Faith falters, but the Ahnk endures

"You have the blade?" The man asked, his voice echoing in the dark as he knelt there. His knees buried in warm sands as wrappings covered him from head to toe. His strangely amber eyes fixated on some old archaic hieroglyphics. The only light in the vast and eerie darkness were the candles upon the alter before hand, an old and empty sword stand sitting there. From the darkness soft footsteps approached as a young japanese looking girl in a long black trench coat and a masque over his face appeared. Black unkempt hair tousled about as he stepped around the side of the alter and reached out and put the acquired Bloodsword onto the rack. The wrapped man's eyes turned and fixated upon the young girl a hum of amusement as he took in the form. "I did not think they let Agent's join their ranks so young..." He said, a slight wry tone to suggest he knew complications had arose.

"This was the girl who the sword belongs to.. or did, rather," The woman said before her features seemed to fade into a misty smoke that quickly faded. Now it was quite obviously a man with unkempt medium black hair and a white masque over his face, one that was akin do a fencer's mask with symbol of chaos plastered on the forehead area. "While I love the busty asian bit I'm not so sure I'm Winchester material. Anyways, what the soddin' hell are you up to Emu Tet?" The thick Irish accent of Masquerade slipping through as he looked down to the wrapped man.

"I'm preparing for my march against our enemies. I shall lead a distracting preemptive strike on Chicago, giving no rest for the wicked that has stationed there. You-Will go on to Pittsburgh and prep RP for what's coming, then I'm headed off back to Ireland to try and get that no good sod of a vampire to help us." The man began, though Masquerade finishing it, slightly annoyed by how many times the plan needed to be reiterated before the man was appeased. A little chuckle came from the wrapped man as he let out a sigh. "Now go Zak. Leave me behind, and don't look back." The man instructed. Masquerade shrugged, wondering why the wrapped man needed to be so mysterious all the time. Did he think talking like that made him cool? How did he even know English if he was from ancient Egypt? The little things in life that he couldn't help but notice.

Masquerade left and silence fell upon the dark room. After Masquerade was gone the opening he came through filled in with sand, locking the mummified man in a small room with nothing but the Bloodsword and himself. Slowly and shaking the old decrepit wrapped up hand reached out and placed it's hand on the hilt. The mummy let out a little sigh and a sickening smile as it looked to the blade longingly, lifting it from the stand and standing himself. "Oh Corvus. Look at you. You're so malnourished. There, there..." The mummy said to the blade as he looked up with a soft calming voice. The sounds of the sand behind him began to crumble, and it was revealed to no longer be stairs but to lead to yet another room, yet this room was filled with women and children from a village in Egypt, sitting there, cowering and crying. The mummy looked to the blade, as if it were the only thing that mattered and said... "How about a drink?" Before turning. The chorus of screams couldn't be heard form this far underground, but the smell of blood would surely permeate the sand.

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NOW
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"Subject: Ahnk is becoming a rather annoying threat. This is the fifth time this month that we've had not one, not two, or even three but FIVE unites of four agent's a piece murdered and drained of their blood." Agent Master's called out as he looked around the table at the gathered Agents. Amongst them were playing characters as well, being debriefed on the threat of the one known to them as "The Undying" an apparently immortal being that can somehow survive anything that's thrown at him. Of course the logistics hadn't been tested as he's never been caught.

"Agent Vanguard. You're by far the most impressive member here at the moment. I want you to take the captured subject and two Agents to go retrieve this "Bloodsword". Agent Jakson and Agent Omar, follow Agent Vanguard and escort Subject: Bloodsword to retrieve the artifact. We've followed Subject: Ahnk to Chicago, we believe he'll be doing more and more to try and interrupt our research facility, it's on you all now. Briefing concluded." Masters said. If nothing else Vanguard can be elated that he got a compliment from the third toughest person in The Agency. Masters giving a compliment was like Stage IV cancer just vanishing when you did nothing to try and treat yourself. That aside, they had their mission, and hey had a Mach II jet prepared to take them to Chicago.

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Agents fired out at the metahumans. Tranquilizing rounds, preventing bloodshed as much as possible. Truly trying to take the high road it would seem. But it was not something that he cared for. Especially not when this gang of metahumans had only been selling drugs. To Ahnk, he didn't see them arresting the humans for such behavior, and so he rationalized that these men were corrupt. They were trying to take away the metagene, they were trying to take away what made them unique. It was for this reason that the attack began. The Agents were chasing several drug-dealers. The occasional metahuman would join it to try and impede Agent progress, but they were quickly gaining. Soon it was just two drug dealing metahumans and four Agents, with Ahnk watching from a distance. Ahnk wished to wait and see what these Agents would do, and to see if anyone else would jump in on behalf of the two lower-class metahuman citizens.

His last mission had gone off without too much of a hitch and for that Colin had been glad. Though he knew that was only the first of many mission he would be thrown into, yet he had a feeling they would only be more difficult as time went along. Still, he would be lying to say that he was not excited about the whole thing, the chance to take down metahumans that had been terrorizing humans, to protect people as he had always wanted to do. This was why he was at this latest of meetings, one about a metahuman by the name of Subject Ankh, a thorn within The Agencies side if the reports could be believed. The details, while scant enough, his imagination did manage to fill in gaps that were otherwise left there and that caused him to wince. Someone being able to remove the blood from someone was either a slow and deliberate process, or they had somehow managed to do so quickly.

Of course his mind would jump to the blade he had been sent to hunt down last time, this Bloodsword if he could remember it anyway. His nickname the Undying was likely not too far off, though if he knew anything, anyone could die, not that he wanted things to come down to that. Considering his lack of knowledge, he would be given all available within this meeting, before the whole briefing began. He rested his elbows on the table, and leaned forward as his moniker was mentioned, listening intently while Agent Masters spoke, resisting the urge to ask if he was related to Travis in anyway. That was mostly curbed b the unexpected compliment given by Masters, Colin blinking a couple of times. He would have two agents working under him, though he did not really know who they were, not out of any kind of disrespect mind you.

He is after all still young, didn't have the time to learn the names of every single agent that The Agency had. Before he knew it though, the meeting was done and he nodded. ”Sir.” Was all he said, though he was already working over all of the information that had been fed to him. Now all he needed to do was step into his suit, and then he could work his way from there, checking up on all the systems and then the mission. His suit would be waiting within a capsule, fingers dancing along the console and causing the cover to release with a low hiss, a small amount of mist releasing from the seams as the suit would rise from it. In that moment, the suit would glow as it came online, splitting open in a manner that would allow him to slip into it. Once each piece was fitted tightly onto him, the systems scan went by quickly, and then they could get moving. The mach 2 jet had been waiting for him and the two agents going with him, though Vanguard felt strange to be the youngest of the three.

They would arrive within Chicago soon enough, though he did not quite like the feeling of sitting in, might have been the whole mach two jet thing.
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From the information give into his visor, him and the two agents were supposed to be aiding agents that were chasing down these metahuman drug dealers. Metahumans were jumping into the fray, but ti seemed that even then they were slowly closing upon these metahumans nonetheless, Vanguard and his two would only make this easier. Still, weren't four agents supposed to be able to stop just two metahhumans or was he over thinking things? Regardless, he had to do some helping, though with Subject:Bloodsword with them, hopefully things would go even easier with her around. ”Okay, on my count, we strike.” He would say, letting their communicators spread the message, to both the agents, as well as Subject:Bloodsword. For the moment he was watching the scene, considering the metahumans that had jumped on the scene before doing anything stupid like just jumping in.

Tranqs had been loaded into his suit, though he could switch to less nonlethal rounds of if so chose. Without wasting a second, he would release two of the tranqs at the metahumans, hoping to take them down with these accurate shots, before descending upon the scene with the two, though something told him that would not work as well as he thought. His boosters sparked to life, casting light through the area as he landed, either appearing on the scene with the unconscious metahumans or catching their attention, his back up followed.

The plane ride was long. Annie was on a trip to finally see the Guardians base in Chicago. In order to hide herself in the growing threat against the metahumans, she was told to take a standard passenger plane there. So, she packed a bag, went through some very nosy security, and got on a plane headed to America. Not only was this her first time going to the United States, but it was also one of her first times out of Europe in general. The plane had passed over several major American cities, which Annie had looked over in awe. That said, she soon grew bored, as the plain could only go so fast. Hours passed, and after what seemed like forever, Annie was notified that they had arrived in Chicago. She stepped off the plane, taking her first deep breath of American air. As she made her way through the airport, she pulled out a note that Jeisen had given her. She was to take a cab to the address of the Guardians base. She would be greeted by the other members when she got there.

And so Annie followed the instructions. She got into a cab with a driver who smelled...less than stellar, and was on her way to the Guardians base. Chicago was a very pretty city. The buildings, architecture, and overall feel were very impressive. Annie couldn't help but smile at it all. That is until her driver stopped abruptly. Annie was confused.

"Damn metas...always blocking traffic with their stupid scuffles. Hold on, let me just get turned around here..." The driver grumbled.

Metas. That word echoed in Annie's mind. What was happening? Something big, obviously, if they were closing down the streets for it. She had to get a closer look. The base could wait. "Um...no thanks, I'll...walk the rest of the way, thank you." Annie handed the driver a wad of cash before leaving the car.

Unfurling her wings, she quietly flew into what seemed to be the battle zone. What she saw...was something. Soldiers, with weapons. Firing at what Annie assumed to be helpless metahumans. The gears in her mind clicked. These were the men who were hunting down metahumans, who wanted to kill her and her kind. And in the center of it all, there stood an armored man. Not unlike Jeisen, but...somehow more menacing. Behind him, even more soldiers. This was the state of America. Metahumans living in fear of being beaten for what they are.

Anger boiled in Annie's chest. Her hands balled into fists.  She almost wanted to take out every one of those soldiers one by one. But that was a stupid idea. She would get killed in a manner of seconds. What could she do? That would be decided for her as she tripped, making an audible grunt, her body visible in the middle of the battlefield.

Again Bella had sped away from one city to another, from LS to what she was told by a nice fellow who was leaving himself chicago. At first she heard reports of a super cancer and was glad her healing was at a human rate. But after a few days it got worse with meta humans being taken in broad daylight from homes and soon Bella herself had forbidden shapeshifting to not raise suspicion yet she felt that would still happen. The need to shift. She had continued to just live normally as best she could but today had to be different as her ears advanced from the mutation had picked up yelling from across a block. Minutes later she arrived to what could be best described as a battlefield. Two lone people stood against four others with guns and what seemed like a robotic man that stood among not against the four gun users.

Bellas attention quickly turned to the girl who had fallen, she ran to her side to check on her only to her surprise the slightly taller girl had wings on her back. Bella assumed a meta and went to help her up. Hey eyes on the four gunners who had turned to the noise and possibly the robot. "You okey?" She asked the fallen meta with a soft voice, her eyes not leaving the aggressors.

As the fighting escalated in the city, the agents minding Diana received the all clear to send her in. They looked at her with hesitation. She was just some teenager for all intents and purposes- she wasn't even exactly a metahuman genetically. But she was labeled as hyper lethal by the agency, and she had full arm bonds made of tougher stuff to keep her at bay. She was just wearing a shirt, some denim shorts and winter boots.

"You sure we gonna let her go? I don't trust her." The agent spoke with his partner.

"Orders are orders. Hey you girl. Are you going to help us get the Blood Sword?" He asked, though he internally wondered what was the point of asking such a question.

"Of course. I'm getting it back." Diana said with a smug smirk.

"Fine... okay." The agent entered the code to deactivate Diana's bonds. She stood there a moment, then began to be shrouded by shadow stuff. Once completely encased, Diana escaped through the shadow in the van itself.

"Crap." They said in unison.

Diana distanced herself quickly, and found an empty alley. She had absolutely no care for the lop sided battle going on, save for the possibility that her rightful weapon was nearby. It was at this point she was gripped with rationalization- why did she even want something so hard to control anyway? She had the morphic Blood Mail, a powerful weapon in its own right and a versatile tool as well.

No, no... the Blood Sword itself wasn't the issue. The issue was that in anyone else's hands, it was a tool for terrible evil. And how was that any different when she used it? Was she so conceited to think that she could use it for good? Why was she thinking like this now.

No, she'd stay a bit longer, a bit out sight nearby. She ducked very quickly into a nearby empty diner, hiding in the shadows. Where was it? She kept her eyes peeled for the sword. She could feel it. She was tempted to enact the ritual to find it, but if she could without alerting the wielder, that would be better.

The three Agents had two other metahumans stepping in front of them to cut them off from the drug dealing metahumans. Protocol authorized the use of force, however they would be as civil as possible. Their one-way mirrored sunglasses revealed that the person they were looking at had been categorized as Subject:Hot-Head. The second one to join the fray appeared as Subject:Weregirl. The lead agent began running facial recognition upon them, immediately ascertaining the matches to their identities. The metahuman drug-dealer swallowed audibly as they began to shake and tremble. Miss Taylor and Miss Conner. The agent in point lowered his weapon a little, showing the girls they meant no harm. To them, at any rate.

 "Ladies, please step aside. This man is wanted for over three dozen charges of illegal trafficking, and one count of second degree manslaughter. Please allow us to do out job." The Agent explained, and then requested as politely as he humanly could. He truly didn't want it to come to violence, but he was armed and prepared for it, should the worst come to pass.

"Excuse the interruption officer." The mummified man said as he appeared in a gust of wind, the blade piercing through the Agent's shield and slashing him on the chest. The Agent had enough skill to move back a bit to spare himself from any fatal wounds before vanishing again into nothingness.

 "HOLD YOUR FIRE, CIVILIANS!" The Agent snapped, turning and swatting one of the guns away to protect Annie and Bella. The men forming up all three backs to each other. "YOU THERE! Do you know anything about this!?" The Agent called out at the drug dealer who was frozen stiff. A small patch of his shirt turned red and he dropped. The drug dealer fell forward, dead as the mummified man stood there with the Bloodsword in hand.

  "I'm afraid my blade was quite thirsty. I'm sure you can understand." The mummy said with a soft smile as he looked to his blade, dripping with the crimson blood. "My little agents, you'd better call your allies... Corvus.is.MINE!" He said with a little chuckle as he held out his hand and from nowhere there was a swarm of locusts that appeared and began blinding the area's skies as the insects funneled down.

Like it or not, Ahnk was picking a fight.

Spoiler:

The tranqs had proven true, striking the metahumans and bringing them down without even a struggle on their end. With both targets down, Vanguard would let his visor scan over them and register them within The Agency's database, a short analysis of their overall powers. Well, it seemed he had taken one of them down, but that was around 50% of the work, meaning they would have even less difficulty with the remaining one. However, it seemed someone had made it pertinent to walk in on the scene, a female by the look of it, and with his access to files, he could easily figure out their name through simple facial scan. She and the one that had arrived on the scene were both metahumans, unexpected additions to the scene but ones that he would hope didn't have any misguided ideas of heroism. While vanguard considered himself a hero much like them, he knew he also had a mission, all for the sake of humanity.

”One of the metahumans have been taken down.” He would speak into his communication network, knowing the message had been received by the fellow agents. While they were probably aware of it, Colin wanted to besure that everyone was kept up to date on the whole matter. Things seemed to go from bad to worst as someone jumped into the mix, a strange man garbed almost as a mummy, speaking a she attempted to kill one of the agents that were trying to capture the metahumans. While the intial strike had been enough to break through the agents shield, they seemed to be skilled enough to avoid any severe damage, beyond a cut to the chest. ”Damn, this has just gotten worse.” It seemed that from attacking the agent, the new metahuman had then stabbed one of the drug dealers, seemingly dispatching them in a quick motion.

This was not going well at all, yet the visor did reveal to him that they were dealing with someone wielding The Bloodsword. Next they had conjured a swarm of locust, and that meant that they had a fight on their hands. ”Agent Barker, Agent Nelson keep your distance. I don't know what these insects do, so I don't want to take any chances with them.” The sound of a portion of his suit sliding out could be heard, as a single medium sized sphere would fall into his right hand snugly, fingers curling around it comfortably. Rapidly the scanners would dart about, keeping everything within the area in mind, calculating where he should throw the weapon and how hard to maximize the damage done. If the blade was even half as tough as he thought it was, then he would have no problem with it being destroyed by the grenade.

With a powerful chuck, he would throw the grenade into the swarm of locusts, hoping that his calculations were correct, as it would explode, releasing a sphere of red energy that would consume everything it touched, dematerializing it, before pulling into a point. If this had gone as planned, the swarm of locusts would be parted enough to allow a view of the Bloodsword wielder or perhaps their not being there, if the former he would order the agents accompanying him to open fire. If it didn't hit him, it would at least cause him to be on the move, and give Vanguard enough of a chance to strike.[/color][/color]

Annie was grateful that she was helped up by the strange girl. She smiled in response. That feeling of happiness was short lived, however, as one of the suited men came to address the both of them. Yeah right, this "drug dealer" was probably just some kid who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. "L-look, I don't want any trouble. I was just...popping in." Annie said, trying to keep her wits about her. She wanted to deck the guy in the face, but that obviously wasn't a good idea, even with her new-found friend she just met. "I'm just going to be leaving now, so-"

She was interrupted. By a voice that sounded...calm, serene maybe? She couldn't tell. She barely even had time to dwell on it, as a strange man appeared seemingly from nowhere and attacked the suited man. Seconds later, the "drug dealer" fell to the ground. Annie knew he was dead. The rest was a blur. The mummy-man waved his hand, what seemed to be bugs filled the sky, and the Jeisen-lookalike threw something. Bomb. Annie knew it from...a past experience. She ran, firing needles randomly to clear a path. Wether they hit agents, bugs, or both, she didn't care. She was in survival mode now. She settled for diving behind a low wall, wrapping her wings around herself to form something akin to a cocoon. The wall would hopefully protect her from the explosion, and her wings would hopefully protect her from the bugs.

Bella had helped the meta up and now looked around the scene a little.  She didn't know much about what the hell was going on and she didn't want to. As the meta girl she helped said words that Bella had to agree with, Another voice chimed in and she looked to see a mummy like man that made her pond on the mummy mans sanity. His blade sliced though one of the gunman only for them to back step away meaning they were quite flexible. Sonn her ears picked up and she looked towards the meta that was a 'drug seller'. She didn't know if that was trustworthy or not and why tell them to not interfere like he knew she had abilities.

This confused Bella at first and she took a step back until the mummy man had raised a hand and locust came calling down like hellfire. Her eyes darted between the suited man and the mummy, her hands shaking a little. She was generally quite scared. The suit of metal man held an orb or a ball in his head but quickly threw it at the mummy like meta. Instinct and pure human thought told her that was a grenade and she looked for cover. the winged meta started a run for cover and Bella wanted to follow. She didn't know whether the mummy was out to fight all of them but Bella wanted a little time to breath and take this in. She couched next to the bug girl who encased herself in her wings and Bella sat there, waiting and thinking.

That Corvus was awakened with the blood of the weak made it testy with Ankh. There was no real respect as Corvus and Ankh's wills were clashing, one trying to control the other. Only when he sensed the arrival of his proper champion did Corvus appear to cooperate.

Drug dealers, other metahumans, chaos, the locusts... all were distractions to Diana whose sole concern in the world was retrieving the Blood Sword. The suffering of the people all around were distant echoes as the thief who took the blade revealed himself. Diana tensed, as battle was soon upon her. Her body was slowly encased in the form fitting Blood Mail, growing arm blades on both arms, throwing daggers in her palms.

"Ah, so she returns to me without fail. Faithful and loyal she is, so unlike her parentage." Corvus beamed as he sensed the return of his true Champion. The fell sword reached out with its own dark will and parted the locust cloud, creating a tunnel exclusively for Diana.

"My champion shall now meet the usurper... Shall the blade change hands again?" Corvus attempted to exert physical influence over its current holder to pay attention to the new arrival. Diana was now fully encased in her Blood Mail armor, slowly making her way to Ankh.

"Hey. You've got my sword. I want it back." Diana said once she got close to the Ankh.

Vanguards calculations were indeed accurate, the unfortunate part being that Diana's interference was something not anticipated. The bombs pulled the locusts in and detonated, clearing a nice chunk of them. The mummy himself remained fixated on Diana a moment. He had a smirk on his face as his yellow-amber eyes hardened. "And I want to slaughter these men. Let's see whom Corvus prefers." He said as the locusts spiraled around and suddenly, he was gone... well, mostly. Ahnk's locusts may have been gone, however to Diana, Bella and Annie it appeared as though Ahnk had vanished as well. Vanguard had been chosen. (Locust 2 post cooldown. Anubis Waltz activated.)

Ahnk brought his blade up, his back to Vanguard as he knew all too well Vanguard was the only one who could see him. The distance between them was good distance, and he was willing to bet that Vanguard wouldn't be willing to let the only being, other than himself, with knowledge on the Bloodsword die. His plan was simple, he was going to tr and trick Vanguard into shooting Diana and cause internal conflict. "AGENT'S COUNTER!" The bleeding Agent commanded, and immediately they complied with Vanguard and began tampering with their sunglasses, soon enough they would have pin-pointed Ahnk, unfortunately it wouldn't be fast enough to warn Diana or the others of the ruse.

His calculations had seemed to be flawless, considered down to the smallest detail, before he had released the grenade into its arc and as the wave of burning energy consumed the locust released by the mad mummy, they became ash and were pulled in. They had no chance within this, there was just utter destruction and that was the lot in life for the insects. Enough destruction perhaps to allow him to strike through the created opening, if not for the very person he had transported with him on the mission, that damned girl who the sword originally belonged to. He would have to remember to question their decision on bringing her, but for now it was time to deal with the problem at hand. The remaining locusts had spiraled, and within a moment, well nothing really. To the eyes of Vanguard nothing had seemingly changed, but then again human eyes were easy to fool, so was the nature of them.

His back was to him, an all too perfect opening for him to strike, but it seemed almost too perfect, no one else had seemed to react, and with everything presented, there was only one thing he could really do. Lethal shots, this guy from the intel could take something like that, he didn't have to pull his punches for the sake of an immortal. A low hum radiated from the weapon that protruded from the suits wrist, signaling its preparedness to fire, a low light and with the ai already set he could fire within less than a second. He didn't have enough time though, to be informed of the ruse, and so he did the amateur thing, and took the easy shot, one that was too easy to be true. It had been aimed at the back of his head, quick and easy.

Her plan worked. She heard an explosion. Annie peaked over the wall. To her surprise, it seemed another person had joined the fight. A girl, it looked like. And rather young. Annie heard her say something about a sword, before the mummy-man...disappeared. The locusts were gone too.

"Huh...?"

The Jeisen-lookalike seemed to be...looking around. Annie gasped as, to her, it looked like he was aiming at the girl who had mentioned the sword. There was nothing she could do. It seemed that he was about to murder another human being.

Bella had felt the explosion but knew she was safe, thankful her human instinct was active enough to warn of of ball that may go boom if she didn't run. Now she felt like she had to do something and one of her immediate thoughts was to just go werewolf and bring rain down but dhe didn't know these people. Not only that they didn't want her to interrupt so maybe they could be friendly or maybe they just didn't want anyone interfering. So many possibilities ran though her mind and she started to get a headache that also helped her to make a quick choice. Moving out of the cover she took she ran towards the Armoured man and the three gun wielders that could have been officers or not.

She stopped when she was about five to ten meters away from everything. The mummy had disappeared to her eyes but everyone seemed poised and ready. She looked towards the gunmen, seeing as they were working with the metal man maybe the mummy was a hero or maybe like her. A person with power but choose to use in their own ways. "Officers Maybe if we just talked about this, the mummy might have thought you were bad guys?"  She called out to both the gunners and the metal man who was now aiming a gun at another person who had joined the fray. Bella couldn't tell if he was planning on shooting her or not or maybe just threatening her, Bella didn't know. This is what I get for helping someone, a battleground.

"Behold the wrath of Egypt!" Ahnk cackled as he delivered a powerful blow to Diana, throwing her back and incapacitating her for a short time...if not for the whole battle. Okay so he was pretty damn good at this "Bloodsword" wielding thing. He found himself totally and utterly opponent-less at the moment as he phased back into vision for everyone once more. He looked to the Agents and then to Vanguard and then to the girls.

"There's no negotiating with him. Maniac is a literal mummy who is convinced Osiris is scared of him. He's a self proclaimed God, you ever tried talking to one of them!? Agent Vanguard! Awaiting orders!" The Agent called out as the four of them drew guns and took aim at the mummy-man.