Chapter 7

Juan punched the machine man that Jesse had been controlling. It’s left hand had fallen off in the retreat. It was the middle of the night as well.

Their allies the Aztecs were not happy since the attempt to get volunteers had failed, and there was fear running through the camp as whispers that a god now walked amongst them. For Juan, he took a stick to the machine.

Joe just watched wearing that jumpsuit that the witch had given him. He just stood there occasionally making comments.

Juan looked at Joe finally. “And you taught that traitor to pilot a machine man.”

Joe shrugged. “And I was supposed to know that she was going to go over to some kid that we haven’t met that is controlling that impressive machine man that Merlin only showed to Frank which he couldn’t interface with.”

Juan smashed the branch that he had been using against the metal. “And Jesse is currently out of commission as well.” The creaks in the wood seemed to be breaking.

Juan’s anger finally stopped being hot, and he turned cold on a dime. That had been the real reason that Joe wasn’t too concerned as they stood out in the field near the jungles.

Their Aztec allies always gave them a wide berth mostly because the priests did not want to interact too much with the regular Jaguar warriors. Juan was typically the only one along with Circe who got seen.

“So, we have lost a machine,” said a third voice.

Behind the robbed teenager were two of the Mayan warriors that Circe had brought with her after returning. Joe already knew that it was Bill. Of all the things that Joe had seen since being sent to the past from the conditions that people in Mezo America lived to the human sacrifice- Bill disturbed him the most. The kid had been kind of an idiot but shy, yet now there was a sort of sinister twinge to every word now. Honey covered words that made him unnerved as he realized that a teenager especially who used to be so dull.

Juan looked at Bill as he revealed himself. “Yes, we have. You said that this would end this situation.”

Bill shrugged. “I do not believe either of us would figure that Mary would betray our company, but it tends to happen with women. That being said- I have communed with our greatest ally, and I have a solution.”

Juan raised an eyebrow. “And what would that be? Does he have a some of potion that will turn us into giants at will?”

Bill chuckled. “No, that would be a bit too much and oddly uncountable considering genetic manipulation, and besides giants tend to eat too much. Our Aztec allies could provide something like that in the past, but I doubt that they’d want to even if they still did have the full ability of their technology. Also, we lack several ingredients that would be necessary for such a strange concept.”

Juan laughed. “So, what do you recommend?”

Bill looked at him. “We do not currently have the fire power to take down the machine knight, but with a bit of modification of this destroyed piece of technology that could be done.”

Bill slapped the falling apart machine. “With additional Atlantean technology, we can finish the machine knight.”

“What kind of Atlantean technology?” asked Joe. “In our day, it is never a great idea to put a Ford engine in a GM made car.”

Juan looked at Bill while holding a hand towards Joe. “What kind of improvements?” he asked.

Bill smiled. “With Atlantean technology, we could add guns to the inferior machine man. Even with training, Ashton would not be able to resist a fully optimized machine man. I’ve seen footage of the battle, and it is obvious that Ashton doesn’t have access to the guns on the machine.”

Juan seemed intrigued. “That thing had wings. Can flight be added?”

Bill smiled. “Additional armor and even flight along with a better control method. I will require modifying one of you to accept the control method.”

Juan looked a bit sheepish about that detail. “What kind of modifications?”

Bill shielded his words. “Just a minor chip and cybernetic modification. Nothing major or metallic. It’s too bad, but someone already needs medical attention”

Juan didn’t like the description when he realized something. “Jesse is still being cared for by Circe. Is it possible to use him for the modifications that you require?”

Bill nodded. Joe didn’t like the gesture, but Juan seemed intrigued. “And this will not be horrible like some sort of horrid mutation where he couldn’t go to the mall.”

Bill laughed. “Nothing that noticeable again, but he will become a greater warrior than any today.”

Juan stroked his goatee, and Joe didn’t like what he saw in the eyes of Juan. Then again, he barely liked Juan especially since he was stuck in the woods on some strange quest to get rid of the United States and everything that he knew. Sure, Joe hated paying taxes, but he didn’t get trying to get rid of it just because kids had called him a spec as a kid in LA after his father got thrown out of a helicopter.

That was when Joe realized that Juan was going to ruin Jesse’s life. He had to speak up for the kid.

“Juan, think about what you are doing. You could be costing him his ability to reproduce or just being able to pick up chicks.”

Juan laughed. “Well, that leaves more fat chicks for you, Joe. Okay Bill, I’ll give you permission to alter Jesse.”

Bill nodded, and Joe just shook his head as he noticed a horrid smile as Bill walked away. This did not fill him with a lot of joy.

Juan patted him on the back. “No worries, bro. Jesse will be okay, and then our enemies will pay.”

For Joe, those words did fill him with joy as he tried to fake the smile that he had since Juan had betrayed Frank and lead him out here to where they had met Circe with Hector and Bobby. Both of him got killed later by those snipers that Merlin had trained. It still riffled in Joe’s mind that the wizard Merlin knew how to use a firearm even an ancient one designed by a civilization that he had never heard of.

Juan kept smiling and laughing as Joe remembered what Bobby had said. Bobby had been the one who didn’t seem to like Merlin especially with the implication that Christianity was true. Bobby had been raised in a commune that said that immortals lived amongst us all in south California. They believed that there was an immortal that had lived in Atlantis called the Count De Saint Germaine who apparently popped up in history. And for Bobby, it had been like meeting his messiah. Instead, he found out that the immortal that he had come to know knew nothing of the teachings of the cult. In fact, the deceased Bobby had been a true believer who refused to think that the teachings that he had learned in that church somewhere near that amusement park on a mountain was a lie.

He would denounce Christianity, and in fact, Juan had made Bobby his second in command since he wanted to kill the Christian Church. Oddly before being drawn back in time, Bobby had been an inspiring animator who’d wanted to make a thirty-one-hour animated project that showed how immortals from Atlantis were the true gods.

And the wizard told him that the Atlanteans were more likely to denounce the concept of souls. That the religion of an unknown civilizations was almost like Christianity, but what had set off Bobby more than anything was that Merlin said that Jesus had been alive. So, when Juan had betrayed Frank, Joe had been stuck with the two along with Hector who was Juan’s real friend.

The five of them including Frank had been just visiting the La Brea Tar Pits. Joe had been talking to Bobby about the potential of the Amiga to make animated games like Dragon’s Lair, and he needed someone to animate something to prove that to management. Hector and Juan were just there to vent while Frank was just some young guard. It was Hector and Juan who saw the portal open first, and it was Frank who tried to rescue them with Joe stepping up to help Frank. Bobby fretted trying to deciding if he could help. At the last second, he tried to help.

Once Bobby met Circe who he considered a goddess, he became the most zealous. Hector and Joe had spent the time getting to know each other. And it was from hanging out with Hector that he had been accused of liking larger woman. That was Hector’s thing, but Juan ribbed him now because Merlin’s hit squads had taken out his friend and drill master.

And now, they were down to two of them. Frank was the first who got betrayed, and then Bobby and Hector got assassinated. They were down to two working units as well.

Juan broke Joe out of his stupor. “Don’t worry. I don’t think that we will need that fool Jesse. I’ve got it all worked out in my head. We will meet this Ashton into the jungle where we will do things like the Vietcong.”

And then Joe added. “Or like the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi.”

That set Juan off. “Why do you always have to reference those darn movies? I am talking the big picture here. About taking down the Man when he isn’t even alive yet, and you always must ruin with references to kid’s movies. What’s next you are going to talk about using an atomic weapon to drop half of California into the ocean to make ocean front property to kill the amazing Spiderman.”

Joe sighed. If he made any suggestions, it always ended this way. Juan would talk about the nature of his war against the future by referencing things that he liked, but if Joe tried to suggest anything. It ended with him being made fun of. For a moment, Joe’s hands balled up.

At that moment, Juan suddenly became more peaceable. “I realize that not all of us were trained in the arts of academic excellence at the University of California Fresnio, but yes, we will be using traps and what we have to work with to get rid of that white serpent machine man.”

The pilot sighed. “And do you actually think that we can pull this off with just our two-machine men and a bunch of traps.”

Juan smiled. “Yes, and the use of paint to cover the eyes of that machine man.”

Joe suddenly saw what the plan was going to be. It was not a bad plan.

For Jesse, he screamed.

“When I find Ashton, I am going to pulverize him. He stole my sister!”

Circe stood there. Standing in a metallic room, there seemed to be burnt out brain in the room in the room in some sort of pedestal. Jesse had been strapped down to a table. The air of the room seemed to be a bit sterile like a doctor’s office. That was also when Jesse noticed that his legs and arms were not on a full table. Instead, his appendages strapped down to individual slabs.

His right arm had been broken in six places according to the witch. “And a mild concussion with a shattered left leg,” said a new voice.

That’s when Jesse looked with his one good eye. “You forgot the left eye got blooded as well, Bill. When I see Ashton, he is losing both eyes.”

Bill smiled. Wearing what appeared to be leathery doctor’s outfit. “Oh no worries Jesse, my man. We are going to make you better than you ever have ever been. But thank you for remind me about your eye.”

Jesse saw Circe wearing something like Bill. However, everything with the odd blue light in the room unnerved Jesse.

Then pistons sounded, and he rose from the ground. Jesse looked at the two, but there was something as a machine lowered from the ceiling.

“What are you two going to do?”

Bill laughed. “Oh, you’ll get it soon, Jesse my man. Things happened to me right here in the pyramid as well.”

He picked up a device. It appeared to be a cylinder. Bill then quickly put it in front of Jesse’s eyes. “I was enlightened, and it made me better. It’s time that you did the same.”

Jesse tried to scream as lasers came out of the side of the device and narrowed on the sides of his head. They stopped at the edge of his skull. Then the cylinder slide and spun around to find the bottom and top of his head. And then it seemed to focus on the damaged eye.

Suddenly a hum occurred, and Jesse screamed.

Circe’s skiff flew towards the destroyed Mayan city. Below the craft, most of the destroyed body of the machine man got carried. It dangled as the craft flew. It was about to be rebuilt like its pilot.