Enter the infamous legal disclaimer NOW:
I do not own any of the following. I wish I did. OH how I wish I did. Do you know how much money some of these bring in? But alas, I am but a meager college student working towards a teaching degree. That's right; I am in college, and going to be a teacher. Going from no money at all (college student) to no money at all (teacher). Please don't sue. You'll get a crappy pen set that I got from my brother many moons ago. Now, onto everything I do not own. Repeat. Don't own. I don't know sexual orientations or personalities either. DON'T OWN, DON'T KNOW!
Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Pink, Christina Aguilera, The Wallflowers, and any other celebrities. I also know nothing of their sexual orientations.
Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and all related characters.
The Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book series by Laurell K. Hamilton.
The Vampire Chronicles, Tales Of The New Vampires, The Mayfair Witches, all series and characters written by Anne Rice.
Buffy & Angel television series.
Birds Of Prey television series.
Star Wars
Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, Star Trek DS9, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek The New Frontier, Enterprise television series, movies, and novels.
Ok, now that that is taken care of, a little publicity for my co-authors. Go read these four stories in the Boy Bands, and Celebrity sections:
Tales Of A Real Dark Night (The series that started it all.) celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-real-dark-knight/
Marvel Knights celebrity/marvel-knights/
Tales Of A Super Hero Band celebrity/boy-bands/tales-of-a-superhero-band/
Tales Of A Young Mutant celebrity/tales-of-a-young-mutant/
There may also be a new writer up and coming. Good luck! I love the storyline I've seen so far dude! Keep writing!
Finally, this is it I promise, we are entering into a section of the story where 4 stories converge. I am hoping that this is not confusing, but exciting for you all. So, enjoy!
The Story of the Birds Of Prey Chapter 6: Silent Halls
The flight was coming to a close 4 hours later. Storm's jet radioed us with coordinates to land at. We looked out the windows and hundreds of feet bellow could make out the great pyramids. The fact that those were built thousands of years ago before any modern technology existed astounded me.
"We will be landing outside the Valley Of The Kings. There is an old crypt there being protected by ancient magic. A wizard, under the rule of King Tutankhamen was buried there. He made sure that his followers would always be able to go there for protection." Jean pointed the aircraft away from the city and towards the mountains. "When Professor Xavier came to Cairo he made some friends. Apparently, good friends."
Ororo and the others zoomed past as we made our way to the secret tomb of a wizard from Ancient Egypt. I looked at Josh. "You know, our lives have become very interesting since we met."
"Seriously though." He laughed as Jean headed for the tomb.
"Oracle. Cross reference known major vampire cults with Egypt." Devin rubbed the bridge of his nose. After learning that Blake and Andrea had headed there he began to search for any information that might help his team.
"Processing." Came the computers voice. "Other than the cults of Akasha and Enkil, there is the cult of Set, the cult of Horus, the cult of Thoth, and the cult of Ra. No other known major Egypt related vampire cults."
Devin sighed "Oracle, cross reference those cults with San Francisco."
"Processing. The cult of Horus has a strong vampire following in the city of San Francisco." Oracle perked Devin's interest with that.
"Ok, we may have some sort of lead. Oracle, can you search the web for any sort of internet connection set up by the Cult of Horus in the city of San Francisco?" Devin started pulling up other programs.
"The search may take a while Devin." Oracle answered.
"Go for it." While Oracle began her search, Devin began reading up on Egyptian magic.
"We're landing." Jean said as the craft began to head towards the ground.
"Good, I am starting to get a leg cramp." Josh said next to me. I laughed."
"Please excuse him Jean. He needs to get out and bust into a dance. You know Boy Band people, they need to sing and dance and be peppy all the time." Jean and I started laughing.
"Hey, quit picking on me. You do know I am carrying a big gun right?" Josh said pouting. "Be nice or I say bye bye to one mean fiancé." I pulled Josh into a kiss and Jean looked over her shoulder for a sec.
"Don't you mean bye bye bye?" I asked with a grin.
"Hey you two, save it for your room. Some of us aren't traveling with our significant others." Jean said with a laugh. I was able to read her enough to know that she wasn't really happy. She was miserable and putting on a strong front.
"He'll be ok Jean." I said.
"I hope so." Jean responded as we touched down. We could see the others touching down next to us. The canopy lifted and slid back and we all climbed out. We all came together between the crafts.
"The Professor told me that they would meet us at these exact coordinates." Rogue said, pulling her hair behind an ear. She looked so young and lost for a moment, and then it was gone.
"We shall simply wait here for them." Ororo said.
"There is no need X-Men." A voice came from no where. We had landed a few feet from a cliff wall and that seemed to be where the voice came from. A man wearing a set of white flowing robes stepped through the rock face. Josh's hand slid to place for a quick draw, and I let my powers fill in my eyes causing my glasses to glow a bright red. "Please, I mean you no harm. I am High Priest Dansabar. Professor Xavier contacted me and told of your arrival here in Egypt. I welcome you to our home." He gave us a small bow.
"Thank you for your hospitality eminence." Ororo said stepping forward and offered her hand. He took her hand and kissed it. "I am Storm. These are my colleagues; Marvel Girl, Rogue, Phoenix, C, and Green Falcon."
"Please, come inside. The wall is a mere illusion, created by magic to ward off unwanted visitors." H pulled a small pendant out of his robes; it looked like the Eye of Horus. He dangled it in front of him and gave a small chant. Two streaks of red light shot from the pendant and struck the mini-jets, transforming them into hulking boulders. "Worry not." He said turning towards the cliff face. "I merely disguised your vehicles. They are quite safe."
Josh looked at me as we started for the seemingly solid wall. Rogue stepped up to it and placed her palm up against it. Her hand simply slipped through. She ten slipped her head in and out. "It's clear." She said in her southern accent.
"Of course it's clear." Dansabar said with a small chuckle.
"It's trying times," I said with a slight frown. "One can't be too careful."
"Quite right," He said as we stepped inside. We entered into a huge chamber with arched ceilings. There were hieroglyphics painted on all the walls, and statues in each corner. There was also a hall built into the far side of the chamber leading into darkness. He turned and looked straight into my eyes, which were hidden behind my glasses yet I felt as if he were looking into my soul, "and looks can be deceiving." Then I felt it. A sense of power washed over my mind as his eyes began to glow.
"Trap!" I screamed a moment too late. The statues came to life and launched at the others while Dansabar pulled another amulet from his robes. "Apocalypse does not enjoy people snooping into his business. I am afraid you must all perish." The amulet flashed a bright orange as an energy beam leapt out towards me. I lifted my hand and shot a plasma beam right into the energy beam.
As the two forces fought for dominance I chanced a glance at the others. Storm was launching attack after attack in the form of electricity, but each time she struck a piece off the stone statues, which looked like Egyptian Pharos, they would reassemble. Josh and Rogue were fighting side by side. He was firing his plasma blaster drying to take down his stone foe as Rogue stood to his side with her own blaster. Jean was straining to hold her attacker in the air but was beginning to show fatigue, and Andrea was using a construct of her own, what appeared to be a big green mummy, to fight back with little success.
Knowing I couldn't help the others until I took down this wizard I refocused my attention. I decided to lull him into a false sense of victory by slowly letting his energy beam slip towards me hoping to catch him off guard. It worked.
"Well, well, well, X-Man. It seems your Professor hasn't trained you as well as you thought." He said with a smile.
"I'm not a member of the X-Men," I said with a smile of my own. I let my Phoenix Construct form slightly around me, wings stretching to the side, and cry echoing in the chamber. Dansabar's eyes grew wide in fear. "I'm a Bird Of Prey. I am Phoenix!" With a small thrust of power I not only shoved the energy back into his amulet causing it to blast apart, but I carried through pinning him against the side of the chamber. I looked at the wall and manipulated its form causing a set of stone cuffs to form around his wrists and legs.
I turned back towards my team mates just as Jean's powers let out. She jumped out of the way as her foe ran towards her. I held my hand up and sent him hurtling towards the statue attacking Josh and Rogue. Storm, getting the idea, started using her powers to drive her attacker towards the other two. Once they were all together in one place I encircled them in a field of my power, probing for the source of their power. When I found it, a mystical energy deep within them, I siphoned it off. They each let out cries that sounded like avalanches, but were soon silenced.
"Good work Phoenix, now let us see what this man can tell us." Ororo walked up to him, her eye's nothing but white, with a wind playing at her cape. "Who are you and where is the Professors friend?"
"I am a servant of Apocalypse; you shall learn nothing from me." He closed his eyes laughing. "Apposto, demuri, Ra, Sekmet!" The light in the room seemed to dim as he faded away. I looked to Ororo with a look of shock.
"Did he just disappear?" She nodded her response to my question.
"We should prolly go check an see if anyone else is here." Rogue said.
"C, do you want to go wait at the jets?" I asked.
"No. In for a penny in for a pound." I smiled at him and we started walking down the hall.
None of us were prepared for what we found. A grand hall with walls hundreds of feet apart, and rising hundreds of feet into the air. Statues of every Egyptian God and Goddess I could think of lining the walls. Grand pillars intricately carved with Egyptian Hieroglyphics lining through the center of the hall. And hundreds upon hundreds of bodies lying dead on the floors.
"My God." Josh gasped.
"What did this?" Jean asked walking towards the nearest person.
"Don't bother," I said as she lifted the persons hand to check his wrist. "They are all dead." I took off my glasses and my eye's brightened to a blinding white. Twin beams of light came from my eyes and began to roam over each body. "The bodies are still warm. Dead maybe an hour, two tops. But... there is no residual energy. Their brains are empty masses."
"What do you mean?" Storm asked walking amongst them.
"The human brain keeps a charge for hours after death." Jean explained. "If Phoenix can't sense any energy in their bodies, it means that it was some how sucked out."
Everyone jumped when both Andrea's and my watch communicators went off. I lifted mine as Andrea did, "Phoenix here."
"Green Falcon here."
"Guy's, this is Owl. There is a set of Major Vampire Cults in your immediate area. The first is the cult of The First Brood. They worship Akasha and Enkil. Those are the first two Soul Bearing Vampires. There is also the Cult of Set. They worship the Ancient Egyptian Devil. Then you have the cult of Eternal Darkness. They are the ones I want you to be on guard for. From what I have learned about Apocalypse, these Vampires would worship him. They believe in total destruction, and would most likely join him. The only thing that has been keeping them at bay is a prophecy of a coming... well, Apocalypse fits their Prophecy. I want you two on guard, ok?"
"Copy that Owl." I said looking at the others.
"I'm doing research on Ancient Egyptian Magic, I will hopefully figure out what's going on. Have you made contact with your Egyptian contact?"
"Yes and no." Andrea answered. "We found them, all dead."
"What did it?" Owl asked.
"We don't know. No marks, not residual energy. They just... stopped being alive." I walked towards the back of the room. I looked to the right and stopped. "We'll be in contact Owl. Phoenix out." I deactivated the com and started running.
"What is it?" Storm asked following.
"Survivor!" I yelled sliding to my knees beside an elderly man. I could sense his life force fading. "Please, who did this?" He started working his mouth, but couldn't make anything come out. I entered his mind and saw what had happened. Using my powers I made him understand that we would find who did this. He smiled weakly and died.
"I know who did this, and we have a huge problem." I lowered him to the ground. "A very big, very bad problem." I turned and tried to figure out how to tell them we were screwed.
"What is it Phoenix?" Rogue came walking towards me, apprehension playing across her face.
"Weapons, of unimaginable strength, buried for centuries. Apocalypse now has them." I shook my head and stood. "That's why they attacked here. The sword of Horus was hidden in a secret location in the south Sahara, but the Fang of Set was here. The sword brings light and travel, the Dagger brings darkness and total destruction. We must get them back."
"Phoenix, calm down. You need to..." I cut them off. They don't know what I saw.
The valley was quiet. The memory keeper knelt in the shadows so readily available in this part of the Valley of the Kings. His outcrop offered an unobstructed view of his great King and Queen as they stood readying to wield their new weapons.
No one knew where they got them from, only that they were supposedly meant to bring the world to Egypt.
His pale king walked away from his queen, wearing his gilded armor and two weapons; a sword hanging from his right hip, and a dagger on his left. They bounced as he strode into the clearing, so far that he was no more than a glimmering point in the distance. Then he saw it. The great king Enkil lifted something into the air, pointing towards the moon. Five red beams cut their way into the air, a white beam shooting from its center straight towards them moon.
Looking around, everything was growing darker. When he looked back towards his king, it was as if day had sprung around him. The red beams faded as light returned to the world, but his king still glowed as if it were day. He then pointed in a direction and a mountain began to disintegrate and flow towards his king. As it neared it began to glow a bright red, then yellow, green, then an impossibly bright blue, then white, white so pure it hurt to see. He heard his king scream as this stream of light hit him.
The light was too much, but it was impossible to look away. After many minutes, the light came to an abrupt stop. His king stood there, a white fir dancing about his body. He walked back towards His Great Queen Akasha, and as he neared it became apparent that the very air around him was burning. Where he stepped the sand glowed bright red then cooled to black. Akasha started walking backwards as he neared. Enkil stopped, turned away, and lifted his sword into the air. The sword was long, with a black blade. Then, a point of light formed at the tip of the sword. The point grew larger, to a point the size of a date, glowing bright red like torch light, but it kept growing, and changing color. It grew to the size of a mans head, glowing a bright blue, finally it was the size of a camel, dancing with white flames on its surface. The King let out a cry that could cause a person to go deaf, and the ball of energy was sent hurtling into the night's sky. The man watched as his king's wrath flew into the night's sky, a white beam of light still coming from Enkil's sword. When the beam finally stopped flowing from the sword, the king looked normal again. Then a bright flash erupted from the sky.
The man looked towards the heavens and saw a great redness on part of the moon. The king saw this and looked to his queen. She embraced him and they began walking away, their guards following. The man never heard of the sword and dagger again.
"This wizard sect has spent the last five thousand years learning as much as they can about mythology, magic, and also these swords. It appears that Akasha and Enkil spent well over a hundred years studying them. After the Memory Keeper's death 5 years later, his sect began to hear hushed whispers of the weapons." I looked at each of them. "I've faced these guy's, they are incredibly powerful. The sword acts as a power focus and amplifier. I can not over estimate the danger that they will present now that they have these weapons. Apocalypse may have won before the battle can begin."
Each of them simply stood and looked at me, shock written on their faces. Storm was the one to break the silence. "Well, it appears we have but one choice. We must retrieve these weapons. The battle here was but a while ago. We may still be able to catch them before they leave Cairo." I looked at my team members with doubt. This battle seemed hopeless.
"Gather my troops." Dasro stepped off the plane, and looked to his brother Sanswah. "You have the sword?"
"And so much more. The Fang of Set. Separate they are unstoppable forces, together the will lay the earth at our feet." Sanswah led Dasro through the underground base. "And I have a new legion at our disposal." Dasro looked at Sanswah with a puzzled expression. "May I present Lefia, Werewolf King, Sheko, master of the Nile Alligators, and Szhneck, Alpha Female of the Cats."
Dasro looked at the three leaders before him. Throughout his long existence he had fed from many lycanthropes, humans infected with a curse of the blood. They are forever tied to the moon, and the primal urges of their animal spirits. The blood they produce can fulfill a vampire's thirst fore many weeks. Dasro looked upon these three, the tall dark skinned Wolf, the broad Asian Alligator, and the only female, the fair skinned Feline Goddess. He could remember a time when people bowed before the feline Lycanthropes.
"Very well, tonight we shall practice with our weapons. I want Cairo razed, and the Earth salted." Dasro looked out towards the stars, hearing a voice in the back of his mind. Telling him to drive onward. "Akasha drove us from these lands thousands of years ago, now this land shall be as she is now. A memory." He looked back to Sanswah. "And we shall live on, in the Age of Apocalypse."
Sanswah could sense a change in his eternal companion. He made a mental note to watch him carefully from this moment on. "I shall have the new day walkers prepare the assault craft. The Lycanthropes are already being outfitted with weapons. They have half shifted, and are powerful man-beasts. The Egyptian army won't stand a chance."
"Very good." Dasro started towards the communication room. "I have much to do. Get everything underway Sanswah." Dasro entered the comm. room and Sanswah simply watched, a worry settling over him. Something was going very wrong.
There has been a major drop off in feed-back. I need the feedback guys. Even if it's just you dropping a note saying that you don't totally hate the story, or just that you read it. It is important to me. It also lets me know people are still reading.
I ended a series once due to a lack of feedback. People yelled at me a month later. I'm not planning to end this series anytime soon, but... I need feedback to help shape what I write. Your opinions matter to me.
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