The Scepter of Maat (Part Two)

The whirling of the plane engines dulled and eventually turned to a light hum as Iha entered the cabin behind Mehka and Dr. Icarus. The plane was large, a mobile command center, at least that is what Doc always called it. Holographic projecting tables, bunk beds, bullet proof walls, minor artillery on its wings, and complete with a snack bar that lined the walls on the second story. They were on their way to Iha's homeland, Egypt. He was surprised he hasn't been there sense he cast his spell more than a thousand years ago, but wasn't complaining. His heart raced with excitement as the wheels to the plane started to roll and with a steady jerk, they were Egypt bound.

"This is the plan." Mehka started as she leaned against one of the holographic tables, "This is the building, its a fairly simple temple." She pointed, "The first floor is going to be occupied with probably more than a dozen tourists at this time of year. Our first goal is to get them outta there and away from harm. We have to assume we are going to run into the same trouble we saw in India." Mehka smiled. "Though this time we have backup." Her eyes moved across the cabin to look at Dr. Icarus.

The doctor was sitting on a bench that lined the wall to the first floor. Wearing a lab coat and a nice pare of slacks, they all shifted as he crossed his leg. His glasses gently slide down his nose as he smiled back at her.

"Me, Iha, the new guy... ummm... Revant?" She stumbled, "and two of the T-16s will land on the outskirts and enter as tourists. We'll be the back up and try to get people outta there. I 'm sure I will think of something." She concluded.

"And I will remain in the aircraft keeping communications with you all." Doctor added with a smile as his hands fidgeted with his watch.

"I find... way in." Iha nodded.

"It wont be simple, but the architects had to have left some clues as to how to enter its underbelly." Mehka added.

"At lest... these... clues don't... hit me in face." Iha attempted a joke referring to their martial arts practice.

It took a moment but Mehka giggled eventually. "But be quick about it. The faster we get this done the less chances are we'll run into trouble." Mehka paused for a moment to look at Revenant. "And you, do whatever... it is you do." she smiled nervously.

"Well he have about 8 hours of flight time, so get comfortable. I'll let you know when we are close." Doc spoke as he stood and walked over to the T-16s that were housed in the plane's wall.

Danny did not mean to call Bliss- she meant to call her half sister, but sometimes happy little mistakes can turn into good circumstances. This was not a happy little mistake. The trip from India to Egypt went by as fast as the plane could take her- minus a few layovers, but any down time gave Danny time to keep in contact with her new partner. Regardless of whether Danny wanted it or not.

Then, the messages stopped. No more blaming any of this on Danny. No more personal attacks disguised as critiques. Just a long string of silence. For the first time, Danny actually wanted to get a text message from Bliss.

Danny flipped her phone around her palm as she stepped away from the terminal. She pushed her sunglasses up past her forehead, pulling the waves of her hair along with them. The path of her egress did not allot her enough time to change, and she even needed to schedule to have her things shipped back to California. Time did not want to work with her- and apparently Bliss stopped working with her.

Time worked for her. It helped her look more like a tourist simply slipping in to see some ancient Egyptian exhibits. Once she had an opening, she could pounce on it, but until then, her Instagram account would get a little more lively for the day. Oh- and she would definitely stay on the lookout for Bliss.

The sound of the tour guide faded from Danny's attention regardless of how much she tried to stick with her. A series of voices pounded against the side of her head, bombarding her with questions, commands, and a sense of longing. The room began to spin. Danny lost her footing and fell against the wall. She blinked, but her eyes would not open back. A flicker of her eyelids rolled.

A vision began to form.

The modified Russian L-410 Turbolet would be approaching Egypt quickly. The Spetsnaz units given to Warhead would prepare themselves for jumping, doing safety checks on each other's parachutes. The stolen prototype Tarche branded cloaking panels would allow the transport craft to cruise through the sky without being spotted in another country's airspace.

Warhead turns to his men. "Men, today is the day we take this artifact for the motherland. The Americans will truly fear us. When our scientists replicate the power of the scepter, we will become unstoppable. First, we take Europe. And then the WORLD! The soldiers would go wild cheering and screaming before returning to their calm state. Warhead would raise his hand to salute his comrades and they would do the same back.

For now, the soldiers would sit down in anticipation, waiting for battle. Knives are being sharpened, magazines checked, stun baton charged, etc. Warhead looks out a window, admiring the turboprops still in use on the aircraft. He looks at a monitor showing the cloaked SU-25's on each side of the transport. It's nice to know you have some air to surface missiles in case things get hairy. Fun times. He reclines in his seat as the ride to Egypt continues.

Lucas stuck close to Iha, he was fascinated by the level of technology in the massive aircraft. It appeared in great quality, so probably not stolen. He walked by some firearms on the wall, he picks up some ammunition sitting in neat little boxes, and begins trying to open a spot on his left forearm. His flesh splits to reveal a hollow spot carefully placed in between the Radius and the Ulna, he pulls out an empty pistol magazine resting in there, the divot in his arm seals up again. He begins placing ammunition in the surprisingly warm yet dry magazine as he is walking close behind Iha.

They stop at some big round table, and before Lucas was about to place his now full magazine on the table, it shoots up solid, third-dimensional images from its surface, they begin forming into a temple, and finish with spectacular detail. Lucas nearly smashes device, hand in mid-air as it was about to come crashing down on the device, but he then realises that its probably harmless. He looks around the room, a bit embarrassed after seeing that it wasn't just Iha who was in the room. He sees some woman, he assumes it’s this Mehka character that Iha was talking about. She begins explaining the situation of the building, apparently there was some tourist’s, and they would need to pretend to be one of them.

Alright, sounds simple enough. He says with a half-hearted smile, still a bit embarrassed by his rash actions. He looks over as he hears another voice in the room, he sees another dude, this should be Dr. Icarus, seems pretty nice. He then hears some of Iha's joke. Lucas chuckles slightly, more at Iha’s attempt to make a joke then to the actual joke. He then hears Mehka reference him, he tries for a  friendly smile as he walks away to find the snack bar. He feels something rub on his lip as he closes back to his straight expression, he feels to find… A piece of steel? He pauses in the middle of a corridor to pull it out, its stuck up in his gums. But before he pulls, he looks in a mirror to see some blood staining his teeth, Oh… Whoops. He mutters, his face brightens up in a deep red, he should have kept his mouth closed well smiling, he feels so embarrassed, again! He unlodges the inch long piece of dessicated elevator and heads up to where he thinks the snack bar would be, mouth closed tightly, and bloody shard of steel in his hand.

"That is healing just fine Iha." The doctor said as he examined Iha's bare chest. "I'm amazed you healed so quickly. You'll have to share the ingredients of that potion when we git back to India. Healing flesh is one thing, but accelerating the healing of metallic tissues?" His face lifted with the question, one eyebrow higher than the other.

The conversation was halted as a red light started to flash throughout the airplane's cabin. They had been descending for a bit of time now and where about to come up on the landing zone. Iha quickly got up and rushed to the first floor where a large back door was now opening.

Mehka handed a parachute to Iha and Revenant. She practiclly shoved them into their hands as to prevent them from flying about. Wind filled with area quickly and the whirling sound of the engines made it almost impossible to hear.

Fear gripped Iha's chest, it felt as if someone where punching his heart. He had totally missed this part of the brief. His head filled with confusion and doubt, but before he could protest two T-16s came from behind him, each taking one of his arms in tow, then began to dart toward the opening. Iha's body shifted about but their grip was too strong. His feet left the plane, his pushes turned to reaches, as if grasping the two androids like a lifeline in water. Stomach turning, he left a trail of vomit behind him.

The androids guided Iha down without his parachute. The ground approached like a welcoming mat for Iha, but as he landed he could only vomit and gag on all fours for a moment. Flying wasn't that big of an issue really, especially in such a large plane, but falling from one is surely not something he would want to do again.

As he came to, Iha noticed that the androids where both wearing long teal cloaks. They covered most of their body and obscured their form. Curious eyes would surly make them out for what they were but in a crowed they could pass as a few eager tourists with a fashion bug. The long fabric shifted with the wind as the others landed. Then they started on their small hike toward the temple in the distance.

Danny had no idea how much time slipped away. Her hand touched the top of her forehead, pushing away a strand lock of hair. At first she could hear the shuffling of feet, the hum of a light, and the nervous sounds of voices off in the distance. Danny stood.

The caress of her hand knocked a piece of crust from her eyes. It did not look like she could see whomever left her on the bench, but her current location did not look like the same place she last saw. No exhibits or artifacts. No people of photography. Nothing that could pull her direct attention. And, with that, she began to move towards the sound of nothing.

She wanted to hear someone talking, but not a crowd. She needed some attention to a crowing achievement, but it needed to big enough to pull a certain attention. A focused attention. A criminal attention. A stairwell to the right of the room drew her attention. She remembered going down it at one point, but she never came here. For some reason, she could see it leading to a large substorage room, but how she knew of this remained fuzzy to her.

Putting one foot in front of the other, Danny moved forward. Her hand touched against the door, and she began to descend the stairs, taking one step after the other, until she finally came upon a door to the basement levels. Danny stepped in, flicked the lights on, and lifted her bracelet. If anything could the scepter, it would be her bracelet.

Warhead was ready. They were gaining on the temple, quickly and the men were getting anxious. Warhead impatiently tapped his foot on the floor, waiting for them to reach their destination. He munched some chips while scrolling through on the Inflight Entertainment. There was the occasional cough or seat shuffle above the sound of the powerful engines that slightly bugged Warhead. Finally, and alert popped up on Warhead's screen. He looked to his men and said, "It's go time, comrades."

Warhead and the crew would open up the cargo ramp on the jet, tightly gripping metal bars on either side of the door to prevent themselves from being flung out. One of the soldiers looks down, slightly afraid, but remembers his training. They do a final check of parachutes and weapons and prepare themselves for the jump. With Warhead leading the charge, 3 at a time, the armed soldiers hopped off the ramp high above the temple. The soldiers and Warhead would pull the ripcord and begin gliding down to the temple.

They seem to have done this before, since they aren't vomiting or looking dazed upon landing. Warhead looks up to see his transport vehicles also being parachuted down. And finally, all 30 men and their Ural Trucks would've landed in Egypt, about two miles out from the temple. Warhead hovers into the air and commands his men into their vehicles. He leads the convoy to the temple to retrieve the scepter...

Luke looked about as red lights started to throughout the cabin of the plane, he gets quickly approached by mehka, who told him it was time to jump. He followed close behind Mehka, to get to the back of the plane, where the back door was just opening. Air rushed through the back of the plane, like a hurricane, Lucas’s coat was flailing around in the strong gale. Mehka handed him a parachute, he looked out the plane, it was high, but he’s jumped from higher when he was in the army. He tried to get Mehkas attention so he could give back the chute, but there was too much already going on. There where what appeared to be two other people, they must have been the T-16’s, they must be some sort of special elitist team of some sort. Iha didn't seem very well, maybe he hasn't done something like this before? Well, he was picked up by the two elitist’s and they just jumped. Looks like it was his turn,he wanted to show them what he could do, let's try this out. Lucas leaps off the plane, he hurtles towards the ground, flying pass Iha, he looks back to see his reaction, but he seemed quite busy… Lets just put it he was busy. Lucas spins around, shooting ever closer to the ground, he ready’s his body, and sticks his hands and feet out first.

He impacts hard, his bones slide deep, his elbow is by his shoulders, and his knees are by his hips. But this was all intentional. He raises on his “Knees” and sticks his arms out, the bones slide back in place in seconds. Then his legs begin raising, his muscles shoving his lower legs back in place, and he now stands at his full height, parachute in hand, and no blood on his body. He was trained to fall from high heights by dislocating his arms and legs at the joints to take the force like a spring, only problem is he cant mess up, otherwise it would take a nearly 45 seconds to regenerate from the damage, which is too much time. He hears a thump behind him, it appears Iha fared much worse then he did. Luke chuckles, He’s starting to take his enhanced condition for granted...

Iha glanced over to see the joint popping action of Revenant's body. It didn't disgust him but he couldn't help but heave more. The food from breakfast sat nastily in his mouth as he wiped his lips clean with his sleeve. After composing himself he looked at the healing man and questioned, "ready?". With that they were on their way.

The desert air was light and dry. Sand gave-way as Iha's feet pushed through the rough ground. Once he made it to the hard gravel road they dared to pick up the pace. Moving at a trot and jog the temple was made within twenty minutes.

A trail of cars passed now and then but there was nowhere for them to park at the exhibit. The desert would consume it in only a few years, no doubt. The tourists that came this way were usually dropped off, given to their guides and let be for an hour or two, then towed back into nearby cities. This being so, the temple teemed with people, busy gaggles looking around and examining the ancient statues and architecture.

Once Iha and the group got upstairs and entered the temple the T-16s took a place on either side of the large room. They would wait  for would be attackers. With their teal hoods pulled up and crossed arms that let their cloaks drape over most of their bodies, they could stand still and look like statues in the corner.

Mehka moved along one of the walls, pretending to be an interested tourist. Her nimble fingers pulled a fire alarm casually as she passed by one. The light blinking bright and an almost dizzying sound blared over loudspeaker, "Please, remain clam. Take the nearest exit." which would repeat itself every thirty seconds or so for a few minutes. Mehka prettended to be with one of the groups on their way out. Sticking to the back of the crowd she paused as the last group exited the building and shut the doors behind them. Claping her hands almost happily, "OK... Lets get to work guys. Look for anything that would lead downward."

Iha's eyes darted across the room. At his peripherals the schematics appeared. But there has to be something they missed he thought. Taking a look down each corridor. They all looked the same, dusty, fake torches on the walls, statues of Horus and other gods scattered on each side or in the center. But one statue caught his attention, a statue of Maat. It didn't look as old as the rest. Her green skin seemed to shine with a sense of newness. Somehow Iha knew that this was the original, but a feeling, a drawing seemed to pull him toward her. "Over here guys." He spoke as his legs flung into action.

"Where is it?" Danny looked down to her bracelet. It never really liked to talk at the most opportune of times, but did always leave clues around. "Come on bracelet. You got me down here. Now how about a little help?"

A low groan muffled out through the basement.

"Probably not your regular storehouse I guess." A preparatory blade began to form around her forearm, but the tip of the blade never came. Nor did the blade. "You're taking a day off now? That better just be a little miscommunication, because I have no clue how to- or who I would talk to- to get you fixed."

The drag of metal across the stone floor dug in to Danny's mind as she began to press herself towards a corner of the room.

Step by step, she moved up. Hoping to keep away from the noises echoing from the chambers. Feeling around, she grasped a metal candle candelabra. Wielding the piece in her hands like a longsword, Danny kept her eyes glued to the edge of the wall.

Shambling across out from the floor, a decrepit mix of torn bandages and adorned jewelry carried as ankh with a sinister lift. The dim light of the temple painted the creature in shadows- removing all features that would sell the creature's soul to anyone coming near it. The drag of the ankh continued to wear away at the silence in the room, severing it with a dull blade.

Danny started to step forward. Her foot felt heavy. Her stance off. "Oh, so you're taking the whole day off?" Her brow lifted. "Oh shoot. Are these guys your friends or something? Are you not going to help me because you know this guy?"

No voice came. No vision came. Only a shambling servant with a sinister blade.

Danny took that for her time to leave. She cast down the candelabra at the zombies feet, pushed herself back, then took off to the door. Her feet carried her swiftly up the stairs. No need for a bracelet to continue with those maneuvers, just good old fashion cheerleading practice to keep those quads in shape. Nothing followed her up, but oddities always found a way to track themselves to Danny.

The door before her remained blocked. Something green and bulky laid before her. An alarm rang out from the other side of the statue, but it quickly gave out to the sound of a voice calling for assistance. Just how this would affect Danny remained to be seen. Her blade did not wish to form around her, but maybe it would play out for the best. With all these questions before her, and a problematic case of the undead behind her, Danny decided to downplay anything that would give her away as anything more than a mere visitor.

The armored convoy would have reached the building with the armed soldiers hopping out of the trucks' rears. They ran toward the building, gunning down people running out of the fire doors. Security guards would be seen falling to the ground, riddled with bullets. Screaming and panic would ensue, causing more tourists to scramble back into the museum and out another exit. Warhead would lead his men, with a suppressed shotgun in hand. He pumps it and blasts a security guard into a wall, inviting his comrades to do the same. They make their way toward the temple area, leaving a trail of dead behind them.

Screaming would be heard ringing throughout the museum. Frantic footsteps would be scrambling toward the basement. A man gets in front of his child and stares Warhead down. "I admire your courage, comrade. You will not die this day." He pulls out a suppressed pistol and shoots the man in the knee, gesturing for him to make his way out of the building. Warhead would turn the corner to see the temple area, with the android, the regenerator, and a girl searching along a wall. His soldiers aim their firearms at them, waiting for their boss's orders. Warhead cracks his knuckles and smiles at them.

Once Iha was well enough to travel, which was surprisingly quick, and made there way through the desert onto a road and to the temple at a slow jog. Lucas probably could have run there in about half the time or less, but then he would be leaving everybody behind, and to be honest, he was scared.

Well, most people would be surprised by his fear, why should someone basically immortal, be scared? Well, this immortal is questioning whether he can be called that anymore, he has never been more smashed up by someone so bad, other than Warhead, and it appears he is very fond of the staff that Iha is currently looking for. If he gets caught by him again, stuff might happen, and nobody's going to live through his attacks. Well, no use whining, he doesn't really know this Iha guy, but if he even survived one punch from Warhead, then he might be able to help somehow. At least, I hope so.

They made it to the building, and walked upstairs into the temple. It was, actually interesting. The architecture was impressive considering their tools and resources, too bad people where here, he could see the walls wearing down from the millions of hands rubbing against it, the pieces of garbage in the corners, left by someone who didn't feel like waiting to throw it away, it was… Sad...

Alarms began blaring through the air, panicked people exiting the building on panicked feet. He jumped slightly from the alarm, he forgot about that for a moment there. Mehka shouts almost excitedly to get are rear in gear, or something like that. Well, anyways, Luke looked around, but stayed close to the doors, even with the T-16’s posted as guards, they wont stop Warhead.

He hears Iha shout about something, he may have found what they were looking for. But then he hears a thunderous crash behind him, he spins to see Warhead standing there, well shit.

Now, I have two options, I can either leave these two random people to fight for themselves, or I can risk death again. Even if he wanted to run, he couldn't, he sprinted to a statue and tried to knock it down in the way, he broke his hands trying to throw it. He runs in front of them again, arms waving wildly as 10 blades shoot from his arms towards the oncomers, he’s out of blades, but he’s got an axe. He pulls it apart and reconnects it, ready for any onslaught. He tries to hold it defensively, he doesn't understand this moment, he doesn't understand any of this, maybe they need to live? Too late for that, his body dashes at them, axe ready to cleave them to pieces. He wants to scream or something, or laugh to scare them, but he can't, he’s not in control,
FEAR IS...

"There is someone coming guys." Doc spoke over Comms into Mehka and Iha's ears. A moment sooner and it might have mattered. Before Iha could move the statue all the way over, it was partial now, revealing a half open door. It was decorative, ornate in an ancient way. Carvings marked the hard wood along it's edges; birds and other creatures inlaid with teal colored stone and gold, all flying (or facing) toward the center of the door. Then the front of the museum seamed to explode into excitement.

Before anyone could move the healing man leaped into action.

Iha didn't watch...

He quickly shoved the statue over with his shoulder to free the door. It shattered into peaces as it hit the ground.

Iha didn't watch...

His vision was now forward, gazing at the man who walked in. A stream of metallic bobbles surrounded him in a tilted circular fashion, light glittering off of each of them. Iha's right arms buzzed with enthusiasm, a blue holographic belt swirled around it. A cool sensation filled his hand as the liquid metal coalesced into a long seven foot spear.

Mehka froze in her steps along the wall. Watching the scene unfold in front of her she twists both of her hands in an awkward, kinda jerking, gyrating motion. Her arms were at her side, it was unlikely that anyone noticed this especially with the crazy axe-wielding man. Armor began to mold and appear, pushing onto her body in a quick one second wave. Then three centurion soldiers appeared behind the attackers. The magic tingled at Mehka's fingers, it lingered there. A steady pulsing, soothing, a love (or was it hate?) sat and caressed her knuckles.

Two of Mehka's soldiers plunged their swords through the back's of the attackers. It looked easy, like cutting through butter. Armor didn't seem to help, the blades didn't touch it, they slipped right underneath where the armor hung. The soldiers fell with questioning faces, looking at the space behind them, their shadows, the birthplace for the horror.

One appeared behind the leader. A thrusting sword did the same, it would plunge into his back. The shadowy figure would pull the foreigner toward the blade with his left hand and arm...

A low grinding began to echo through the narrow hallway Danny sought to escape. She could see peaks of light break through the crevices in the door. The alarm still remained unanswered, as did the shouts for a possible incoming. Danny wondered just how quickly she would be called upon to fight, but luckily, she still kept her trump card. Her fingers slid down to the gem as her eyes set on the door. She would help speed up the process.

"Oh come on!" Nothing burst forth from her bracelet. "I can't fight the guards here. I can't knock down doors. These rules would have been great to go over before all of this!"

While calamity ensued on the other side, it lifted just enough to allow the door to open. No grand heroic entrance would burst forth. No door shattering, earth rumbling blast of energy. Just a mere push of the door, and the emergence of a young woman in comfortable clothing, holding onto a bracelet. Danny looked around the room, but not a lot of notice dropped to her- not with the emerging onslaught coming to her.

"Oh great. A worse situation of what I was already dealing with- and you're going to be even more stubborn aren't-" But something happened. A turquoise wall blocked off one of the hallways, keeping the soldiers on the other side at bay for the moment. Then, the well placed crossbow engrossed Danny's forearm, allowing her to fire back while seeking cover behind her walls. "Okay, so these guys are fine for a beatdown. We should really write these rules down somewhere."

The strength of her walls would only last for a few volleys of gunfire before shattering, but Danny decided to try and keep them up and reinforced. They did not need to hold everyone back. All they needed to do was slow down the invaders. "Anyone know why they're shooting? And, this might become an important discussion for later, but why do you all happen to be here?" Danny kept herself down behind a metal display case, reinforcing it from time to time with a turquoise barrier, while she began work on her newest creation, a ballista aiming down the hallway where Warhead called the shots.

As Revenant shoots the 10 blades, the soldiers fall in line behind him, the blades hitting him and falling to the ground. He starts walking forward as his men are being killed by the magic man. He would suddenly feel a blade plunge into his own back, gritting his teeth as the deed is done. He turns around, not seeming to have died yet. He raises a fist which begins to glow green. He released a beam of energy, powerful enough to feel even if you weren't a physical being. He focuses a beam from both hands and I need from each of his eyes on each individual centurion. As soon as they were all destroyed, he'd whip all the beams around to the door where Mehka was.

The soldiers would start blasting the centurions until Warhead had destroyed them. They aim their weapons at Revenant and Mehka, firing their guns. Half were using a modified AK-74s with extended magazines and explosive rounds. Warhead had tossed his custom shotgun to his right hand. The shotgun alternated between birdshots and explosive slugs. Finally, the other half of the soldiers would be using gas grenade launchers. They would begin unloading at the group in front of them, not holding anything back.