Walk the Dinosaur (Danny and the Axe Knight)

"You know... that Star Wars movie... with the guy in the black robe..." Witch's attempt to explain her pop culture reference seemed to fail spectacularly.

Thoughts began to race through Rosa's head now that her face was not target practice for big pointy spears.

Witch was already on a laptop, as Priest and Sage tended to Diablo's wounds properly. The passenger hold was filled with many colorful spanish swear words. "Actually miss Danny, Frederick was part of a bigger circle of collectors. Their trustees have been contacting us for the last half hour."

Rosa came over and picked up the Key of the Gods, a half-inch thick golden tablet with writings all over and a strange gem that glowed with energy. She turns towards Danny a moment and ever so subtly, away from her fellow Templar's view. She knew she could not sway them to abandon the relic, but neither could she hand over such a device to some collector. "Three brethren dead for this thing." She muttered, eliciting looks of silent grief from the Templar.

"But... if it's for the survival of the Order, they didn't die for nothing." Rosa nudged the small gem out of the tablet, and let it fall into Danny's palms; a sly wink would tell her she better get that thing out of sight.

She returns the Tablet to witch, none of them Templar all the wiser. "We'll drink to their memories, as the Valkyries see them to Valhalla." She said, with the heavy heart of a norscan warrior.

Once the helicopter had cleared the jungle, the flight was uneventful and about 3 hours long, while In-flight amenities made it feel shorter. Rosa was a big fan of San Miguel beer from her other homeland in Asia and shared. The pilot would eventually tell them they were now over the Pacific and headed to a big ship where their contacts were waiting and sail the rest of the way home.

Danny sat back. Her job pretty much completed- except for her split of the deal. Most likely it would not come down to anything more than a mere split of opinions, but still, Danny felt like she more than proved herself as more than just a guide or an expert, but the person who probably made it so no more than three templars died while getting the key. The key she decided the Tamamoa vault needed.

Then, the gem dropped in her hand. "Thank you." She flicked it around, opened a pouch, and then dropped it in. "What is with you templars and Norse mythology? Lithuanian Orders ran Vikings out of Scandinavia, causing one of the main reasons for the age of Vikings, and you keep spouting things about Odin and Valkyries. Are, you guys actually Templars? Do you do something else and just call yourself Templars?"

Witch raised her hands at the accusation. "Hey, don't look at us. We're South American Templar and mostly Catholic. They only came and founded our Chapter about a hundred years ago, and once we got the tech and training they mostly let us operate by ourselves, just calling ourselves Templar. Axe Knight here is German Templar... and also, a total Norse mythology nut." Rosa grinned. No argument there, Norse mythology is always cool.

"She's with us since... well..." Witch looked at Rosa. It seemed the ride would be story time about the Axe Knight. "...Since I'm the last German Templar. My Chapter was wiped on a bad mission in Afghanistan. By someone from our side. A shameful end, considering we trace our founding to Jerusalem. Now, I am a Knight errant... wandering the land to right wrongs with my Axe."

"Most Templar Chapters nowadays are part time mercs, but we don't take dirty contracts, and we try our best not to forget our original mission." Witch added to story time.

Diablo chimed in on the conversation, now that he was on his way to recovering. "And that mission, mi amiga, is using our gifts for fighting evil. Evil in our case are the Cartels, and the odd metahuman or rampaging monster."

"But you'll see. Each time a Chapter is laid low, they rise again!" Rosa explained with enthusiasm, but that high was followed by a low. "But usually they did it with more than a single survivor. Sigh."  That was a take-a-shot kind of sigh, and for Rosa a whole can of beer was a shot.

They eventually reach their big ship, Witch handing Danny the tablet without its gem to turn over. No one seemed to have said anything about it, seeing as they were all too busy not getting eaten earlier in the day. The black armored warriors were welcomed by a posse of regular modern mercenaries, albeit these men were very eastern European.

From inside the of the ship's hull came their contact. She was a beautiful but dangerous redheaded woman, a Russian mercenary renowned for taking jobs the Templar would ... and jobs they would not. Unlike their last encounter, she was here in office dress and heels, even wearing some spectacles and carrying their payments in cash and checks. She looked at the holder of the Tablet with a look of surprise.

Natalya Katerina Roskova, aka the Red Tigress, extended a hand to shake and offered the most fake smile ever, though there was always that predatory look in her eye, like she was going to eat Danny alive. Today she was an amicable Russian mercenary leader. "Well well, if it isn't hero girl. We work on same side today, yes? Come, let us see goods." She offered her suitcase and inside was Danny's and the Templar's promised payday.

"Yeah, yeah Jerusalem, makes sense, but she's German and it really doesn't- you know, I don't care. Make believe time is fun." Danny just decided the rest of her flight would be spent looking at her gem. It would be safe in her vault. Not that a whole line of people looked to line up to use it. If anything the Templars were the ones misusing the device to the chagrin of the defending lizardmen. How this whole misadventure would add up did not seem like it would be something Danny would talk about much, but it would add to her wealth.

The rush of air around the propellers continued even as the engines died. Danny followed out of the chopper, keeping her head down to avoid any unsavory concussions from the propellers as they continued to slow in their business trip. One step, two steps, and finally Danny could look forward to getting out of this company and make her way back to California. With a tablet it seemed.

The brush of the waves against the ship continued to knock the ship back and forth, but nothing disrupted the flow of resources or logistics from the ship. The waves against the side of the ship would not be the only thing Danny would want to break, but first, she needed to know who the person in front of her asking for the tablet was. It took a moment. "Hero- oh, I've probably fought you in the past. I really am going to need a moment to remember you. I fight people all the time and you just aren't jumping to the front of my mind." Danny handed over the tablet. The gem still safely in her pouch. "Just E-mail me or something about who you are and why I'm important enough for you to remember me and why I'm having trouble remembering you."

Danny stepped off. She remembered the Tigress. Last time they met, Tigress threw a flash bang at her then zip tied her. Everything eventually turned out for Danny, but not after Tigress took the lead over her. But, Danny knew the score never mattered. These things always played out over the course of several spectacles. It just so happened years of cheerleading made her very adapt at brushing people off and dismissing people in the most hurtful of ways.