Pyramid Scheme (Shadowoof)

The sun rose higher in the sky until it finally caught itself at the apex of where it could ascend. Now, the sun strode a path along the backside of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, bathing the surrounding area in a red hue of ambition. The picking away of rock from the subtle sound of pickaxes tore away at antiquity and laws. In years past, tight security surrounded the Pyramids near Memphis, but in the state of unrest surrounding a newly budding nation, gravediggers came with every ambition in the world to open up the troves of the past to find fortune. And, others sought more.

Even in the twilight of the sun, temperatures boiled in the rising air. In a matter of hours, the climate would change in the absence of its benefactor, but the arid breeze still ran its course to expunge any feelings of comfort in the bristling heat of the early evening. A few weeks ago, in the mind of ambition and sensing exploitable resources, Bliss sent a small scouting team to uncover what they could of the Pyramids. What hauls lay within, what security rested in the sands, and what danger she could expect. Nothing came back. So, Bliss packed up.

Stepping out of her jeep, pressing a pair of black hiking boots into a lightly sanded rock, Bliss dressed in a pair of black shorts with a tight, brown t-shirt to keep herself from dying from the heat swirling around the area. With the interest in the area, and the lack of security for so long, graverobbers grew more callous in their dwellings and treatment of the surrounding area. Whereas Bliss first sought a place to hide her jeep, she soon realized, most within the area would probably assume it belonged to their organization. All she needed to do would be find a way to infiltrate the tent cities around the Pyramid and find a tunnel leading into the core itself.

Within the tents themselves sat a woman with a metal graft running along the side of her arm. Night began to fall. The heat would subside, and her workers would begin to descend into the ancient structures. Over the past few months, she managed to unify the scattered tomb raiders seeking fortunes to her organization through bribery, extortion, and murder. Now, she could extend her hand into every nook stretching into the ancient world. Unlike the others seeking to dig up gold, she wanted something hidden. Something she needed for herself. Paying her underlings with delusions of riches and petty artifacts kept her venture well funded and easy to operate. Strands of gold ran through her dark hair, perpendicular to the lines beneath her eyes, covered with thick makeup. Her attire remained loose and breathable, but her stature spoke the truth for her demeanor.

The chorus of the axes broke up again while Bliss began to sneak past the observation high rises put up to warn of oncoming authorities. Her long night began.

Faiths time had been odd. Flying people, dragons that were girls. And the swimming, by god's the swimming was starting to annoy him. He had swam from the beach after his encounter with the flying people and the girl who turned to purple light, wanting to find more of this worlds wonders but besides a shark trying to eat him, he was relatively tired and bored now. Night came upon him when Faith had finally found land in the form of.... more sand. Was this World full of sand? He didn't care right now, it was land. Climbing from the sea water to the shore, Faith Checked if he had everything on him and was glad to find so. Once satisfied, he rested the blunt end of his blade on his shoulder and walked forwards, with no apparent direction he would just walk forwards until he found something, the affects of hunger taking a slight toll on his stomach. "Shut up stomach. No one likes you." He would say as he continued on his way, the cool air making him colder then he already was.

What could feel like hours, Faith had finally seen lights from afar. And a object outlined in the darkness by the moon. Odd in shape and gigantic in size. Faith started walking towards the odd huts that had torches on them. At least they looked like torches from afar, and from the shouting and the mass that were collecting in the direction he was going it seemed they may have noticed him. Unfazed, the giant would continue walking until he would be standing a few feet away from the collection of men that held strange looking metal barrels at him. "Sup." Faith would say in his usual deep voice. Wondering if body's would go flying tonight.

A confusion broke out within the camp, letting Bliss find her way to a narrow alley she saw indented in the side of a rocky crevasse. A camera pivoted across the narrow inlet, surveying any motion coming along the gap. A wireless feed still needed to draw in from a feed, but losing camera focus would still cause some alarm from an attentive security detail. Well, Bliss would hope for the best from an unattentive detail and try her luck from there. Whoever placed the feed into the back of the camera did so with some tenacity, making the pulling of the plug a difficult endeavor to get through, but nonetheless, Bliss bought herself a few seconds outside of the cameras spying eyes. Once she passed through the alcove, the only thing before her led down. Directly down.

"There is no need for such- displays." A man with a tattoo slithering across his arm broke through the ranks of armed men. "Sand rats don't come in through the front door and just announce themselves. No, sand rats sneak around and steal. They take from good, hardworking men. They steal from the museums we are selling to. They only take for themselves, and we've got some rats down in the crypts right now. How would you like to help us weed out these pests we've got down there?"

Bracing herself against the walls, Bliss managed to slowly descend into the sparsely illuminated catacombs resting beneath the Pyramid of Khufu. Or at least she believed her whereabouts still kept her within that vicinity. Stalking away in the corner of one of the outings rested another hidden camera, tucked behind a veil of darkness, but still reaching out to sensor the movement coming in from the outside.

Every so often, an explosion rang out, followed by the chorus of pick axes. While Bliss kept to the shadows, a hand grabbed the unsuspecting Bliss and pulled her backwards, keeping a hand over her mouth to prevent unpleasant Blissiness. A lone finger stood vigilant guard over a pair of lips sitting in the center of a red headed woman's face. "Shh!" Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, dropping down to the top of the black synthetic shirt she wore to assist with her invisibility. The same fabric ran down towards the loose pair of athletic shorts she wore to remain cool in the horrible heat.

A sudden, but expected, elbow struck Abby in her gut. Bliss shoved her aide to the ground before locking eyes with a tan skinned woman wearing a white half shirt under a tan vest. "Name's Sara." Her sand covered hand extended towards Bliss to meet her new employer, buts of sand dropping down to the tan shorts she sported.

"Bliss." Bliss grabbed Sara's hand by the fingers. "Am I paying you?"

Abby pulled herself off the ground and put herself between Bliss and Sara. "I made an executive decision to bring her-"

"Invisible Girl, your job is to be invisible. All the time. How much am I paying you and what do you do?"

"I get things. I do it in an unusual way. You'll see."

Bliss looked to Abby before looking over to Sara. "Well, someone fill me in?"

Back on the surface, an image of the intruder came to a security tablet. The woman with golden streaks made her way to the disturbance within the camp. She made eye contact with Faith before showing the image to the rest of the men. "Find them and bring them to me. I will not have them stealing from me. These relics must find their way back to the exhibit before we head out to France, and this team of intruders will bring us down."

Faith would wait until one solider appeared and talked about Rats, how they didn't just announce themselves and they hid. Faith chuckled to that as this was how he invaded most camps, he never would sneak no. he would charge though until everything was dead but then the snake man offered him a job and seeing as faith didn't know much about this worlds money. He needed a job that suited him. "Faith help with hunting of rats, but requires fifty gold in pay and allowed to climb top of strange building." Faith would say as he pointed to the top of the triangular like building.

Faith would look down again to see a new arrival in the form of a woman who seemed to be boss of the operation, they made eye contact for a small bit before she ordered her men to find intruders before showing a image Faith could not fully see from a distance. He didn't care for the rest of her speech, he just felt like slicing down raiders and climbing that building, he wasn't too happy about the crypt doe. It would be hard to slice things in half when your blade had to cut though the wall first. But other then that he was happy to follow them as long as they agreed to his contract.

This man might be easier to deal with than she earlier thought. Pressing her finger to the temple of her head, keeping the veil over her eyes. "Done and done. It is a marvelous building to climb. The top is the best part." Her muscle man felt odd at the request, and divided over letting such a reckless man have free reign over such a priceless structure, but he succumbed to the wishes of his boss and began to lead an expedition into the pyramid. No one in his party trusted or believed in their new companion, but still knew they needed to worry about the problem at hand roaming free beneath the sands.

Elsewhere in the undercrypt, Bliss and Sara made quick work of a few guards and workers, tucking their unconscious bodies away while Abby kept quiet lookout in her invisible form. Going back up the path Bliss took down seemed like the quickest route out, but it also seemed very crowded. "You handle yourself pretty well."

"I was going to say the same thing." Sara grabbed a rope from work site and coiled it around her shoulder. Climbing out of this place would prove difficult, but without the tools around this place, it would most likely be impossible. "I'm tired of breathing this stank air. Let's take the short cut."

"Abby." Bliss started to walk towards the corridor, calling to the stealthed Abby behind her. "We're heading out. Grab some ropes or something."

A large, dark hand held up to stop the search party. "Spread out. We've got a new guy who can distract them. They can't escape through that hole in the wall in a speedy fashion, so we move to the outer corridors and wait for them to trap themselves." Every member of the search party would scatter into the adjacent halls and chambers, leaving the exit open for Bliss and her company.

Abby scouted the corridor first, spotting no signs of the commotion they heard. Reporting back to Bliss and Sara, the two women decided to go ahead and head towards the large chamber Bliss scaled down in the first place. The chamber once acted as a treasure room, holding many raised platforms along a very large space spreading out over forty yards in diameter. Bliss and Sara walked towards the center of the room to try and figure out how they would begin to fashion a pulley to carry the three of them out.

While they planned, Abby would go back into her invisibility and begin to search out the adjacent corridors. Invisibility in these corridors worked well as a lookout, but as a scout it did Abby little good when they could all hear her coming. She hardly spotted the search party by the time they grappled her and kept her quiet while they planned the rest of the ambush. "Let's see what the mercenary does. We can see if he is with us or just out for himself."

Faith followed the best he could though the hallways that these men took, carefully leveling his sword so it does not make contact with the roofing, fear that it would fall on him. His eyes looking a little unamused with having to enter another crypt. His mind running back to how he had hunted down the magic users with Sarah, her being injured and him having to continue on before being sent here. Doe he wondered why they needed him to go rat hunting as they seemed well armed with their metal pointing things with barrels. That was until a while later they grabbed a hold of a girl who was nowhere to be seen yet she could be heard. "Ehh not another one." Faith would say as he guessed what the girl could do that was until the men had interrupted his thought with words of go do it so we can be lazy. Faith always out for himself, you pay me that I help, you annoy me you lose your middle regions." Faith would say to him as he walked by waving to the was invisible girl as he entered the quite large room, his sight on two figures down a ways.

He would start walking towards them with is sword rising as the roof was well above them. "I am Faithtorias and you two are the rats those people talk about. I am here to kill you so that I can climb this strange building we are under. I recommend you ether fight very well or you run... very fast." Faith would call out to them as he continued walking, he was fond of Rats. Reminded him of that Soulman who was part Dragon. By the gods he was a funny man, the memory brought a smile to his face and for a moment he forgot about the two in-front.. Almost.

Sara looked over to Bliss as the imposing man stepped into the room, brandishing grandeur. "Run?"

"I can't fly. Can you?" The sword pointing the sky showed no promise of mercy. Nor did his words. "I'm not want to doubt someone saying they want to kill me."

"Well, we might need to spread out." With the size of the room, Sara moved to the far right side of the room, raising a ridge of earth to block Faith's vision of her and present him with an obstacle to need to break through. If Faith got close enough, Sara would let her earthen shields break and reform with sharp spikes to stop his charge.

On the other side of the room, Bliss tried to keep her distance from Faith, all the while trying to connect the rope she commandeered to the ceiling. Once she tethered the rope in place, she would use telekinesis to keep Faith from destroying it in a rampage if he decided Bliss deserved his attention. "Abby! A little help with this guy." No answer came from any direction. "Abby?"

While the fight continued, the chief of security began to position his men to take a back entrance to the floor above the chamber of combat and and prepare an ambush.

Faith watched as the two girls ran to opposite sides, a slight frown reaching his face in realizing that he would have to take his time and deal with them. So he thought to deal with both, his left hand reaching for the small chime in his pocket he would shake it a little and manifest his magic into it until the small chime had produced one of his sunlight lighting bolts. Turning to the one with rope, faith would began by making a few short steps before turning on heel and throwing the lighting spear at the earth the girl had rose, his confidence that the spear would smash the rock made him forget about the earth mover for a moment.

His sights turning back to the rope woman he would swing his sword in a horizontal arc, where the purple crystal in the middle glowed and released a wave of kinetic energy at the woman, hoping the distraction would be enough as he began to run at her, his aim to jump and vertically slice down on her position, his strength allowing him to jump father then most humans could hope to accomplish. "Would stop worrying about friend, men found her first." Faith would say to state, satisfy or even threaten the woman he was fighting. Whichever one came to her he could not care for now. Because now she was his target unless she proved otherwise.

His speech patterns seemed simple, but his attack style unleashed a complexity to it dividing Bliss' attention. She took in the blunt of the ranged attack with a telekinetic shield, but the charge came at her with a destructive resolve. In complete disregard for the Earthen barricade, Sara put up a shield to protect Bliss. The savage attack splintered the barrier, sending several shards to hit Bliss.

Rolling out from underneath his presence, Bliss crawled a few feet to get herself on her back facing Faith. For her next trick, she would try and unleash a blast to push Faith back towards the back wall. "Someone found Abby. I need to get her." A solid hand pushed Bliss up from the ground while she pulled a chunk of rubble from the ceiling to pummel Faith on the ground.

"I'll try to find another way out." Rock from jet from the ground to try and hold Faith by his ankles to keep him anchored while Sara shot for the dangling rope. A few quick pulls and she hoped to be to on the floor above before anyone could attack her.

To assist with her departure from this chamber, Bliss would put herself between Faith and Sara with a full arrangement of blasts to try and fight the man back.

Faith would find his sword had sliced though the earth but no woman was to be found split under the blade. Looking up to her getting away, Faith would pull his sword from the earth which now left behind a small hole. Standing up and about to flip his blade to his shoulder, Faith felt a incredable force push him and his immdient reflex was to stab his sword back into the earth, the sword cutting though the earth as he was still pushed back until a stop.

His hand still on the hilt of his blade, Faith would look up to the woman who was now standing. that was until he felt a heavy force hit his head, the rock exploding as it hit his head. "Ow." Faith would say as he went to focus his vision, the feeling of something consticting his ankles broke the distoriation and he let go of his blade to punch the rocks, each exploding to dust. Faithtorias would then grab his blade once again as he felt more blast of force hit him, his blade cutting though the earth with each it until Faith quickly pulled the blade from the earth with a spin, the blade now stright gained speed and as Faith stopped on his heel he would swing the blade to release yet another wave of kinetic energy to connect with the blast the woman were sending before he would begin to sprint at her. His movement now stange as he moved about with small leaps and side steps every once and a while yet each were quick and graceful, his hope to avoid her blast as he got closer.

Enough distance lapsed between Sara and Faith for her to consider the rope dangling before her as a viable means of escape. "I've got an idea."

"One of those would be nice." Bliss watched as her strikes broke against Faith's blade. The manacles holding him back fell back to the rock in which they came. "This guys quick." While his speed could close the distance between his competition, Bliss picked up on his zig zag like movement. When he would dart out towards the wall, she would make a break for the wall on the opposite side of the room. If she could put more distance between them, an opening at his side should present itself. Bliss hoped she could land a shot at the man's side, possibly knocking him off his feet, but no matter his outcome, Bliss would continue to counter any side step he did with an opposite movement herself.

Once Sara reached the top, she placed her hands on the lip of the hole, and pushed several lines of rock to expand towards the ground, hopefully creating a wall to trap Faith behind and giving Bliss a way out of the chamber she currently needed to escape.

Faith did his best to close the distance that had been created by his prey but none the less, she was able to match his movement and stayed as far away as she could. "Why make this fight no fun? Your like Shade, always avoiding my hits when she turns into that shadow of hers." Faith would call out to his opposition as she reminded him of a fellow mercenary that had a unusual ability of becoming a shadow. Only side affect was the clothes she left behind in doing so. These thoughts sadly left an opening and soon he had felt the force push at his side, using the push faith would use the momentum to land his left hand on the ground and cartwheel back to his feet but he had to emit, the force of the blast had stung. Faith would use this stop for a moment before bringing his blade to his left and swinging it back to his right in a arc towards where the woman would be moving but instead of aiming for her, he would be aiming for the roofing above her. His plan that the kinetic force would smash up the roofing enough to send it down collapsing onto her. This was until a wall had grown in-front of him and separated him from his prey, the attack still making it's way towards the roof.

"Damn earth mover." Faith would groan as he jogged backwards from the wall before sprinting back at it with his shoulder out to charge down the wall. "I just want to climb this mountain woman, make it easier on the both of us." Faith would yell before making contact with the wall. His mood taking a turn for the worse.

Some good things happened while some boding signs started to move into place. The plan Bliss put into action could be best described as 'complicated' as for looking at the outcome. Not taking the blunt end of one of his attacks felt god, but sitting on the ground under the coercion of his next attack sang a different tune. Getting to her feet took ultimate precedent for her, but she needed to keep this next blast from smearing her against the wall. A compromise faulted her plan when the attack shot over her head. A little brevity sank into Bliss- until she heard the cracking over her head.

Sara continued to wait by the lip, preparing to do all she could to defend Bliss from the approach of Faith. With each arcing attack sent out towards Bliss, Sara would follow suit to try and coordinate the exact whereabouts of Bliss underneath her. It was in this midst the hurried sounds of footsteps began to break through the corridors around her. Within a matter of seconds, a brigade of hooded men with staffs began to pour through the room. Earthen barriers blocked two corridors from entry, but the opposite side of the room opened up for five men to accost Sara. It was as Sara took her stance she felt the ground beneath her give way.

Collapsing with the ceiling, Sara felt a sudden telekinetic blast hit her in the back. Bliss put up a defense to shield herself from the avalanche, but failed to put enough force in it to deflect Sara. The archaeologist slammed into Bliss, pinning her to the ground as Faith broke through the wall. With an assisted push, Sara rolled off of Bliss. With the approach of men above, she felt relieved to know the wall connecting the two floors gave way, but not so much with Faith charging her with his full strength. Sara hastefully put up a wall of earth in front of Faith, while Bliss would put pressure into it to cause it to explode towards Faith. The two women's last ditch effort to keep him from overwhelming them.

As Faith would charge though the wall, he would see that his plan had work yet a complication when the earth bender was now with his opponent. Another wall would be constructed and Faith would sprint at it yet again only for it to explode towards him, his blade lost from his hands and falling into the earth where only half of it remained, the rest underground. Faith himself was sent into a back-flip from the blast and as he landed he would punch his right hand into the earth to stop himself from going any further as the blast still felt like it was pushing him and a loud snap of bone would follow this.  

When the force stopped Faith pulled his broken hand from the earth and stared at it. Not even the mages of his home-world could do this damage to him be it as small as it was. Walking towards his blade where he would rise it from the earth with his left hand he looked towards Bliss and bowed. "Your the first humanoid of this and my world to break a bone in thy body. It was an honorable fight." Faith would finish as he then sat in place around 10 meters away from the two. He had done his part and he hoped his fellow mercenary's would do theirs. They seemed capable enough to drop down at any moment and seize them.

Just when the fight looked like this raging bull of a man would deliver a judgment through the very center of the room, his unexpected departure into meditation and grace showed instead. "Uh, yeah. You attacking me while we're stealing from a tomb was very honorable." Bliss picked Sara up from the ground and pushed her towards the hole. "Get us out."

"We can't go that way." Sara turned back to look down the hall they came from. "Maybe down there. We just need to find where the air is lighter."

"We're less than a minute from the outside. The air doesn't get any thinner. Why can't we just go out that hole?"

"Hello rats." The ominous sound of rifles pointing down the hole rang out while a veiled woman entered the room from one of the adjacent corridors.

"That's why." Sara lifted her hands into the air in a universal form of surrender, begrudgingly followed by Bliss.

After the guards escorted Bliss and Sara out of the pyramid, the woman with deep pools within her eyes walked towards Faith. "You were promised gold and the top of the pyramid. You may have both now. Is there anything else you require from me? I am very grateful to those who assist me. What is it you seek to gain through your journey? We might have shared goals the two of us."