The Awakening ch.23

    Deep in the Jungles of southern India the seven members of the Elite Paladins have been watching an ancient temple ruin for several days. They watched through their binoculars as several creatures resembling small monkeys with small unrealistically cartoonish bat wings protruding from their backs flew to and from the temple’s higher windows.

     The second in command, a man with short cut brown hair, addressed the Lead Paladin saying, “Only a bunch of fruit eating flying monkeys seem to be here. You sure it’s really all that dangerous to leave this claw thing with these things?”

     The Leader with a scowl said, “Orders are orders so let’s head out and kill us some demons.”

    All seven of them pulled forth their Shining Silver swords from their sheaths. The Shining Silver swords were strange fantasy looking swords, each a solid piece of silver molded to look like a short broadsword with a hilt like an arched wave like hand guard, with a circle at the base the imitation rope like handle.

    With one quick yell of “Charge!” from the Lead Paladin they all charged into the temple swords a flying. The screams of flying monkeys could be heard for miles around the temple as the terrified little creatures tried to evade the swinging blades, which were left and right claiming their tiny little lives.

     The second in command of the elite paladins, a short man with short cut brown hair, thought as he stopped his blade short of a frightened flying monkey, which quickly fled up through a window, “They’re not fighting back.”

    He looked around noticing three others of his group had also stopped slicing the monkeys as well. They turned and walked back to the second in command; one of them, a red haired man, confirmed the second in command’s own thoughts, “These creatures are just running away,” he said, “Not one of them is formidable or even trying to fight for that matter.”

     The other three Elite Paladins including the leader were still slicing up the little beasts with great yells and hoorays for themselves.

    The Lead Paladin returned from an inner room with a large brown left handed glove like object with steel blades sticking from the finger tips.

     He and the other two returned to where the four men were standing and the Lead Paladin with a quizzical look on his face asked, “Where were you guys? You missed all the fun.”

    With out waiting for an answer he walked out of the temple with the claw in hand like some trophy.

    The second in command and the other three followed out each not
wanting to say what they knew the other three were thinking, “What’s going on here? What can this thing do if the only things near it weren’t really guarding it”, or similar thoughts relating to the weakness of the creatures that were supposedly guarding the claw.

    Shortly after, outside the Elite Paladins are enjoying their victory (or at least three of them are enjoying it).

    The Lead Paladin sits back smoking a cigarette, “Killing these little demons is better than sex.” He said with a smirk on his face. As they got their gear together preparing to leave a woman came running out of the temple.

     This woman had a body like a Hollywood model, five feet and five inches in height complete with full hips, muscular well toned legs and arms, and perky B-cup breasts. This girl is barely clothed with a bikini top and loincloth, both of which are made from what appears to be the skin of some brown and black stripped animal. The Elite Paladins except for their leader all stand swords drawn, as this woman also has skin as red as flowing blood with raven black hair and the yellow eyes of a tiger.

    This woman approaches them and with a sad voice pleads, “Kind sirs I ask you please return the left hand of Hanuman. It is the only thing protecting these poor creatures from the Rakshasas.”

    The second in command turns to the Lead Paladin and whispers, “We were told nothing of what this thing does or what it is for. What if this girl is telling the truth?”

      The Lead Paladin with an angry tone yells, “What are you daffed? Just look at her. She’s a demon! Our orders were to retrieve this claw thing and destroy any demon that tried to stop us!”

    He lunges forward knocking the girl to the ground with a loud audible smack of his hand. He then pulled his sword from its sheath and holds it forward to the red skinned woman sitting on the ground.

    “Demon, prepare to return to hell.” He said with a crooked smile as he raised his sword to strike her.

     She starts to raise her hand in defense. As he brings his sword down, both the girl and the Lead Paladin are surprised as a disembodied hand and wrist that phased out of the air like a ghost suddenly grabbed the blade of the sword stopping it.

    From this seemingly floating wrist a human body phased into sight as though it had been a ghost. The members of the Order couldn’t believe what (or rather who) they were looking at. This man was easily recognized by the Elite Paladins as Brother Rick. Rick with as little effort as though he was doing nothing more than grabbing a dried twig from a branch, he yanked the sword from the Lead Paladin’s hand. Rick held the sword by its blade with out so much as producing a scratch on his.

    He looked at the Elite Paladins and with a look of disdain in his eyes he said to them, “These swords were taken from the hands of statues in a temple in Argentina.”

    He throws the sword into the ground blade first sticking it there and looks back at the others with an angry look in his eyes before continuing, “These swords were taken from a race of peaceful winged creatures that looked a lot like angels, and taken by force I might add. Now something else is being taken from peaceful creatures by force.”

       He turned facing them and yelled, “Are we the protectors of the innocent or just soldiers for some power hungry madman!?”

  “He has a point,” stated the second in command of the elite paladins, “these monkey things didn’t put up a fight. They just ran from us.”

    The three other men who had also stopped killing the monkeys earlier stepped over to the second in command’s side.

     “He’s right” said one of the three men with the second in command, as he pointed to the other two and the Lead Paladin he continued accusingly, “You four just kept slashing up those monkeys and even enjoyed it.”

     Rick steps into the conversation saying, “In the past our order has hunted down so called monsters for doing nothing more than existing, wiped out whole families of them. The very doctrine we follow tells us to destroy and subjugate all none human sentient creatures. Our order is descended from the Inquisition. Think about it our leader is called the Head Inquisitor. When we disobey orders we are put before the council who wear the same outfits as the Inquisition. If this was still the Middle Ages they would have us hunting Jews and Gypsies! Not to mention digging up graves and executing anyone accused of being a werewolf or witch!”

    The Elite Paladins are now divided into two groups; one of four men, including the second in command and one of three men including the lead Paladin.

   These two groups stand across from each other in a stare down of sorts., “You’re nothing but traitors,” screamed the lead Paladin at the other four men, “and so what if these monsters don’t fight back! They’re beasts of Hell, minions of Satan! I would like it if we went back to the old ways and killed all the heathens as well! They all deserve to go to hell and burn for all eternity!!”

      “So choosing morality over orders makes us traitors?” said the second in command with a glare in his eye, who continued with a tone of conviction, “Then we are traitors”.

     The other three with him eagerly agreed as well to his statement. The two sides brought their swords to bare ready to fight each other, save for the Lead Paladin whose sword lay stuck in the ground at Rick’s feet. The Lead Paladin in a quick motion reminiscent of the old western shoot outs pulled out his gun from its sheath hidden beneath the vest on his uniform, but rather than pointing it at his fellow Paladins he pointed it at the now standing red woman.

    “This is all her doing!” he screamed, “She has bewitched us to fight each other and when we are all dead she’ll take the claw for herself!”

     Rick grabbed the gun from the lead Paladin’s hands and crushed it in the palm of his own hand as though it were nothing more than a dead leaf then tossed it in a nearby river. He then picked up the sword and tossed it in the same river as well.

    The Lead Paladin with a fire in his eyes swung at Rick with fists clinched so tightly as to make his knuckles white, however before he even so much as touches Rick he fell to the ground asleep.

    “Hypnotic sleep,” stated Rick with a smirk on his face, “he’ll be okay in a while.”

     The other two men who had been on the lead paladin’s side lunged at Rick with their swords only to have the swords grabbed from their hands in the blink of an eye, and for Rick to have vanished. Before they could look around to see where Rick had vanished to with their swords they both fell to the ground unconscious, joining their leader asleep on the ground. Rick then with a wave of his hand caused the three men to vanish.

    The second in command is quick to ask, “What did you do with them!?”

    To which Rick calmly says, “Don’t worry I sent them back to the Vatican. They will wake up outside the door to the Order’s secret head quarters.”

     Rick opened the pack belonging to the Lead Paladin, which lay on the ground and removed the claw from it. He took the claw back inside the temple. He was followed inside by the red skinned woman who eyed him curiously. He put the claw back in its place on the altar.

    The girl cocked her head slightly while looking at him and with a deep bow said, “Thank you”

    “Your welcome” said Rick as he headed back out of the temple leaving the woman inside.

   Alone outside with the remaining four members of the Elite Paladins he decided to tell them the truth about their order, so he said to them, “The Head Inquisitor confides in a demonic box as his guide to find the targets he has sent us all after. I have seen this for myself. The Order uses magic, steals artifacts & hopes to control magic & demons. The current form of the order has been corrupted under the rule of one man.”

    He turns from them and says as he looks up at the darkening sky, “I can do nothing about it now, and the sanctity of the order must be maintained.”

    He turns back and says, “It is up to you and others who will listen to change things.”

    He looks thoughtful for a moment rubbing his chin as he continues, “Perhaps starting over is the only way.”

    With that he vanished the same way he had appeared, phasing out of sight.

    As night falls the four men had made their way back to the nearest village and now sit around at a table in a bar discussing the events of the day.

    The second in command of the Elite Paladins says to others as he chugs back his beer, “Brother Rick was apparently dead and has now come back with divine powers, and in the desert an angel tried to stop us from entering a battle with horribly powerful demons. In both cases our leaders have gone against the wishes of the divine. These are clear signs the Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross has lost its way. Perhaps its time a new order was formed after all. One that doesn’t rely on magic and evil powers and actually protects the innocent from problem demons instead of just going around taking weapons and the demons keeping them.”

    “Your right sir,” said one of the other men at the table, “even that thing in Argentina with the bugs. I never told anyone but the man in charge of the expedition was actually under orders to capture a golden stinger from the nest and that we were the ones that opened the portal to that nest in the first place.”

    The second in command now leader of these men said, “Then it’s settled we must start our own order and begin anew.”

    They all agreed as they left that the human mind must be their weapon and their targets only be those demon that make a plaything of humanity. Out side they tossed away their mystical weapons into the river and walked away from their duties in the order.

    (On this day was born the Order of the Sacred Cross, an order where the ingenuity and technology of humanity is their weapon against the darkness. Soon other members of the Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross would join them. Combined with science and their knowledge of sorcery they would create their own hybrid weapons of science and sorcery with their own rules. In a matter of months they would grow so large as to rival The Order of the Knights of the Golden Cross)