lips of all the assembled Aztecs, who then fell to their knees in reverance to the appearance of their most holy God.

"Oh..My..God!" Rae said. "That bird is going to be impossible to live with after this, but I wish I had a camera to get this on film!"

"Eat this ya featherheads!" SweetiePie squawked as he let fly his package of chaos.

The high priest and the guards on the altar looked up in time to see the fine powder descending toward them from above. The glittering powder shined like stardust as it fell and the Aztecs stretched out their arms toward it in acceptance of this most holy of gifts from the Thunder God.

"SHOWTIME!" Spyral shouted, leaping from the trench.

"Head straight for the altar," Mouse said.

"Right behind you," Artickat replied.

The rest of the 'Scapers followed them as they ran from their position, watching the action taking place around Sixth.

As the dust settled over the high priest and the guards, the rubbed the fine powder with glee, marveling at its sparkling effect. So entranced by it were they that they did not realize that they were rapidly decreasing in size. Soon they were dwarfed by the sacrificial altar, but they were still to in awe to realize their situation.

As the 'Scapers rounded the far end of the pyramid, Sweetie came to a fluttering landing in front of Sixths prone form. SweetiePie hopped onto her chest. "Hey! Sixth Wake up! Sixth C'mon...We gotta get outta here!" Nothing....

Reaching out with his beak, Sweetie grabbed a small hank of Sixths hair in his beak and gave it a good pull.

WHACK! the bird was knocked back by the force of Sixths' hand that seemed to come from nowhere.

"OWSTOPITI'MNOTGETTINGUPTHERE!" she sputtered. Then as her eyes focused, Sixth noticed the bird reeling from her flailing. "SWEETIEPIE!" she shouted, scooping the bird up in her arms. Quickly realizing what she was doing, and who she was doing it to, she just as quickly set the bird back down. "WHAT THE DREN TOOK YOU SO LONG? Do you realize how close I came to bad open-heart surgery just then?" she shouted.

"You're Welcome!" SweetiePie replied, still trying to clear his head from her severe smack.

"Where are the others?" she asked.

"SIXTH!" came Spyrals shout as he reached her. He quickly dropped to his knees and gave her a quick hug. "You Okay?" he asked, pulling back.

"I've been better" she replied, as Mouse arrived, joining the hug, followed close behind by KaraS, ArticKat and Rae. They helped her to her unsteady feet, as Thor arrived, still clinging to the back of the Golden Jaguar.

*MISTRESS!* came the T-rexes voice in her head. The tiny lizard tumbled from his perch in his effort to quickly reach his Queen.

Sixth scooped him up from the ground. "Thor!" she hugged the dino fiercely.

Just then, the high priest and the two shrunken guards rounded the side of the altar. The Jaguar quickly pounced into their path and let out a loud and fierce scream, sending the three Aztecs rolling down the steps of the pyramid. They came to a halt at the base. The assembled crowd, seeing the three fallen men, rose to their feet and began to move towards the side of the pyramid.

"Here they come!" ArticKat shouted. "They're coming up!" she said pointing down towards the base of the pyramid as the crowd began to surge up the steps.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Rae shouted, lighting the fuse on one of the molotavs and hurling it down the side. The bottle erupted on the steps, igniting a wall of fire two meters in front of the crowd. Spyral, Mouse and Artic also threw their cocktails which erupted and completely sealed off the crowds path up the steps.

"That'll keep 'em busy for a while, but not forever," Spyral said. "So where is that Damn chopper?"

Raven-Kat -- “Sweetie, can you fly and see?”

Rae asks, "Or are you hurt too bad?"

Sweetipie flys up slowly, obviously in pain. "I see it! It's coming!"

"And the aztecs?" Rae called.

"Running for the hills."

"Yeah, you freakin' aztecs," Rae muttered. "The scooby gang was here." On a whim, she pulls out a knife and carves everybody's initials into the stone alter as they wait for the helicopter

Sixth Sense Dreamer -- The Helicopter flew to where

The gang waited. Hovering over head, a rope ladder was dropped out the side door. Spyral caught it ,and held out his hand to help the first of the Scaper gals climb to safety.

"Wait!" 6th yelled over the noise of the chopper."Uh I know we're kinda in between a rock and a hard place, but..." she looked around at the gang. "If WE are all down here...Who's flying the chopper?"

The gang looked up as one to the chopper's front window. It was mirrored, and no one could see inside.

"Should we get in?" Mouse asked. A spear whizzed over their heads. They looked over at the natives, who were hauling water up the Pyramid, and rapidly putting out the fire.

"No time!" yelled Spyral. "Rae, you go first, in case there's trouble. Hurry up! Let's get outta here!"

Rae started climbing, the others following up after her.

KaraS -- out of the frying pan, into the chopper

Rae climbed into the 'copter cautiously, her pulse rifle at the ready. But the interior of the vehicle was empty. The cockpit was behind a closed door.

Rae looked back out the chopper door. Sixth was climbing up after her and artickat was just grabbing the rope ladder. The Aztec guards were yelling and running up the steep sides of the pyramid. They were waving spears and machetes and looked very angry.

Rae helped Sixth in and then laid down a covering fire with the pulse rifle while Sixth helped artic, KaraS, Mouse, Spyral and assorted magic animals into the chopper. As the helicopter banked away everyone colapsed and breathed hard. The door shut.

"Ooooh," Sixth moaned. She had curled into the fetal position and was rocking back and forth. Her sacrifical robe and hair were caked with drying blood. Mouse and artic crawled over and gave her hugs, trying to comfort her.

Spyral sprawled across the floor. It was only a few short hours ago that he was at death's door and while the jaguar had healed him, he was still short of strength.

KaraS leaned against the wall and sighed. She was so tired.

It had been days since any of them had slept. Only the ambience of the Adventure Movie Channel allowed any of them to function at all. But all the activity had caught up with them. They didn't know who was flying the chopper or where it was going but this was the safest place they had been since the hotel. Exhaustion caught up with them. One by one they all dropped off to sleep.

The last to succumb was Raven_Kat. She stood up and walked over to try the cockpit door but it was locked.

"Hey guys..." she started. But as she turned around she saw that everyone was asleep. "This is dangerous..." she whispered to herself. But she was too tired herself to care.

In the corner, an exhausted Sweetiepie drooped. Sixth had hit him pretty hard, his head hurt, his toes were broken, he was in pain. As the adreneline rush faded, the tired bird closed his eyes. He sank, first into sleep, then into unconciousness...

Raven-Kat -- Prisoners yet again....

Rae comes to with a groan. She feels much better until she gets a good look at her suroundings. The whole Scooby gang is lying in a heap on the floor of a room with bars on the windows and a one-way mirror on the wall.

"Drenn. Spyral! Sweetie! Mouse! Wake up guys! Come on! Don't make me kick you, Sparky." she whispers to Sweetie.

"Huh?" Sweetie looks up groggily. "Where are we?"

"Damned if I know. But the idiots left the window open. Can you squeeze through the bars?"

"Maybe. Probably not."

"Okay, you wake the other. I feel a hissy fit coming on." Rae walks over to the glass and begins shouting and pounding on it.

"Don't really NEED to wake the others if you keep that up." Sweetie remarks quietly. Rae dosen't seem to notice.

Sweetiepie Parrot -- “I feel awful”

Sweetiepie muttered to himself. He straightened up and shook his wings a little. Every muscle in his body ached. His broken toes throbbed. His mouth tasted like dren. And he had what felt like the hangover from Hell.

"Uhhhh, gassed again I bet." he muttered. "Why does that always seem to happen to us? Do we have "screw us over" signs taped to our backs? Why is Rae screaming like a lunatic? Well, THAT should be self explanatory."

Sweetiepie tried a short flight to the window sill. He looked out through the bars. It was a long way down. They appeared to be in a castle or other large stone building on top of a mountain. The window overlooked a sheer drop of what looked like miles. Down below them, condor's circled.

"Well I guess we're in South America now, the Andes mountains, Peru, Argentina, somewhere like that."

By this time the other 'Scapers were waking up, moaning and holding their heads.

"Rae, will you please SHUT UP!" said Sixth. She still looked like a refugee from a slaughterhouse. She caught sight of herself in the large mirror covering one wall of the room and promptly threw up in the sink. "Oh God, OhGodOhGodOhGod."

"Please don't freak out again." Spyral said. He was sitting on the floor holding his head like he was trying to keep it from exploding.

"Welcome friends." a deep voice said from a loudspeaker above the mirror. "Please make yourselves at home."

A door opened up on another wall. Behind it was a small bathroom with a shower.

Mouse went inside. "There's asprin in here." she said. "And fresh clothes."

Everyone had some asprin and took turns showering and changing. By the time everyone was finished they were all feeling better. Everyone but Sweetiepie.

"I don't think I'm up to squeezing out this window." he told Sixth and Rae.

"Did you have some asprin?" Rae asked him.

"You don't give birds asprin." KaraS said. "It's bad for them."

"Mmmmm, no asprin." Sweetiepie said. "A little water maybe."

They got him some from the sink.

"I just want to rest for a while."

"Ok Sweetie." Sixth said. "You just rest. We'll take care of things from here. And thanks."

"Yeah, whatever." the little bird replied. He was drooping and looked miserable.

"Is he going to be ok?" artickat whispered.

"I hope so." Sixth replied. "If he isn't I don't know what to do for him. Unless the jaguar can heal him. Hey, where is she? And where's Thor?"

"They are quite safe." the deep voice said from the loudspeaker. "And let me welcome you all to the stronghold of the Dawn Of The Fourth Reich."

Mouse2000 -- *Oh crap* Mouse thought

This is JUST what we need. Do we still have that Magic Carpet?

Raven-Kat -- “Fourth.....”

Rae looks up from Sweetiepie in a combination of awe and disgust. "Fourth... Uh, yeah. Take me to your leader, please. And a vet. We could use a vet, too."

"Oh no." Mouse whispers.

"What?" Rae crawls over to where Mouse is sitting, leaving Sweetie with 6th.

"I think they have the carpet, too. And our weapons."

"Unless they went through Spyral's wing, we still have some weapons. I left my pulse rifle and my rocket launcher in there."

The group huddles together near Sweetie.

"We need to figure out who has us." 6th says.

"You mean it isn't obvious?" Rae asks.

Raven-Kat -- “Look at the symbol on the floor.”

"Oh, drenn." The others mutter, looking at the unmistakable sigal.

Mouse2000 -- “But I thought

that was the symbol of the Third Reicht?" Mouse wondered. "Is it being reused?" *Wusses - can't even figure out a new symbol...* Mouse thought.

Spyral -- A Revelation

"Quick search, anyone carrying?" Rae said.

Heads shook in negativity as Spyral rummaged through his wing. "They cleaned me out," the angel said. "Not even a pocketknife."

Footfalls suddenly began to echo in the corridor outside. The 'Scapers gathered around each other and watched the door as the footsteps became louder.

"Maybe some answers..." Sixth said.

The door rattled as electronic bolts were released and the door swung open with a slight puff of escaping air. A very thin man in a jet black uniform with a golden symbol of the Fourth Reich stepped into the room. His gleaming black boots shimmered like glass in the floodlights above.

"Ah! You are awake!" he spoke in an unrecognizeable accent. "Very Good!"

"Who the frell are you and why are we..." Mouse started towards him.

"HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!" the man laughed heartily, as three guards emerged from behind the door with large caliber weapons. The thin man motioned for them to lower their weapons as he finished laughing.

"I would have thought you would be pleased with your generous contribution to our cause." the man said.

"Contribution? What the Hell are you talking about?" Spyral asked.

"We have been watching your little group for some time now," the man said beginning to pace. "We certainly did not expect you to come along and join the mix, but we just considered it an added bonus." the man said pointing to Spyral.

"So Greatful for your caring thoughts," the angel replied sarcastically.

"You see, the reason the third reich failed was due to the inabilities of the soldiers. They had of course the right mindset, but they lacked the abilities needed. You all however, possess certain abilities that place you , shall we say, a bit above the average human being. These abilities are incorporated into your DNA." The thin man smiled. "DNA that we were sure to help ourselves to while you remained unconcious."

"Why would you do that?" Artickat asked.

"To build our Master race of course," the thin man replied. "A Master race that will be my Master Army. An Army that will trample over all who stand in its' way." the thin man spread his arms wide in emphasis. "Your single abilities are very significant in themselves, but combined with all the others.....The Ultimate Super Soldier shall be born.! And will be mine to command. You should all feel proud for your individual contributions."

"Forgive me if I don't pass out the cigars," the angel replied.

"So why are we still alive then?" Rae asked.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU ASK THAT FOR," Sweetie Screeched at Rae. "WHATTA YA TRYIN TO DO GIVE HIM IDEAS?"

"Have no fear little bird," the thin man laughed. "We still have plans for all of you. You are much more valuable to us alive now then dead," he said. Turning suddenly grim, he spoke, "But do not give me a reason.....We can still use your DNA after we have executed you. DO NOT TEST ME!"

He then smiled again and politely said, "If you have need of anything, just let the guard outside know."

"I need something alright!" Sixth growled. "I need to kick 100% of your @$$!"

The thin man chuckled again and left the room. the door hissing shut behind him once more.....

KaraS -- Send in the Clones!

The 'Scapers sat around for the rest of the day. There was nothing else to do. Sixth paced. Rae shouted at the mirror. Kara and artic bickered. Spyral stared moodily off into space. Mouse withdrew into a corner and curled up into a little ball. Sweetiepie perched on the windowsill, hunched up into a miserable huddle of feathers. Everyone felt frightened and helpless.

Toward afternoon, a guard came and took Sweetiepie away. Everyone waited in tense silence until, an hour later, he was returned, his injuries treated.

After dinner, a guard entered and asked KaraS and Sweetiepie to accompany him. Nervously, they did so. They were taken down a long hall to a darkened laboratory. In a glass case they saw the golden jaguar. She had frozen in a sitting position, just as they had first seen her. Anyone who didn't know her would never guess that she was alive.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said a low voice.

"Yeah." said Sweetiepie. "It is."

"How does it work? I know that the jaguar has granted wishes for you. Is there a spell needed? Is there a magic formula? Tell me."

"Why should we do that?" KaraS asked. "What's in it for us?"

"Withholding information from me could be very...painful." the low voice said.

"What makes you think that I could, or would, help you?" Kara said. "I don't care much for Nazis."

"The parrot knows." the voice said. "He knows all about the golden jaguar. Tell me bird. How does the jaguar work?"

"I wish I could tell you." Sweetiepie sighed. "The jaguar is very mysterious. Even all my research didn't tell me how the it worked."

"Then how did you make it work for you?"

KaraS and Sweetiepie shrugged.

"I dunno." Kara said. "It just did."

"You will tell me eventually." the voice said. "In the meantime, let me show you some things."

A light went on spotlighting a small Tyranosarus Rex. Thor was asleep, restrained by straps and hooked up to an iv.

"Thor!" Kara gasped. "What did you do to him?"

"Such a beast, at full size, could be very useful to us. We will clone him as well and use the resulting creatures as shock troops." the voice chuckled. "It may take a little tinkering with the genes to get what we need. Hopefully the dinosaur has enough genetic material in his shrunken state to serve our needs."

Kara and Sweetiepie looked at eachother and shuddered.

"Let me show you something else." the voice said. "You need to see how you are aiding our great cause."

Another spotlight went on, highlighting a glass cylinder. Inside, a fetus floated. Kara and Sweetiepie gasped. The baby looked like it was almost full term already. Short white fur covered it's body and black down feathers topped it's head. Little mouse ears peeked through the black downy fuzz. There was something of Sixth in the nose and the shape of the jaw. The arched eyebrows resembled KaraS. Two small, white wings grew from the shoulder blades.

"This is our prototype." the low voice said. "If it is successful, more will follow. But in case it is not successful, you will remain our guests. Permanantly."

Sixth Sense Dreamer -- 6th watched the sun setting

through the bars on the window. She was thinking hard, running her fingers through her tangled hair. An idea slowly started forming in her head. She started walking the walls, running her hands across the smooth surface.

"What are you doing?" Spyral asked. 6th inclined her head towards the mirrior on the wall.

"Nothing." she said. She reached the mirrior, and stood to one side. She could see, just barely, through the reflection. No one was in the room that she could see. But there were all kinds of recording devices inside.

She began running her fingers over the panels again, motioning Rae over with one hand. "Stand where I was. If anyone comes in there, just start talking to me, so I'll know." Rae nodded, and 6th went back to feeling the walls.

Near the door 6th found what she was looking for, a slight groove in the panel. She turned around. "Spyral, did they take everything out of your wing? Or just the weaponry?"

"There's just junk in there now." Spyral shrugged.

"Stand over here. It's kind of a blind spot to the window."6th said, taking him by the hand and leading him to the corner of the room. "Ok, put me in your wing for a minute. I want to look around. If anyone comes in, you yank me out fast, and keep your back to the door." Spyral nodded.

"Can you fit?" asked Mouse.

"I'm not that big anyway, and what else can we do but try?" 6th said. Spyral shrugged and, taking 6th by her shoulder, put her in his wing.

6th looked around. It really was huge inside. But Spyral was right. There were fantastic things inside, but not much in the way of weapons. 6th wasn't too concerned. Weapons weren't what she came in for anyway. She started digging through the nearest pile of junk, and heard a coughing behind her. She whirled, to see Malachi pushing some junk off of himself.

"Malachi! I forgot you were in here!" 6th cried, hugging the old man.

"I fell asleep again. You girls wear hard on an old mans' body." Malachi sighed.

"I'm glad the Nazis didn't find you!" 6th said.

"Nazis?" malachi frowned, puzzled. 6th explained to him what had happened, and how they had all been captured, the cloning, the fetus, Thor, the jaguar. Then she told him what she had come in here looking for.

"Look no further." Malachi waved his hand, and reached into his jacket. He handed her a small box. 6th opened it, and grinned.

"Perfect. Just what I need for that panel. I'll be back if I need something else." she kissed the old man on top of his head, "You stay here and look around for anything that might be useful in getting us out." she turned, just as she felt a hand grab her from behind. 6th was yanked back into the real world. Spyral had his arms around her, and his wing as well. His back was to the door, and 6th could see over his shoulder that the Nazi leader had come back in. 6th quickly pressed the box into Spyral's midsection. "Malachi's inside your wing. Put this where you can find it." she whispered. Spyral took it, and the box disappeared.

"What are you two doing over there?" snapped the Nazi.

6th quickly kissed Spyral, and turned to the Nazi. "None of YOUR business!" she snapped.

"You can make out later. I came to inform you that our recent experiment was not a success. You will be staying here indefinately." He spun on his heels, and moved to leave.

6th called out, "Wait!" he looked over his shoulder at her.

"Wouldn't it be easier to do your testing, if we were all willing to help you?" she said, smiling her prettiest. The Nazi cocked his eyebrow at her. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"Well, if you didn't keep us locked up, and treated us a bit more decent, we'd probably be more willing to help you." 6th smiled. "I know that if I had a nice bath, a good dinner, maybe some wine..." she looked up at the Nazi, innocently vamping. He continued to look at her, expressionless. "Well, all I'm saying is, that if you treated us better, we'd all be more willing to help. We've been through a lot. I know I wouldn't mind helping you achieve your goals. A super race of people sounds like a good plan to me." 6th heard the others gasp behind her, and knew what they were thinking. She continued, "I wouldn't mind helping in whatever way I could, if you'd let me out for a while, give me better quarters. Maybe a bed?" she smiled.

"You sellout!" KaraS shouted.

Mouse slid down the wall slowly shaking her head. "How could you, 6th?"

Spyral, just looked at 6th, thinking.

The Nazi thought for a minute, eyeing 6th. "Alright. We'll try it. With you only. IF you behave, and give us what we want, we'll see about feeding you, a better room..." he waved his hand " whatever. And if the others come to their senses, they can have the same privilage." he put one arm around 6th and led her away. As she walked through the door way, 6th ran her hand across the nearby wall, and tapped her middle finger. She looked hard at Spyral for a split second, and then breezed through the door, her arm around the Nazi's waist.

Raven-Kat -- “What’s her problem?”

Sweetie asks as Rae begins laughing.

"Oh, you guys should have seen your faces when 6th-" Rae wails, still laughing. "And, Spy, the look on your face when she kissed you! I coud've died."

"I think she's finally lost it." Kara whispers to Mouse.

"Of COURSE I have!" Rae agrees, giggling. "But that's the beauty of it. Spy, baby, do your thing."

"You know. That thing..." Rae gestures vaguely and whispers. "That 6th wanted you to do. You don't actually think she'd sell?" She walks over to the mirror and begins pounding on it once again. "Could I at least get a punching bag in here?" she shouts.

"Rae." Spyral begins.

"Hush!" Rae takes his hands in hers and looks him in the eyes. "Look, I'm going to go for a walk, okay?"

"She HAS lost it." Sweetie muttered.

"You're coming with me." Rae grabs Sweetie and climbs inside Spyral's wing. "Work with me here, Tweetie. Just because it wasn't born a weapon doen't mean it can't become one." Rae picks up a length of chain and nods. "WE are going to arm ourselves. Then, we are going to get the hezmana out of here. Understood?"

"You ARE crazy, you know that?"

"Of course I do, buddy. What's your point?" Rae turns to a pile of junk. "Help me."

Outside, the others debate going in after her...

Sweetiepie Parrot -- “Not the wing!!!!”

Raven_Kat picked up Sweetiepie and, before he could object, jumped through the dimentional door in Spyral's wing.

"Just because it wasn't born a weapon dosn't mean it can't become one." she said. "Let's get busy."

Sweetiepie goggled. He was back in the WING! The visual distortions were already making him nauceous and giving him a headache.

"Rae." he said with deliberate calm. "If you ever drag me back in here again I will bite your arm off."

Rae looked up from the camping equipment she was examining with surprise. "What?"

"You heard me. Stick me in here again and I'll bite you. I mean it. It makes me motion sick just standing still in here. And my memories of being in here before ain't exactly pleasant."

Sweetiepie stood perfectly still with his eyes closed. Even like this he could feel the strange energies of the interdimentional space prickling his skin and running up and down his feathers.

"Phobic huh?" Rae said sympatheticly. "Tell auntie Rae all about it. But later. Now we have work to do."

"Right." the little gird grated through clenched beak.

Rae and Sweetiepie had amassed a small pile of assorted objects they thought could be modified into weapons. Malachi had helped.

"Well, keep putting stuff together Malachi." Rae said. "We can't stay in here too much longer. But we'll be back."

Then, with Sweetiepie on her shoulder, Raven_Kat stepped back out through Spyral's wing. But when they arrived, they found that the situation had changed....

Spyral -- Makin’ a Move

As Rae and Sweetie disappeared into his wing, Spyral hefted the box that Sixth had passed him covertly.

"And what is that?" Artickat asked pointing to the box.

"To tell you the truth," the angel said smiling crookedly, "I don't remember."

"Well open it," Mouse said. "I'm dying to know what Sixth thought was so important."

Spyral opened the box and a squinted his eyes in deep thought at the object that lay inside.

"WELL?...." the ladies said in unison.