YA: Immortal Egypt (Marvelfic)
Feb. 6th, 2006 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transemacabreOpening snippet, still in preparation.
The vacation to Australia went horribly, horribly wrong.
So maybe flinging themselves through the Siege Perilous hadn't been the brightest of ideas, but they'd been rapidly running out of options. Behind them had been a raving bloodthirsty ninja sorceress and a snarling pack of hellhounds she had conjured, and directly in front of them had been the golden gate. It had taken Eli precisely 2.3 seconds to decide on a course of action. "Jump through!" he yelled, and Billy obeyed, followed quickly by Teddy who was carrying the unconscious Cassie in his arms. Kate was knocking her last arrow when Eli tackled her, sending them both hurtling into oblivion.
The sunlight burned his eyes. Eli rubbed his aching temples. Something wiggled under him, and he rolled off to find Kate laying in the sand. "Ugh," she groaned, and then quick as a flash she was on her feet. "What did you think you were doing back there?!" she demanded, face flushed, angrier than he'd seen her in months.
"I was trying to save our lives," Eli said, brushing grains of sand from his eyes. "In case you didn't notice, we were about to become dog chow." This whole vacation hadn't really gone the way he'd intended. What was with the ninja sorceress in Australia, anyway?! Eli was beginning to understand why superheroes always ran into trouble, even on their days off.
"Shut up, you guys," Billy said as he climbed over a dune. "Cassie's coming around."
Cassie had a good bump on the head, but after drinking from Kate's water bottle and resting in the shade of Teddy's wings, she looked like she was going to be okay. "Where are we?" Billy asked. "Isn't the Siege Perilous supposed to send you...away from wherever you are? That's what happened to the X-Men." Stupid X-Men, getting all the cool adventures.
Once Cassie had rested, Teddy took to the sky and did a sweep of the area. When he landed, his face had gone almost white. "Guys, you're not going to believe what I saw," he said. "I flew to the north, and saw caravans -- camels and bedouin, some real Lawrence of Arabia stuff. Then I saw these temples and buildings with heiroglyphs on them."
Kate whistled low. "Toto, we're not in Australia anymore." Eli silently cursed his luck that he would of course end up someplace even hotter than Australia.
Billy watched a snake wind it's way through the sand. "Ancient Egypt, maybe? The Siege Perilous sent us back in time!"
"Can it do that?" Teddy asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Great," Kate said, crossing her arms and frowning. "Now how are we going to get home?"
"There's got to be a way." Billy looked hopeful. "The Avengers time traveled to ancient Egypt once. So did the Fantastic Four, I think. They all got back okay."
"No use sitting around here," Eli said. "We might as well start looking for help."
The sun was blistering hot and between Cassie's aching skull and the rest of the team's aching feet, no one felt much like walking. Fortunately, having a sorcerer on the team made things like this a lot easier. Billy took off his cloak, laid it flat on the sand, and started chanting in that way that always made little jolts of electricity race up and down Eli's spine. "Iwantamagiccarpet, Iwantamagiccarpet, Iwantamagiccarpet..." and slowly the cloak started hovering in midair. Billy shrugged and said, "It seemed appropriate for the occasion."
Eli looked the "magic carpet" over skeptically. "Are you sure it's safe?"
"My flying's gotten a lot better," Billy said confidently. "I've been practicing."
Kate and Eli gingerly got on the magic carpet, and Teddy picked up Cassie and carried her. They then set out, with Billy flying alongside the carpet, in the direction Teddy had flown earlier. Flying was so much faster than walking, and soon they could see little black snakes on the horizon, which Teddy recognized as the caravans he had seen earlier. They landed with a bump (it turned out Billy had been practicing flying more than landing) but other than a mouthful of sand, Kate and Eli were fine. "What are we going to do about help?" Cassie asked, rubbing the sore spot on her head.
"I'm not sure," Billy said. "What do we do, waltz up to them and say we're time travelers from the future, anyone got a few spare tickets for the twenty-first century? It's not like any of us can speak ancient Egyptian anyway."
"Why can't we?" asked Cassie. "After all, you make the impossible happen, Billy."
Billy thumped himself on the forehead. "Of course! But I don't know if it will work. I've never tried to understand a language before." But he closed his eyes, chanted, "IwantustospeakancientEgyptian, Iwantus..." and hoped for the best.
"Only one way to find out if it works," Kate said, walking forward towards the caravan. "Excuse me!" she cried out. "Please help us! We're lost and need help!"
A man on a horse whirled away from the main caravan and rode up to them, his black robes flapping in the wind. He regarded the five oddly-dressed strangers with a look that could only be pure confusion, and said, "What is this?!" Billy's spell had worked, awesome.
It took a fair bit of explaining and some creative interpretations of the truth before the five young Avengers were able to hitch a ride on the caravan. They explained they were travelers from a distant land (thusly explaining their ridiculous outfits) journeying to Egypt but they had been cruelly decieved and cast out into the desert. They were in luck; the caravan's leader was willing to be generous and let them tag along, and they were just a few miles outside the pharaoh's great city anyway. "Tomorrow, there shall be a festival held there superior to any other in all the world," the caravan's leader told them, "to celebrate the coming of our pharaoh." For the benefit of the ignorant foreigners, he went on to explain that three years before, a sphinx had fallen from the sky like a star, and inside had been their pharaoh. Obviously, he had been sent by the gods to rule Egypt.
It was nightfall before they reached the outskirts of the city. To a bunch of New Yorkers, born and bred, the night seemed so dark and silent without the sound of cars, the hustle of people, the bright street lamps. They made pallets and slept under the stars, listening to the whicker of horses and the grunts of camels, and the quiet footsteps of people as they walked to and fro. Eli couldn't sleep, so he passed the time by counting stars. He got to 542 before losing count and giving up. "This pharoah," Kate said, switching into English to hide her words from any eavesdroppers, "his story sounds a little suspicious, don't you think?"
"Maybe he's a time-traveller, too." Eli was mesmerized by the brilliance of the Milky Way galaxy.
"If we could just get close enough to talk to him..." Kate sighed. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."
"Kate?" Cassie's voice was very small and soft.
"Yes?"
"Do you...do you think we'll ever find our way home?" Cassie bit her lower lip.
Kate reached out into the darkness and gave Cassie's hand a squeeze. Satisfied, Cassie squeezed back and soon dropped right off to sleep.
They awoke to shouting. Eli jumped up to see people running past, laughing and shouting, children singing. "What's going on?" he asked, bewildered and blinking in the dim morning light. Kate tossed him something that turned out to be a dusty brown robe she had bought off a trader. "There's some sort of announcement," she said, pulling on her own robe. "I got these so we'd blend in a little better. If we hurry, maybe we can get close enough to see the pharaoh."
Even robbed, they stuck out like sore thumbs. In a sea of smiling brown faces, the young Avengers were definitely the odd ones out. One unexpected benefit: people tended to get out of their way. Eli and Teddy were able to push their way to the front, followed closely by the others. Lots of tall, imposing guards stood, spears in hand, making a human barrier around a long flight of stone steps that led up to a temple. Cassie and Kate stood to either side of him, and when Eli craned his head back he could see Billy and Teddy peering up above the crowd. The guards raised their hands, and all chatter ceased. Dead quiet. Eli could hear his heart beating in his chest. Then suddenly everyone dropped to their knees, and the five followed suit, only a moment late.
A low murmur, a prayer, began in the ranks. "All hail our pharoah, Rama-Tut, the god on Earth, Rama-Tut..."
"Oh my god," Cassie whispered beside him, and Eli glanced up to see a man walk out of the temple. The sun was in his eyes and he couldn't make out his features at first, but Cassie could. "I can't believe it," she whispered. "It's him. It's him."
"No way," Eli gasped. "No way!" Before he could stop her, Cassie was on her feet, yelling, "Iron Lad! It's me, Cassie! We're the Young Avengers! Don't you remember us? Please! IRON LAD!"
A guard was walking toward them now, a fierce look on his face, and Kate grabbed Cassie, trying to hold her back. Behind them he could hear
Teddy say, "Rama-Tut is Iron Lad? Of course, it makes sense!" but Eli's head was spinning, he wasn't a fanboy like Billy or Teddy, he only knew that the man up there was Iron Lad, only not. Because this man was older, like Kang, and Eli wanted to punch him, to hurt him for all the hurt he'd given them. Kang had nearly destroyed them all.
Cassie grew, seven feet, ten feet, fifteen feet, towering above the terrified guards, and she cried out, "It's me, Cassie! You have to remember. You have to, Iron Lad. Remember!" And then she toppled to the ground, clutching her head, shrinking fast, too fast, because when Eli caught her in his arms she was unconcious again.
The vacation to Australia went horribly, horribly wrong.
So maybe flinging themselves through the Siege Perilous hadn't been the brightest of ideas, but they'd been rapidly running out of options. Behind them had been a raving bloodthirsty ninja sorceress and a snarling pack of hellhounds she had conjured, and directly in front of them had been the golden gate. It had taken Eli precisely 2.3 seconds to decide on a course of action. "Jump through!" he yelled, and Billy obeyed, followed quickly by Teddy who was carrying the unconscious Cassie in his arms. Kate was knocking her last arrow when Eli tackled her, sending them both hurtling into oblivion.
The sunlight burned his eyes. Eli rubbed his aching temples. Something wiggled under him, and he rolled off to find Kate laying in the sand. "Ugh," she groaned, and then quick as a flash she was on her feet. "What did you think you were doing back there?!" she demanded, face flushed, angrier than he'd seen her in months.
"I was trying to save our lives," Eli said, brushing grains of sand from his eyes. "In case you didn't notice, we were about to become dog chow." This whole vacation hadn't really gone the way he'd intended. What was with the ninja sorceress in Australia, anyway?! Eli was beginning to understand why superheroes always ran into trouble, even on their days off.
"Shut up, you guys," Billy said as he climbed over a dune. "Cassie's coming around."
Cassie had a good bump on the head, but after drinking from Kate's water bottle and resting in the shade of Teddy's wings, she looked like she was going to be okay. "Where are we?" Billy asked. "Isn't the Siege Perilous supposed to send you...away from wherever you are? That's what happened to the X-Men." Stupid X-Men, getting all the cool adventures.
Once Cassie had rested, Teddy took to the sky and did a sweep of the area. When he landed, his face had gone almost white. "Guys, you're not going to believe what I saw," he said. "I flew to the north, and saw caravans -- camels and bedouin, some real Lawrence of Arabia stuff. Then I saw these temples and buildings with heiroglyphs on them."
Kate whistled low. "Toto, we're not in Australia anymore." Eli silently cursed his luck that he would of course end up someplace even hotter than Australia.
Billy watched a snake wind it's way through the sand. "Ancient Egypt, maybe? The Siege Perilous sent us back in time!"
"Can it do that?" Teddy asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Great," Kate said, crossing her arms and frowning. "Now how are we going to get home?"
"There's got to be a way." Billy looked hopeful. "The Avengers time traveled to ancient Egypt once. So did the Fantastic Four, I think. They all got back okay."
"No use sitting around here," Eli said. "We might as well start looking for help."
The sun was blistering hot and between Cassie's aching skull and the rest of the team's aching feet, no one felt much like walking. Fortunately, having a sorcerer on the team made things like this a lot easier. Billy took off his cloak, laid it flat on the sand, and started chanting in that way that always made little jolts of electricity race up and down Eli's spine. "Iwantamagiccarpet, Iwantamagiccarpet, Iwantamagiccarpet..." and slowly the cloak started hovering in midair. Billy shrugged and said, "It seemed appropriate for the occasion."
Eli looked the "magic carpet" over skeptically. "Are you sure it's safe?"
"My flying's gotten a lot better," Billy said confidently. "I've been practicing."
Kate and Eli gingerly got on the magic carpet, and Teddy picked up Cassie and carried her. They then set out, with Billy flying alongside the carpet, in the direction Teddy had flown earlier. Flying was so much faster than walking, and soon they could see little black snakes on the horizon, which Teddy recognized as the caravans he had seen earlier. They landed with a bump (it turned out Billy had been practicing flying more than landing) but other than a mouthful of sand, Kate and Eli were fine. "What are we going to do about help?" Cassie asked, rubbing the sore spot on her head.
"I'm not sure," Billy said. "What do we do, waltz up to them and say we're time travelers from the future, anyone got a few spare tickets for the twenty-first century? It's not like any of us can speak ancient Egyptian anyway."
"Why can't we?" asked Cassie. "After all, you make the impossible happen, Billy."
Billy thumped himself on the forehead. "Of course! But I don't know if it will work. I've never tried to understand a language before." But he closed his eyes, chanted, "IwantustospeakancientEgyptian, Iwantus..." and hoped for the best.
"Only one way to find out if it works," Kate said, walking forward towards the caravan. "Excuse me!" she cried out. "Please help us! We're lost and need help!"
A man on a horse whirled away from the main caravan and rode up to them, his black robes flapping in the wind. He regarded the five oddly-dressed strangers with a look that could only be pure confusion, and said, "What is this?!" Billy's spell had worked, awesome.
It took a fair bit of explaining and some creative interpretations of the truth before the five young Avengers were able to hitch a ride on the caravan. They explained they were travelers from a distant land (thusly explaining their ridiculous outfits) journeying to Egypt but they had been cruelly decieved and cast out into the desert. They were in luck; the caravan's leader was willing to be generous and let them tag along, and they were just a few miles outside the pharaoh's great city anyway. "Tomorrow, there shall be a festival held there superior to any other in all the world," the caravan's leader told them, "to celebrate the coming of our pharaoh." For the benefit of the ignorant foreigners, he went on to explain that three years before, a sphinx had fallen from the sky like a star, and inside had been their pharaoh. Obviously, he had been sent by the gods to rule Egypt.
It was nightfall before they reached the outskirts of the city. To a bunch of New Yorkers, born and bred, the night seemed so dark and silent without the sound of cars, the hustle of people, the bright street lamps. They made pallets and slept under the stars, listening to the whicker of horses and the grunts of camels, and the quiet footsteps of people as they walked to and fro. Eli couldn't sleep, so he passed the time by counting stars. He got to 542 before losing count and giving up. "This pharoah," Kate said, switching into English to hide her words from any eavesdroppers, "his story sounds a little suspicious, don't you think?"
"Maybe he's a time-traveller, too." Eli was mesmerized by the brilliance of the Milky Way galaxy.
"If we could just get close enough to talk to him..." Kate sighed. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."
"Kate?" Cassie's voice was very small and soft.
"Yes?"
"Do you...do you think we'll ever find our way home?" Cassie bit her lower lip.
Kate reached out into the darkness and gave Cassie's hand a squeeze. Satisfied, Cassie squeezed back and soon dropped right off to sleep.
They awoke to shouting. Eli jumped up to see people running past, laughing and shouting, children singing. "What's going on?" he asked, bewildered and blinking in the dim morning light. Kate tossed him something that turned out to be a dusty brown robe she had bought off a trader. "There's some sort of announcement," she said, pulling on her own robe. "I got these so we'd blend in a little better. If we hurry, maybe we can get close enough to see the pharaoh."
Even robbed, they stuck out like sore thumbs. In a sea of smiling brown faces, the young Avengers were definitely the odd ones out. One unexpected benefit: people tended to get out of their way. Eli and Teddy were able to push their way to the front, followed closely by the others. Lots of tall, imposing guards stood, spears in hand, making a human barrier around a long flight of stone steps that led up to a temple. Cassie and Kate stood to either side of him, and when Eli craned his head back he could see Billy and Teddy peering up above the crowd. The guards raised their hands, and all chatter ceased. Dead quiet. Eli could hear his heart beating in his chest. Then suddenly everyone dropped to their knees, and the five followed suit, only a moment late.
A low murmur, a prayer, began in the ranks. "All hail our pharoah, Rama-Tut, the god on Earth, Rama-Tut..."
"Oh my god," Cassie whispered beside him, and Eli glanced up to see a man walk out of the temple. The sun was in his eyes and he couldn't make out his features at first, but Cassie could. "I can't believe it," she whispered. "It's him. It's him."
"No way," Eli gasped. "No way!" Before he could stop her, Cassie was on her feet, yelling, "Iron Lad! It's me, Cassie! We're the Young Avengers! Don't you remember us? Please! IRON LAD!"
A guard was walking toward them now, a fierce look on his face, and Kate grabbed Cassie, trying to hold her back. Behind them he could hear
Teddy say, "Rama-Tut is Iron Lad? Of course, it makes sense!" but Eli's head was spinning, he wasn't a fanboy like Billy or Teddy, he only knew that the man up there was Iron Lad, only not. Because this man was older, like Kang, and Eli wanted to punch him, to hurt him for all the hurt he'd given them. Kang had nearly destroyed them all.
Cassie grew, seven feet, ten feet, fifteen feet, towering above the terrified guards, and she cried out, "It's me, Cassie! You have to remember. You have to, Iron Lad. Remember!" And then she toppled to the ground, clutching her head, shrinking fast, too fast, because when Eli caught her in his arms she was unconcious again.
