Blast Cycle/The Quantum Threat

The blazing sun shone upon the group of Heroes, traversing their way through the large sand dunes. It had been a day since they had been in Egypt, finding new clue of the man they searched for. A villain, by the name of Celestial Quantum, who had the capabilities of altering and rearranging the DNA of Mutants.

"Damnit! Where is this guy? And where's the nearest town? I'm running low on water," yelled poor Alex. "This place is too hot.... And sandy. Why would he come here?"

"No idea, Alex. Now are you goin' to keep complainin' or pick up your feet and keep walking," Joseph asked, pulling his hood down as to stop the sand from blowing in his face.

"I'd rather be sitting in lava, Joe," Alex proclaimed, sarcasm dripping with his words.

"I think that can be arranged," muttered Feralin. "Would you like me to open a hole underneath you? I'm sure you'll find lava eventually."

"That would be lovely."

"Will you two stop bickering? We're almost to the Valley of Kings. The old man said we may find what we're looking for in there," yelled Matthew, the leader of the group. The group trecked through the wicked sandstorm for another half-hour, coming upon The Valley of Kings. The sphinxs that were once great idols, had been worn down and broken throughout the centuries, leaving only broken heads and half bodies in their wake. The storm strangely subsided as the group looked upon the massive tomb, said to hold the kings of ancient times.

Taking only a brief moment to look it over, Joseph stepped forward, determined to go home. The others soon followed. Quickly, they came upon the massive staircase, leading into the entrance. Joseph turned to Robin, the psychic of the group, "You should probably stay out here, keep contact with us."

"But I can fight, too! I'm not that young," she proclaimed, stomping her foot on the sand stone.

"I would have to agree with Joseph on this one, Robin. Should anything go down, I want you to tell the story of this man. We'll need it," spoke Matthew. The large heroic figure stood, his cape flowing with the soft wind that now blew.

Taking a long moment of thought, Robin crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine. I'll stay here. But you'd all better come back!"

Joseph stepped up, his flaming fists not harming the small girl as he patted her head. "We'll be back soon. Besides, I can't not come back, I made a promise." He started walking towards the staircase, climbing it slowly as the others quickly followed, saying their goodbyes to the young girl.

As they entered the tomb, a low hum started ringing in their ears, continuing even after they had made quite a distance between them and the entrance, where the wind blew. Loren ran her hand along the wall as they walked, looking at all the Heiroglyphics. The group made their way deeper and deeper into the tomb, until finally, they came upon a single sarcophagus. It's golden outside glowing in the soft light of Loren's lit, blue eyes. Their way blocked by a dead end.

"Creepy, but it works, I guess. So, where do we go from here? I see no man in here," stated Alex, showing obvious signs of sarcasm.

Joseph walked up to the sarcophagus, slapping Alex on the back of the head as he pulled his hood down. "Well, I don't know. We've been searching for this guy for the last two days. Maybe he isn't here anymore," explained Joseph as he leaned on the sarcophagus, pushing the lid slightly. He jumped back, looking inside the coffin before pushing the rest of the lid off. The group looked at him in shock and horror.

"Are you crazy," yelled Matthew, booming his question. "You want to get in trouble? We're not even supposed to be here, and you wanna go around and push open l--"

"Look inside. There's a staircase," yelled Joseph, interrupting Matt. He looked down, more like leaned down, into the coffin, before jumping down, landing waist deep inside. "You guys coming," he questioned, looking around as he made his descent down a glowing, spiral staircase. The others shrugged, quickly following him. Joseph put his fingers up to his earpiece, speaking to Robin. "How you doin' out there?"

"It's getting dark and is very sandy," proclaimed Robin, wind blowing through her comm. "What about you guys? Find anything?"

"Yeah, we found a staircase inside."

"Staircase? Are there supposed to be any inside?"

"None that we were told of. Found this one in a sarcophagus, though."

"Well, be careful, alright?"

"Can do." Joseph clicked his comm. off. The staircase swirled around an invisible pillar, the blackness being only partially lit by the white stairs. The descent took what felt like hours, until Joseph reached a door, glowing a bright white. He quickly pushed it open, coming into a room that looked almost exactly like the tomb itself. The only thing that made this different, was the floating lanterns, and the shaking of the entire tomb. The group made it's way through once more, until reaching a very large, very golden, door. Heiroglyphics were written on the door, with a single pair of handles, at human height, protruding from it.

"We shouldn't go in there," proclaimed Justin. "It looks pretty big, and it may be holding something we don't wanna see."

"You're afraid of the dark, you're afraid of giant monsters, and you're afraid of elephants. But, you can go ahead and fight zombies on a daily basis? Really dude," asked Talon, quickly stepping up to the door and running his hands over it.

"Hey, it's not like zombies can actually hurt you. They may infect you if you get bitten, but that's the fun in it. Not get bitten."

"Yeah, how am I sure you haven't been bitten," joked Loren. "You are clearly insane. And an insane Hero, at that!"

"Oh ha ha, four eyes, very funny."

"Enough," boomed Matthew, as he stepped forward, pulling the very large door open. A white light shone through, blinding the group for a moment as they adjusted to it. Joseph was the first one to walk in, seeing a large, empty room, with another door in it. Disappointed, the group followed. Robin coming on their comm's.

"Uh, guys? I feel something else in there. Maybe you should leave."

"It's nothing we can't handle, Robin," stated Joseph.

"No, I mean, it's HUGE! Like, the size of Giza, huge! You should rea--" her comm. becoming static.

"Robin? Robin," Joseph yelled into his comm. The room began to shake violently, the door becoming a huge, gaping mouth with serrated teeth the size of a human being, and the side walls forming large human like arms. Quickly pulling his goggles down, Joseph jumped back, his entire body being engulfed in flame. "I guess that's what she meant by huge."

"No shit, dumbass," spoke Alex, pulling out his Katana and getting into his stance. The others prepared their powers as the one of the large hands came slamming down on Joseph, quickly lifting up to reveal a bouncing man.

"Shit... That hurt," Joseph coughed as he stood. "Sparrow ain't gonna be happy about this."

"Fight now. Girlfriend later," Yelled Matt, as he lunged forward, his fist glowing a bright red as he slammed it into the bottom jaw of the gaping mouth. The tomb itself screamed in agony, dazing most of the group as they clung to their ears, attempting to block it out.

Joseph ran forward, slamming a flaming knee into the maw of the beast, the tomb screaming once again. He quickly jumped back, allowing Alex to get a cut in with his katana, opening a large gash in the mouth of the beast. It screamed once again, completely incapacitating Loren. The glowing of her eyes fading as she went into unconciousness. Talon ran forward, doing a rapid kick at the mouth, dodging a hand that came bearing down at him. The creature screamed once again, being interrupted as Matthew sent a flying fist into the bottom of it's jaw, slamming the mouth against the cieling and making rocks crumble down. Alex jumped up, sticking his Katana into the bottom of the creatures mouth, flipping up and running it down the monsters jaw, cutting his mouth open from the bottom.

The tomb shook as the monster screamed one last time, before fading back into a door. The group, that participated, breathed heavily, somehow having a huge toll done on them. The group regathered their wits, waking Loren up.

"Well. That was fun," Joseph said sarcastically as he brought his hand up to his comm. "Robin, you still there? We beat it." The comm. is silent. "Robin?.... Damnit, we must be too far in." He brought down his hand, walking over to the door and looking at it. "He could be back here. I mean, the last time we had a "hint" on him, we didn't find a giant ass mouth trying to kill us."

Matthew walked up, nodding. "We should continue forward. He probably already knows we're here."

Talon nodded in agreement, "It would definitely be wise. The longer we wait, the longer he has to prepare."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go kick his ass," yelled Alex, confidently, as he stepped forward, pulling on the handle. The others stepped forward as he did, waiting for the man to show up on the other side. To everyones surprise when the door was opened, a black wall stood in their way. "....Well, now what," Alex questioned as he turned to look at everyone.

Joseph stepped forward, looking at it for a second. "Well, we could try this," he stated as he kicked Alex through the door, being absorbed by the black wall. Joseph shrugged and quickly walked into it, the rest following. When the group go through, Alex was lying on the floor, face down on hard sand stone.

The room was decorated in golden trinkets and runic symbols, none of which were Ancient Egyptian. In the center stood a man, his hooded cloak constantly changing colors as he turned to face the group, a wicked, three toothed grin showing on his face. He stepped forward, a raspy voice coming out of his thin throat. "Welcome, heroes, to my humble abode. I'm surprised you have come this far. Are you willing to go further," he asked, taking another step.

"Of course we are. We're here to stop you Celestial Quantum," spoke Matthew as he stepped forward, his fist glowing a bright red. "You are hereby under arrest, for the illegal use of powers against mankind and it's fellow mutants."

The man chuckled. "You think you can arrest me? I, am but a servant to those who you should really be fearful of. I am only a fraction of their power. They are the ones who created this world! No, the universe! I have some of their power, and I do plan to use it." The old man stepped forward towards Matt, being pushed back as the large man slammed his fist into his face. "Very naive, aren't you?"

"I am only as naive as you are. We are here to take you to jail, and you will come with. Willingly, or not," boomed Matt, lunging forward for yet another punch. The man reached out, grabbing Matt by the face as a pulse of energy came flying out of his palm, sending the large man flying into the opposite wall.

Joseph quickly lunged forward, sending a flaming kick down into the mans stomach. As it impacted, the man grabbed him, unaffected by the kick, and threw him against Matt. Talon lunged forward as well, sending a very powerful kick into the mans skull, but stayed in the air, not of his own free will. The man reached out, grabbing his foot, laughing. Quickly, Talons skin began to go pale, his power being sucked right out of him. The man let him go, as he fell to the floor, the life leaving his body. Loren quickly reached for her pistols, sending bullets flying at the man, tears in her eyes. The man quickly evaded them all, teleporting next to the girl and grabbing her by the neck. He lifted her up and choked her, ignoring the fact that Alex had been slashing at the mans back, ripping his cloak up.

"Silly mortal, you cannot wound me like the others you claim to be evil," he chuckled as he continued to choke the life out of Loren. Tears continued to roll down her cheek as she lost her breath, her eyes quickly losing their glow. Alex continued to slash at the mans back, tears slowly rolling down his own cheeks. After a few more moments of torture, the man snapped Lorens neck, dropping her lifeless body to the ground. Alex stopped what he was doing, and immediately went to Lorens side, holding her head up.

"Come on, you can't die. Not now," Alex screamed in emotional distress, tear drops falling onto Lorens cheek. "You can't go! Not without knowing that I loved you! Please! Come on! Come back!" He continued to shake her, the old man stepping back to his original perch.

"She is gone, fool. I do hope that you have learned a lesson here today," the man chuckled as a column of black flame engulfed him, leaving only a scorch mark on the ground. Both Joseph and Matt ran to Talons side, picking him up and going to Loren.

With a saddening tone in his voice, "Let's get going, Alex. There's nothing we can do. We'll get back and.... make preperations."

Tears rolled down his face as he looked up to Joseph, "No. There has to be something! We can't just..."

Matt quickly smacked Alex, trying to bring him to his senses. "There are more people that are going to die if you sit here crying over someone who is already gone! I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do, Alex." He carried Talon out of the tomb, the rest following.

Robin waited outside, running up to them as they came out. She began to cry at the loss of two of her dearest friends. The group headed back to town, where they had someone get them back home. There, they buried the dead, and went to go visit family and friends.