ic Egyptian Escapade

[Thevshi]

Dee frowned slightly at Erick's mental question about their opponents.  Does their class really matter?  Either way they are of the phylum Chordata.  She then watched as several grabbed a hold of Professor Zaki and tossed him overboard.  Bloody hell.  Going silent for a bit now.  She then added, before she shifted her psychic abilities to other uses.

 

The red glow of her forcefield surrounded her, as she looked at one of the three that had attacked the professor.  <"Not sure who warned you, but we don't want your bloody river, or you!">  She replied in Egyptian as she sent a mental blast at the frogman's nervous system, attempting to paralyze the creature.  Unfortunately, it proved capable of shrugging off the attack.

[Brown Dynamite]

"Right not the sort of dirty I had in mind when a vacation with you came up.  But I'll go in the river and get professor."  Foreshadow called out not waiting for a response as he jumped down to the lower level.  His escrima sticks were on top of his travel suitcase right next to the railing.  Fighting in a disease infested river wasn't exactly his element.  So Foreshadow knew to at the very least arm up.  Sprinting across the ground he would actually roll on top of the suitcase, picking up his escrima stick in one fluid motion and landing on the railing by the end.

 

Foreshadow then leapt forward, diving down with olympic precision Foreshadow made a spectacle of his descent into the river.  Grateful at the fact that he had yet to change into his costume.  It would take forever to get his cape clean otherwise.  As soon as he hit the water, Foreshadow began to swim back up at an arc.  Aiming for the bipedal frog creature and the professor.  

 

Knowing he didn't have to actually beat the amphimmal in its environment push come to shove.  Just that he need rescue Zaki from his accusers.

[Supercape]

GM

 

All four frogmen where now under the waters of the Nile, slipping through it like they were born to it. Perhaps they had been. Perhaps...perhaps something had changed them. Whatever the reason for their affinity, there was no denying it. Their scrawny frames may have a wiry strength and cunning stealth on the ship, but down here, they were predators born. 

 

Three of them floated underwater, blocking Foreshadows path. Behind them, one of the Frogmen was grappling Zaki, trying to force the air from his lungs. Although the old professor thrashed and fought vigorously, the frogmen were capable on the boat, and down in the Nile, they were more than capable...the professor started to leak bubbles...

[Thevshi]

Dee muttered a few unladylike things under her breath as all the other combatants moved things into the waters of the Nile.  Running over to the side of the boat, she looked down into the waters, thankful she was able to spot all the forms that had gone over into the water. 

 

<"Keep us in place!">  She yelled out to the crew in Arabic as she focused her attention on the Frogman-thing that had the professor.  A blast of red psychic energy streaked down into the water, attacking its mind and managing to at least daze it.  Hopefully that would be enough for the professor to swim free.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"You must be joking!" screamed the captain. 

 

"I have heard tales of the Frogmen of the Nile! Poisonous toads! They eat the flesh of the living! They consume the souls of the devout! My soul is for Allah!" he said, hopping from foot to foot in fear, and then stamping on the controls of the boat, pushing it full throttle forward. He was sweating, hyperventilating, panicking, overcome with fear ingrained by stories and tales. 

 

The steward was almost as scared, but more noble, trying to stop his stronger captain from shooting forwards. 

 

"Please! No! We must save that poor man!" he shouted back. The wrestling swung to and fro, but the Captain was taller and bigger, and the boat started to motor down the Nile. 

 

The Frogman touched by Synpases power jerked a moment, then floated still. Zaki was terrified, but his fear lent him wings. Or, in this case, flippers. He propelled himself to the surface, with just enough air in his lungs to shout "Heeeelp!" before he drew more ragged lungfuls of air to replenish himself. 

[Brown Dynamite]

Erick struggled to maneuver around the Frogmen.  Failing to ascend so that he could get his head above water.  Rather than try and outswim the creatures, Erick settled for simply beating the Frogmen.  He kept in reasonable shape by any standard, but water resistance still managed to limit his mobility.

 

As such Erick had to adjust his movements to make up for the effects of the water.  Jutting forward Erick performed an upward thrust with an escrima stick towards a Frogman's throat.  It's mouth gasping over and bubbles of air frothing forth as it lost consciousness.  Erick then spun in the water angling his escrima sticks so that he could perform a downward strike simultaneously on the other two Frogmen.  Then kicking forward he would flip using the unconscious body of the Frogman in front of him.  Allowing himself to move his body in such a way as to chop downwards with a well aimed escrima stick to the top of a Frogman's head.  

 

The last one would find an escrima stick on the bridge of what Erick assumed was the nose.  Its face contorting in pain.  As they all floated unconscious around him, Erick adjusted his staves onto the hem of his shorts.

[Thevshi]

Dee grumbled once more as the cowardly captain continued them away from the fight.  For the moment she remained focused on the professor, who had broke the surface once more after she had managed to free him from the creature grappling him.  The red glow around the Englishwoman disappeared, except for her extended right hand.  Out in the waters of the Nile, Professor Zaki was surrounded by a similar red glow, as he was lifted up out of the water by Dee's telekinesis and then brought back over to the boat before she gently sat him back down inside, or at least as gently as she could.

 

<"I believe the Frogmen are dealt with.">  She exclaimed to the captain.  <"Now get us back closer so we can pick up Erick!">  She had already turned back to scan the water for Erick.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Captain half obliged, slowing the boat down to a crawl but not turning back. He had gone a white color. His steward was of a similar ilk, but at least had some courage in his boots. 

 

Zaki floated to the boat as Erick swam back, stroking his way through the Nile waters. 

 

The poor professor was coughing and, despite being fierce of will, was clearly shaken by the whole ordeal as he landed in the boat aft. 

 

"What..what were those things? We had rumours, I have heard. Stupid local whispers and superstition, everyone thought. A meme from old days. But..they were real? What were they?" he asked, although the answer came soon enough. 

 

"Darwin - X! It must be! They were perfectly adapted for the river. Gills, webbed hands and feet. Even their eyes...yes...it must be! And it can be no coincidence that our trip down here was..a target. No different from a snipers bullet!"

 

"A sniper?" gasped the boat Captain. 

 

"That's it! I refuse to take you any further! off my ship!"

[Thevshi]

Once Dee had set Professor Zaki down inside the boat, Dee then focused on Erick, picking him up out of the water as well and bringing him back over onto the vessel.  Once everyone was back aboard, she turned to regard the captain, who was apparently ready to throw them off the boat.

 

"We are not getting off here, in the middle of nowhere.  You can continue us on toward the next port and we will get off there."  She replied, crossing her arms in front of her and giving the captain a stern look.

[Supercape]

The Captain looked scared and anrgy at the same time. But perhaps scared ran out. 

 

"As you wish, madam" he said, through gritted teeth. He set to work pushing the boat full steam ahead. 

 

"As far as I am concerned, the sooner we get there, the better!"

 

At the next port...

 

"Port" was stretching it. A small tourist trap, full of peddlers and junk, would be more accurate. Boats lay here, and you could buy any number of things. The Captain of the boat adamantly refused to go any further and headed off to the nearest tea house, in all likelihood to get some alcohol. 

 

"It is not far from here, I estimate" said Zaki, studying the map of Egypt and plotting the coordinates of the "abandoned" military facility. It was by the Nile, across dusty roads and dry earth. 

 

"THere are three options. Another boat, and risk the frogmen of the nile finding us", "or across land. Either by car, or by..."

 

He pointed at a trio of camels that were being hauled across the street. 

[Brown Dynamite]

"Much as I would love to ride a camel a car might have a bit more expediency.  There is, however, one caveat to this matter professor.  Whatever avenue we take, Professor, I'm not sure you should come with us for this last stretch.  This shop is a plenty out of the way hole in the wall.  Perfect place to hide from frogmen and snipers."  Erick replied after the options were laid out for them.  It would be convincingly harder to avoid Zaki getting injured in the location potentially filled with soldiers.

 

That said Erick wasn't actually expecting the professor to easily go along with the suggestion.  If the roles were reversed he'd personally be quite a handful.  But in his mind it was the most reasonable option.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Your offer is tempting, but alas, I fear it is based on false premises" sighed Professor Zaki. 

 

"I am not safe until this thing is seen through. I connect the dots. Snipers...Mutant Frogmen...these attacks were not random. They found us. I don't know how, but they did. They want us to stop looking, ideally permanently. I do not believe if I was to return to my office, teach history and drink tea, that I would be safe. Not at this juncture. We have bitten on to something, and I believe it will bite back..."

 

"As for a vehicle..."

 

The local mechanic, a Mr Adel Amar, was old, greasy, and curiously handsome at the same time. One of those guys with muscle and fat liberally applied to his limbs, so one could not quite tell how strong he was. 

 

He had three vehicles, all clapped out. A motorbike with side car, a four wheel drive, and a white van. It was hard to say which would be the most reliable. 

 

"Which one ya want? I sell them all, good prices!"

[Thevshi]

Dee was not particularly surprised by Professor Zaki's refusal to stay behind while she and Erick continued onward.  To a degree he was correct, that likely the only way to stop attempts on his life would be by getting to the source of the mystery.  But that still did not change the fact that with him around, half of her and Erick's time had so far been spent keeping him alive.  But other than mind controlling him to stay behind, she did not see much choice, and that was not really an option she wanted to use.

 

Soon they were at the local mechanics', a place where Dee felt perfectly at home.  Stepping up to the three vehicles, the Englishwoman began examining them, a knowledgeable eye looking over the work that had been done, and noting the tampering the four wheel drive had.  "We'll take the van."  She said finally, deciding she did not really have the time to try to undo what was done to the four wheel drive.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Mr Amar clapped his hands and wiped the sweat from his brow.

 

"The Van, excellent! Best! Excellent and reliable!" he said, kicking the tyres to show how wonderful it was. The price was certainly affordable for either of the two heroes. It was, as Mr Amar said, cheap. Whether it was reliable or not. Well, that was another matter...

 

He tossed the keys to the heroes. It started with a belch that made Professor Zaki's eyebrows rise. He had at least had the prudence to fetch large amounts of water that he loaded into the back of the Van. On his map, he showed Erick and Dee the old military centre...maybe two hours drive south. The sun had nearly set, and night would be apon them soon. 

 

"Where you go? Nice trip to tombs of pharoes?" asked Mr Amar casually. 

[Thevshi]

Dee helped Erick in covering the payment for the van, a small price compared to some of the vehicles she had bought for herself over the years.  While she would not really have a chance to make adjustments to this one before they left, she had at least confirmed that it was in reasonably good repair, and was at least not tampered with as the other vehicle had been.

 

"Of course."  Dee answered with a small nod as she climbed behind the wheel of the van and started it up.  "First the recently uncovered river temple, and then to some of the Fifth Dynasty tombs in the foothills."  She replied, recalling some of the more active archeological sites in the area.  There certainly were times that it paid to have a near perfect memory.

[Supercape]

GM

 

An hour later...

 

It was dark. The sky was full of beautiful stars. 

 

The Van chugged along, every now and again burping with insolence, threatening to break down. It never did though. The Road was hardly well maintained, but in politically ravaged Egypt they had certainly seen worse. It wove and darted, but Zaki kept the map to hand, and there was no danger of getting lost. There was dust. There was sand. Even at night, it was hot. 

 

"We are near...maybe an hour at most" he explained, drinking water and looking at the map. 

 

 

Foreshadow could sense something in the darkness ahead...

 

Riders...on camels...swords and guns...coming forward....wearing flowing robes....full of violence...

[Brown Dynamite]

Erick felt a sharp sensation of pain on the base of his skull.  It was a momentary flash of pain fading almost as quickly as it came.  To Foreshadow it was a precognitive warning of things to come.  Danger was near.  "I'm gonna get a painkiller addiction when I get older if all my days keep up this rate."  The smile on his face not echoing his words in the slightest.

 

"Everyone keep sharp.  I hear company."  Truth was he didn't hear much of anything yet.  But it was a better explanation than the truth.  A truth he didn't have to vocalize the to Dee as it were.  A constant convenience that came with working together.  Looking around at the starlit scenery, he tried to peer out the window without sticking his head directly out.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Charging into the headlights of the Van, the shapes could now be spotted. Starlight seeped into the air, cooled by night and Nile, and clear still. It was as Foreshadow's vision, and forewarned is forearmed. Camels with riders, the faintest glint of steel, the sound of thundering Camel hooves on desert sand and cracked tarmac. 

 

Three...four...five...

 

Six of them. Camels and riders, rich cloth flapping in the wind, steel swords and old rifles, and resolution in the eye harder than steel and older than men. 

 

"<For the King!>"

 

"<For the Crocodile King!>"

 

"<For the most Blessed Crocodile King, not forgotten, ever living!>"

 

The cries were faint, but carried by a gentle wind. The calls, though, could never be called gentle. 

[Thevshi]

"Oh bloody hell."  Dee called out as the men on camels appeared in the headlights, their cries just audible over the van's engine.  The Englishwoman turned the wheel of the van, trying to veer around and through the oncoming camel riders as she activated her forcefield just in case they started firing those old rifles they carried.  "Stay down!"  She called back to Professor Zaki as she tried to maneuver the van, wanting the academic down so he would be less likely a target if shooting began.

 

<Who is the bloody Crocodile King?>  She "asked" Erick.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The lights of the Van could make out the riders now. Dust around them, glints in the eyes. They were dressed, appropriately enough, in crocodile skins, although paired with flowing sandy silks. The camels they rode were well trained, and fast, making good headway along the road, and no doubt would be equally mobile in the desert. 

 

Foreshadow could even sense the future - vaguely - the Crocodile cultists riding to the Van, firing submachine guns and cracking, scratching, cutting the Van with curved sabres. Shouting the name of the Crocodile King as they did so, and sparing neither steel nor bullet in their assault. 

 

"The Crocodile King?" said Zaki, hearing the faint cries in the wind. "Never heard of him..."

[Brown Dynamite]

"So we're all agreed.  No idea who they are.  Fun.  Alright, this is the part where I ask.  No sharp turns please."  Erick Sloane reached down to grab his twin multi purpose escrima sticks.  Opening the door of the van he would use the roof to flip his body upwards.  Trusting that the professor would close up after him Foreshadow moved to connect both escrima sticks together expanding them to their full staff length.  "But if you need to, don't worry.  I'll stick the landing."

 

Twirling the Bo Staff all around his body, Erick wished he had his costume on.  The mask alone would have eliminated the cover of darkness to a detailed degree.  Sure he could instinctually suss out the area as a consequence of his precognition.  But spatial awareness still took in information much differently than interpreting visual data.

 

Riding on top of a moving van was far from unfamiliar territory.  So Foreshadow didn't concern himself with trying to stay balanced so much as he was with trying to cut off a horseman the moment a rider neared the van close enough. 

[Thevshi]

"No promises."  Dee replied back with a small smile at Erick's comment about no sharp turns.  The Englishwoman then began to glow red as she put up her forcefield.  "Get down professor."  She stated to Zaki, wanting him to down in the vehicle, where he would be a less obvious target.

 

With that she began to try to steer her way through the oncoming riders, trying to get past them and continue on the road.  Hopefully they would then be able to outrun them, but the quality of the van made that a somewhat questionable proposition. 

[Brown Dynamite]

"Fore!"  Erick shouted out into the night sky before rearing back with his bo staff held high.  Erick Sloane had never played a day of golf in his life. In fact his swing was more akin to what one would do with a lacrosse stick.  Smacking the horsebound cultist from beneath his head he would send the man sprawling off his horse into the sand below.  Where his unconscious body would roll some distance.  

 

In mid motion Erick actually let got of the staff catching it with his opposite hand.  Turning his body so as to spin around in place on edge of the van's roof.  This would allow him to catch a second cultist from behind.  Sending him forward with the hard smack of his bo staff.  The cultist would be sent sprawling over his horse's head.  Narrowly avoiding being trampled by the horse freaking out and turning around.

 

"That's thirteen to love right?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

Through the desert night air, cool dark and sandy, bullets flew. 

 

Crack Crack Crack they flew, past Foreshadow and into the distance. It cannot have been an easy thing to fire on a Camel, but the riders did so anyway. "Spray and Pray" one might say, as the flashes of gunfire spluttered from the hot barrels. Whilst Foreshadow could feel one or two whistling past him, the barrage of bullets simply whistled into the sand. 

 

Two riders got close, riding past the Van and leaning to the side, hoping to stick their curved swords into the beat up vehicle. But Synapse turned the wheels, weaving away from them. The two riders pulled hard on their reins, to the sound of Camel protest, and quickly spun the beasts around, to take chase. 

[Brown Dynamite]

Erick watched as they passed the camel riding cultists.  They now had clear room to speed off.  It was a prime opportunity to enter the van.  But, rather than get caught off guard, the acrobatic hero continued car surfing for just a moment longer.  Readying himself to re-enter the van if things prove themselves all clear.

 

Camels were fast, but not to the degree they should be able to catch up to a car in ideal conditions.  Just how ideal the conditions were was another question entirely.  Especially when their destination couldn't be too far off according to Zaki's Map.  This knowledge coupled with the initial ambush kept Erick alert.