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September 7, 1941
Uttarakhand, Northern India
The snow had begun to fall more heavily over the last few hours, but Indy and Jim were nearing the peak of the mountain known as Nanda Devi.
"Dr. Jones, I think we should turn back," Jim called forward, though Indy wasn't about to listen to more of his complaining.
"We'll reach the summit soon enough, Jim. Once we're there, we can rest." Replied Dr. Jones, before adding under his breath, "if the stories are true..."
As they continued to climb Nanda Devi, their visibility continued to decrease. Indy began to think that if things got much worse, he might have to listen to his assistant. That thought did not please him. As he was contemplating this, through the snow, Indy thought he could make out the shape of a temple. Before he could relay this to Jim, Indy noticed that he had collapsed in the snow.
Rushing back to his companion, Indy hoisted Jim on to his shoulder and pressed on towards the shape in the snow. Suddenly, they emerged from the storm. In front of them was a great temple built upon the peak of the mountain, shielded from the world by the snowstorm.
When Jim awoke, he found himself on a bed made of stone. There was a fire lit next to him in a hearth, but he couldn't see where Dr. Jones was. Jim rose to his feet, and examined his surroundings. Ancient stone walls held the cold at bay, and only a single door led from the room. He exited the room, and began to creep through dim halls. He strained his ears to get any hint as to where Indy might have gone.
Jim found Indy in a large room, with a raised dais in the center. On the dais was an intricate mace forged from gold. Indy motioned to Jim to come closer.
"This is what we're here for, Jim," said Indy, putting his arm around his assistant with a smile creeping across his face. "This is Kaumodaki, the mace of the god Vishnu. It's said to be one of the oldest and most powerful weapons the gods ever used."
"We have to get this to the Allies. The Nazis cannot get their hands on this weapon. They already possess far too many," replied Jim, looking weary from both the climb and their hunt for the other weapons.
"You're right. Do you think you can make the descent now? The sooner the better..." Before Indy could finish, Jim had already reached forward and grabbed the handle of the mace. The entire room rumbled like thunder crashing all around them. A bolt of lightning burst through the ceiling, channeling itself into Kaumodaki.
As the dust settled, Jim found that he was completely unharmed. In fact, he felt incredible. He could feel the power of the mace flooding his body, and in particular his mind. As he examined the mace, he realized he could use the power to get off the mountain with ease. He began to exit the temple, climbing over the rubble the lightning strike had created.
"Jim, what are you doing?" cried out Indy, who was trying to rise to his feet.
"I'm using the power of Kaumodaki to help us! Why shouldn't we?" replied Jim, barely looking back at Indy as he came to edge of the snowstorm.
"You don't know what that power will do to you! You have no idea if you can control it..." Indy pleaded to his companion, but it was all in vain. Jim swung the mace through the air, clearing a path through the storm. The winds parted and created a calm channel down the entire mountain. On either side of the channel, snow crashed into the air, cascading into the sky.
"See, Dr. Jones? Nothing to worry about. Now come along, we should deliver this at once." Jim walked back to Indy and lifted him to his feet with ease. The two began their descent in silence, as Indy disapproved of Jim's use of the mace's power. As they continued to descend, Jim began using the mace to assist more and more. He used the strength it granted him to throw Indy across a large gorge, and then leaped over the gap himself.
When the two finally reached the base of the mountain, Indy broke his silence. "Now, can we put the mace away? You can't be throwing it around all the way back to London."
"Of course, Indy. I was just making things a bit easier for us." Jim replied with a smirk. As he released the mace into a carrying bag Indy had prepared, he felt a rush of heat out of his body. Jim sank to his knees as all the breath was pulled from his body.
"JIM!" Called out Indy, as Jim's body began to shrivel up, becoming more and more emaciated by the second. Before Indy could so much as grab Jim's hand, it was too late. The toll of the weapon had been too much, and all the strength had been pulled from Jim's body...
Author's Note:
In this story, I skipped forward in a time a bit. This allowed me to hint that both Indy and Jim as well as the Nazis have found additional weapons left by the gods. For this story, I had Indy and Jim travel to the highest mountain in India (at the time) to find Kaumodaki, the mace of Vishnu. The mace was said to make a sound like lightning, so I took that and make a bolt of lightning strike the temple and the mace itself when Jim picked it up. I wanted to show off some powers that the mace might provide, including a boost to the mind and body, as described by legend. I added the ability to alter the weather based on the connection to lightning. I had Jim use the mace because I felt like it wasn't something that Indy would do, but I still wanted to show off the weapon. I decided that I wanted to show that these weapons should not be taken lightly, and that only the strongest can wield them safely. Originally, I was just going to have Jim become weakened by his use of the weapon, but I decided that having the ordeal kill him would make for a more powerful moment.
Revisions:
Dialogue Punctuation Check was the editing challenge I took on, because a lot of my dialogue had some issues. I somehow missed a lot of them when I wrote the initial post. Now they should all be fixed and everything should read better. I also fixed several spelling mistakes that the spellchecker missed.
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