Black & Max: A While on the Nile

The roar of the Egyptian bazaar is like walking the floors of the wall street during trading hours. A thousand voices flying across the city with a dozen languages intermingling into a chaotic collaboration of clicks and throaty syllables.

Rolled up sleeves show off defined brown skin as Maximus extends a hand to shake the fez wearing round man beneath a makeshift tent behind a table who smiles with a genuine kindness that was rare in the states. "Mistuh Newcastle. A pleasuh to finally meet. Come come come. Bes! Clear the tea room we have company." Following the man Max removes his sunglasses beneath the shade of the canopy, in the back where it was surprisingly much quieter, the walls of inventory from other salesman and thrift shops blocking the noise out.

Max Newcastle had everything. More digits in his bank account than he knew what to do with, a wardrobe that stretched into a five hundred yard extended closet like a high priced custom fitted retail shop, the ease of finding a women basically summed up to where ever he dropped his finger in the phone book. But none of that ever entertained the prodigy.

Raised in poverty in the pit of Israel with murders and thieves and deviants Max's back and chest were rife with stories in the form of scars, never letting him forget his humble beginnings. When he was taken in by his Father Jayden Knightfall, the silent knight adapted ridiculously quickly to studies of history, primarily ancient. Just as he adapted ridiculously quickly to physical excellence and acuity. These two simple pursuits, knowledge and fitness, excellence of the mind and the peaks of human limitation, were the driving factors that gave happiness and purpose to Maximus, V Newcastle.

"Mister Hadad... I-"

"Tea sir?" Hadad asks holding out a steaming cup with a genuine smile

"No, thank you. Mr.Hadad I was hoping to get directly down to the business at hand."

A bit of disappointment showing in the slight droop but not complete drop of Hadad's smile as he replaced the teacup on the crate with a sheet across it. "The Tomb, yes. I have done as you asked after responding to your private message...I can not thank you again for the influx of inventory into my shop, so many curious items from across the world...My family will not go wanting ever again. For this, I have done as asked. " Under his robes the Egyptian man pulls out a camcorder of high definition quality and places it on the table with the foldable screen showing the video as he hits play.

"As you can see by the time stamp, in early December a German man under the name Svent arrived at the edge of the Nile and began digging for oil pocks in the earth. While they did not find oil..."

Max sharpens his gaze as the diggers in turbans all rush from a hole in the ground billowing pitch black dust while gripping their faces that seemed to smoke, this Doctor, Svent, watching with intrigue and rushing the last few workers into the cave against their own safety reasons, "Skipping ahead, we see Svent changing his entire layout from that of a refinery and mining dig, to an archaeological expedition. I have seen them many time as a child with my father, but this was an incredible undertaking. Men worked twelve hours at a time uncovering..."

Skipping ahead he freezes the frames. Max's eyes widen, "The temple of Mu."

Sweat incessantly drip down the ventral side of her body; creating an uncomfortable “puddle” of sweat in her belly button. The heat smothered any motivation she had for doing work, three weeks; that’s how long she had been in Cairo studying the mysticism behind Kemetism. The intolerant sun darkened her skin; and shortened her days substantially; locating and excavating the gem called the Lady of Grace.

“I can’t wait to get back to Atlantic City, Fck never thought I’d say that” She complained, rearranging a cache of three ringed binders. Wiping sweat from her forehead, she could hear a tempestuous uproar from afar, but she didn’t care to look into it. Wiping the profuse sweat from her forehead with her forearm; she packed her research up, and pushed out into the busy streets.

The commoners didn’t seem to mind whatever the commotion was, they continued doing what they did best, trying to sell their products. “Looks like a government type deal…” she whispered, taking note to the multiple sports utility vehicles.

Brushing past a congestion of bodies, she sidle past a few people; as she slid through, she momentarily locked eyes with a familiar face. “Max?” She immediately had to double take; running into him half across the world was disturbing, it seemed like no matter where she ultimately ended up; they were fated for a meeting.

Her first penchant was to try and fix herself up, but her hair was much too frizzy for that; and the sweat so profuse, it begin to streak her face with signs of salt loss. “To hell with him” she thought, pushing through the crowd continuing her trek to her office.

Their relationship was…weird; they were never together, but treated each other as if they were.Finally pushing her way through the chaos to her office, she immediately dropped her research on the floor; and plopped down on her sofa.

“Ohh…I can’t wait to go home” Her fan was permeating already hot air back into the office. Lethargically rising to her feet; she stammered over to the sink to wash the salt from her face, and abdomen.

“Ms. Emerald Mooreland?” An unfamiliar voice on the far side of the room, snagged her attention. “It’s Ashley, who are you?” She asked drying her face with a face towel.

“My name is Kalid, I work for…” Ashley cut him off; she hated long winded people. “You work for the people that double parked all on the avenue, what you want with me?” she hissed, intimidating the man to the point of a studder

“Ahhh…move, I’ll just go see for myself” She said, crudely brushing past him. Gathering the things she would need for an infiltration mission; she promptly moved to the excavation site.

“Excuse me Ms. Who are you” she said, walking up beside one of the head archeologist, and Max. “My name is Ashley Mooreland…ello Max” she said, shifting her eyes in his direction. “What DO you want?” the man asked, showing a bit of misogyny toward the bronze skinned beauty.

“OK, first off lose the attitude, secondly; you requested me.” She said, pointing her finger in his face, quickly assuming the dominant position of the engagement.

“Th-This…is the researcher you requested sir…” Kalid said, cutting through reporters. “Alright, just keep her out of my way” he said, walking off clearly frustrated.

“You must be stalking, My blackpeople meet page” She said, turning to Max with a smirk on her face. “What’s the deal here?” She could tell by the look on his face, he had no idea she was here; she fully intended to get to the bottom of this sudden surge in popularity.

@black_solace: "Don't you wish though." Max says leaning in with the brim of his dark tan fedora grazing Ashley's hair a he gifs her a peck on the cheek close to the gap of her lip and nose, slickened by the salty sweat on either's face, "It's good to see you again, but I think we were called in because of the popularity we gained from our last uh...'expedition'. You remember don't you?" He asks, insinuating at the time the two destroyed a four mile stretch of forest and temple in search of the Y Shrine's hidden artifacts.

"Since then words gotten around that we're some of the bravest, or dumbest danger hungry, excavators to hire. Either way we're valuable to the archaeological community that won't risk their own asses.One second" Pressing on his upper chest pocket Max hits a button, the flash of cameras immediately halting to only the remaining few cheap disposable kodaks of onlooking tourists.

Continuing on to the outer banks of the life vein of Egypt, they begin to climb a make shift platform that looked like a scaffold for building skyscrapers to get a grander view, 'In 1937' He begins, "A great Archaeology Scholar found what he dedicated his life to searching for. The book of Mu. A legendary and believed mythological city of highly advanced technology that was allegedly based in magic as we are in science. In that book he found, drawings. Depictions of powerful items, fuel sources. He also found a large folded piece of papyrus with artwork on it." Rolling his hand around the ladder to exit onto the peak of the scaffold Max extends a hand to Ashley to help her up, disappointed though respecting the fact she decided to ignore it and pull her own weight. Grabbing the bar and hopping up with ease to join Max as the two over looked the area.

A humongous dig out revealed that what was believed to be merely a pyramid buried, was in fact only the beginning. The pyramid was shadowed by the architecturally sound carved and hollowed depiction of the god Ra, appearing as though the Egyptian God was holding the pyramid in his hands, the pyramid having the image of the all seeing eye on all four sides while Ra Was blind and without eyes, "The discovering team believes this is only the surface. Several scans indicate possibly as many as six levels or more. Since the entrance was rigged with a chemical agent it's safe to assume that the rest of the structure is filled with same or worse traps and security measures. This is where we come in. Though between me and you"

Leaning in behind her with his thumbs grazing Ashley's pinkies he appears to be in a compassionate embrace, he whispers in her ear, "I don't trust the original dig coordinator, Svent. His reasoning for digging here doesn't add up. I've started a program to do some digging into his background, see what he's all about. For now, as if you needed it...you've got my permission to smash and grab. You see something you like, take it. Just let me examine it before you sell it...I might just buy it...Deal?" He says pushing the the bristle of his cheek against her aveeno moisturized one before backing up and overlooking the landscape. Meanwhile Doctor Svent stares from the ground at the two with a despised look on his pasty German face, spitting into the sand before digging his black cane into the ground and leaving a two legs and a dot in his wake.

In her time of nomadic solitude, the Bravehart general pass the time, refining her skills; with the treacherous work she was accustomed to doing. The trek through the precipitous terrain proved to be laborious, but the presence of the crafty Maximus alleviated the monotonous hiking. Since their incipient encounter in Asia; her and Max’s relationship flustered with the happenings, but like all good friendships they eventually resolved whatever conflict that lingered.

“Of course, they want us to do all of the hazardous work; it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t” She said, contemptuously. “I thought I sensed a bit of…distain” she said, purposely using a “better” term.She could “feel” the eyes of the German financer dissecting her skin. “Doesn’t seem to be a friendly feller to anyone” She said, leisurely strolling into the mouth of the legendary temple.

“Oh…and it’s a deal” She said, with a kittenish grin.

This was a topic she didn’t particularly know too much about; had she been informed about the findings earlier; she would’ve brought her “costume” to do some “research”.“Hmm…” She whispered, taking a look at the improvised incisions in the doorway.

“No doubt there is a trap here…” She reported; scouring over the area for a supplementary ruse. “In regards to their property, the Egyptians were the original terrorist. They devised all types of schemes to keep people like us from plundering their wonders” She explained, grabbing a handful of dust.

“The Egyptians used a powerful hallucinogen to sedate prisoners before execution; to the naked eye it’s completely invisible” She said, sprinkling the sand across the ambient area. As the sand disperse over the terrain a fluorescent powder could be seen rising in the debris.

“Luckily for us, I can use my sonic scream as a wind Zephyr” She said, rearing back; she released a soft auditory pitch; that side swept the dust.

“So... what do you think they plan on doing with the technology?” She said, keeping her astute eye’s scanning the dwelling; for more traps. “What’s that?” She whispered, nodding her head in the direction of a golden shield elevated on an ostentatious mesa.

The shield was clearly too big for Ashley to stash, but it’s positioning on the stand intrigued her. “It’s on its side” She said, firmly believing nothing the ancient Africans did was ever a coincidence.Running her hands over the tapestry, she noticed the embedded spear, actually served as a directional marker towards the wall.

“I-..I think it’s a map” She said, pointing toward the wall. “Oh sh!t” she said, looking at the wall. The patterns on the wall were the same. “We’ll have to find the right one, I betcha we can find a door they leads to the lower halls”

"I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. But I always do my research. " Walking through setting waves of crimson dust Max follows the Bronze beauty with eyes peeled, "Svent is a recluse and possible agoraphobic. He never leaves his estate slash lab unless to personally deliver to an unnamed benefactor, who I haven't been able to trace yet. The meetings are always at random locales- So the question I'm racking my brain over right now is...what makes a man scared to step out of his front door, fly to Egypt from Germany and work in the hot sun all day? Answer that, we'll answer what their intentions are. At a guess I'd say something shady."

His head turns sharply to look at the shield as his chin is grazed by Ashley's ponytail before she approaches the ancient metal V shaped depiction. Following her pointing finger he realized she was right. "Good call" He said growing more attracted by the second. He knew she had skills and intelligence but each evidence of her abilities made her more magnetic. "There seem to be two diagonal shaft like tunnels that jut down from here into a ring shaped room. You take the one to the left, I'll go right. If you have any problems you know...scream." As if she wouldn't anyway.

Cracking a pair of glow sticks meant for cave diving Max followed the trail, a map on the wall depicting odd caricatures of lightning and fire and men fighting gods. He nearly falls into the shaft beneath his feet, stepping back to see to his surprise a shimmer of gold light below. "Mirror system...?"

A mirror system was an ancient egyptian answer to dark inner rooms. With precise positioning during the correct time of day a light would emit from the peak of the building into the lower level, bouncing off of one precisely turned mirror onto another, and another and so on until the room was golden bright.

Hopping on the the tunnel shaft floor with his body crouched and glow stick ahead Max glides downwards , hopping off to land on the floor...a pressure plate welcoming mat releasing a spear same as the one on the shield directly through his center chest plate. Blood shoots from his mouth and coats the inside of his mask. Pulling it off he breaths shallow and looks down. Feet no longer touch the sand stone floor as he's elevated by the projectile pinning him to the wall. So deeply ingrained in that he had no choice but to slide off the front.

Breaking the spears long side to leave a crudely broken but smaller length of wood Max uses his depleting energy to kick off the wall while his hands push, popping off slowly to a splurch sound before slapping the ground. Luckily his lungs are already healing thanks to his Grandfathers gift of the grail, his divine healing factor.

Pushing a palm to the hole his indomitable will power pulls the Silent Knight to his feet in burning pain that electrifies every synapse in his brain, pulling himself with the other arm to the top of a raised surface.

Leaking blood on the surface he's blurring in vision, reaching into his pocket to pull out a rarely used set of glasses and putting them on. Blood drips from his mouth onto the surface, which he now realized, was a sarcophagus, with a channel like inlet seeping up his blood like a thin river and flowing into the mouth of the carved pharaoh in it's center, as the Nile flowed into the carved center of the entire tomb.

The stunning ‘earth’ descended a spiraling staircase remaining vigilante of booby-traps. With each step she could see the dense fog forming around her. Standing on the bottom step of the half-mile staircase; everything within close proximity were blanketed with the phantasmagoric miasma

“Whoa…” She whispered, preparing to step down on surface; but the rapid vibrations on the floor caused reasonable doubt. Whatever stalked the darkness; swarmed the bottom step in anticipation of an unwitting step.

Cautiously sweeping her foot across the veiled step; searching for any flammable object. She found herself overextending her foot to locate any object, bending down, she picked the unknown object up, and brought it close enough to her face; to see.

“It’s a wooden scabbard…” She whispered, smirking at her apparent luck. Digging in her tight pockets, she pulled a book of matches and; struck the side of the scabbard quickly igniting the wooden stick.Extending her arm out over the step; she was able to identify what exactly was making such a ruckus on the floor before her.

“Scarabs…” She whispered, watching as hundreds of the little black beetles rummaged through the corridor. Wafting the flame across the area, she could see the bugs went on for miles; small bleached rocks positioned on the floors between them.

Looking overhead, an emerald sparkle captured her attention; jade scarab’s lined the rooftop. She could make out small indentions in the caverns; as if the Scarabs reanimated from some sort of disturbance.“Looks…like the digging has disturbed their sleep” She said, sticking the flame onto the floor. The scarabs’ fearfully retract from the flame, providing her with some space to walk.

The heat from flame kept the bloodthirsty beetles at bay; she trekked out into the middle of the temple to make out the shaven rocks to learn they weren’t rocks.

“Bones…” she whispered, turning toward the hordes of scarabs in the radius.“These bones have been here for years, but they’re preserved” Running her hands across the crown of the bones, her eyes quickly peeled toward the shaft on the opposite end of the temple.

“Need to get moving…the fog is setting in again” pursing her lips together emit a subtle sonic squawk to immobilize the scarabs. Her temporary shrill instigated an inconsequential tremor within the chamber. Picking up a sprint, she dashed across the room; lunging through the threshold. Rolling to a halt; she felt the agitating sting of the scarab coursing through her quadriceps.

“Damn it…” she strained, trying to rise to her feet, her whole leg quivered as she tried to get up. Limping to an open room, she sat down on a stone pillar to gain a moment’s reprieve.

“Allah…” She her eye’s widened, as she realized the stone pillars were actually calcified human beings. Given the chosen attire, they were positioned here for ages. “What could’ve done this…” at the completion of her inquiry, the tremor she though manifest in her leg present itself in the form of a monstrous scarab.

The colossal insect charged sending one of I’s many legs toward her like a pincer; lunging backwards; she fired an earth rippling sonic scream; the shriek sent a powerful quake through the building; threatening to bring down to floors from above.

Echoing through the ancient halls Max can hear a fight getting more intense and wild like a storm rolling in from the distance. His chest still gaped with a hole the size of a soft ball, healing slowly. Not slowly where it would take a few more minutes, but a few days. Each time he moved the hole ripped back open and threatened to kill the Prince of Newark.

Each time the blood massing itself to regenerate as tissue flopped and sploshed into the mouth of the sarcophagus and filled the pool with blood that leaked into the opening slits. The floor begins to crack underneath him, a ear bursting scream cutting like thin glass into clay at the foundation of the building. Max had no choice but to drag his useless body onto the top of the coffin and grip the scepters the carved body held across it's lightning bolt stricken chest.

"Ashley..." He whispers without meaning to, as the floor gives out and time slows in his mind. Max's head is light everything feels far away and unreal, like it were on a screen. dust clouds billow and curl in on themselves in slow motion as he passes them, the floor breaking into a puzzle of fragments, as he looks down at the sarcophagus and sees two white lights staring back with tears of his own blood.

With a CRACK the coffin hits the ground and Max's mask hit's the coffin, forehead forced against it and against his will, forcing the Silent Knight to let out a foreign scream of agony like one would if they were burning alive. As if to say make it stop, I'd rather die. His nails break backwards from being dug into the scepters on the coffin, muscle rigid like a lightning strike victims spasms

Then a giant blare of white light illuminates the level, blinding Black Solace and Disintegrating the giant shelled monster. In the place of Max and the sarcophigus stood a man rippling with muscle and power, his hands tightened flexing new...or maybe long since used muscles.

Looking up with black electrified eyes this monolith speaks to Ashley,

The Ionic columns shuddered; sending the entire sublevels of the prolific catacombs into a violent palpitation. She found her body being involuntarily, tossed from side to side; as the unrelenting quiver pushed through the temple. Struggling to maintain a vertical base; Ashley’s eye’s quickly dart toward the massive scarab; a paralyzing light split the room immediately dissipating the bug.

Turbulent zephyrs press against her flesh pushing her forcefully toward the sand-stained floor. Curling into a small ball, the violent sand pelt against her bronze skin. Through the frantic atmosphere; she could hear the subtle whisper of her name.

“m-Ma..x?” She stammered, trying to see through the intense electricity; she could feel the angelic presence of another being, the amount of energy he manifest; caused her to unwillingly fall to her knee’s before him.

“Max….” Her eye’s surveyed the resurrected god in reverence; the intricate markings on his outer clothing indicate he was indeed a resurrected Egyptian Deity, but from the way he subtly whispered her name with the same fondness as her missing cohort; she could only assume Max had somehow got himself into trouble.

Still cowering before the explosive power of the deity, Ashley cautiously glance from underneath her forearm; the God’s baritone voice sent an uncontrollable vibrating fear through her body.

“wh-What gods?” Ashley responded, using her forearm to slide the rest of her body across the floor. “Max??” She called questioning his appearance.

“Max…what happened to you?” The wind pushed wildly through her hair; allowing Max to see the toll his fearsome appearance was doing to her once bronze face.

“Maximus…It’s Me ASHLEY!!!” She screamed, repelling the lightning strikes with her own sonic scream; hoping her “canary call” would jog his seemingly distant memories.

@black_solace: His strong almost glowing bronze chin raises with the definition of royalty, looking down at Ashley as she stare in awe and fear and at his power. Her sonic howl was like a stiff breeze, blowing his golden shroud but showing no likeness in his frame, stepping forward casually yet powerfully and kneeling down to slowly push his palm to her full lips, her knowledge of the modern language literally escaping her mind through her mouth and flowing into the elder god.

"You impress me child. Man, it appears, has grown from child in my absence." Taking down his hood he stares into her eyes, two large brown eyes filled with shock and fear wrapped in a film of moisture , "Do not do that again. "

Releasing her the god stands and turns his back as though the woman was no longer there, scanning the floor like he had dropped something. Finally he stops short, floating into the air, rising, then swooping and diving into the earth head first.

Silence fills the room for a long infinite moment. Then a crash through the floor lifts Ashley from her knees, a thick steely arm wrapping around her waist with the comfort of a familiar touch, a field of energy safeguarding the two as they fly our of the tomb, the ancient catacomb crumbling beneath. In the distance an aged German doctor watches in awe and anger. "Nein Nein Nein! You were supposed to be mine! Mine! MIIIINE!" He throws his cane like a spear at the two which falls long before it reaches.

"Atum belongs to no man." He spits with disgust, pulling a grain of sand off of his shoulder and flicking it at the doctor. Such force behind it the grain knocks the old cripple on his back to claw for an inhaler in a breast pocket.

In his right hand sat Ashley, in his left an orb of light that strobes with a low hum. "I am sorry, woman, but I require your lover's body. His coming to my tomb has been writ and prophesied for a millenia, he and he alone can sustain me without dying. But I will give you one last moment with him."

The gold and black god floats downward and removes his hood, stepping back from Ashley, "KHEPERU!"

A bolt of lightning turns the sand in his immediate vicinity into glass. In the gods place stands Max half naked but seeming fully aware. "He's...god. The power it's incredible." He almost sounded like an addict on his first hit, "He's on a mission Ashley... and I've got to help him. But I needed to look you in your eyes and tell you." Putting a hand on either of her cheeks he pulls her in for a passionate kiss that he wished wouldn't stop, barely inhaling for a full minute before letting go, "I love you. Just know that. And know that he isn't taking me hostage, I'm choosing this. At least for now."

Grabbing the strobing orb from the ground he hands it to her. "This is called the Orb of Debeh. This was made for Atum by Magi in his temple before his mortal wife was killed. It helped him find her no matter where she was. If you say 'Debeh Sha Ken' It's supposed to take you to your true love. If not me than find someone Ashley. You deserve it"

And with that mouthful that he dragged out for a few more seconds than necessary just to hold onto the moment, he whispers.

kheperu

A flash of lightning drops from the cloudless sky and in it's place is a floor of glass but nothing else. Atum had no more time. He must meet them. These ones who hold his former status these

New Gods.

@maximus_newcastle:

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Ashley screamed, excruciating tears seared her flesh; as she watched the lightening dissipate in the sky. There was no way of knowing if he had done it intentionally, coming back into her life; making himself seem essential to her being again, only to rip himself away. There was no way of knowing. No, he knew; this is what he searched for, he brought her along to selfishly say good-bye, without thinking of the ramifications or the impact it would have on her.

“You…knew…” she whispered, with a slight hiccup. “You knew”. He knew. “You….knew” He knew.

As many times as she said it; she believed it, turning to face the crippled German doctor her eye’s glazed over with a vindictive shade of grey.

“HE KNEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The canary cry erupt from her small frame; sending the entire structure into a violent convulsion.The shriek of anguish reduced the prolific structure to a simple dado; ending the life of the Nordic financier in the process. At the epicenter of the scream, lightning struck bestowing the Bravehart general with conduit like control over electricity.

This day, the Bravehart Queen died; and Sabella Liafador birthed: The Cardinal Goddess of Revenge.