"No, I was on a helicopter for about three seconds last night," [font=lucida bright]AIko[/font] replied, deadpan. "Not before that, although I have played some simulator games."

"Yes. The local academic, especially archaeological, organizations should have information on him. Does the Egyptian government keep track of such things?"

Unknown looked out of the plan "What bright and clear sky. It's a paradise." Looking at the hangar area "We... I am unsure what assistance I can provide."

Flying into Egypt was another plane. This one when spotted the fighters scrambled as they approached the unauthorized plane door opened and a figured flew out. Flying at mock 4 the figure of a woman on fire flew at the fighters, they responded by opening fire but the bullets melted before they hit. She responded by melting their wings sending both jets to the ground.

When the Pilots ejected she burnt the Parachutes causing them to freefall to their deaths. She flew back into the plane returning to her non flame form "Two wasps are now rubble boss." Jutan Frost nodded "Now to make sure we don't get anymore interference... Phantasm will you do the honors." A man dressed in a business suit nodded and extended his hands out. Soon the plane vanished from sight and from Radar. "I won't be able to keep this up for long. We should land soon."

Jutan chose to dress in white for this trip his normal suit replaced by a insulation system that keeps him cool even in the heat of the Egyptian sun. "Even if I have to kill every living person in Egypt I will have my orb." Sunstroke yawned "Yeah yeah, as long as I get payed boss we can murder all of the continent. "You get what you earn Sunstroke, as well as you Phantasm."

"I think I shall help out at the museum," said [font=lucida bright]AIko[/font]. "Do we know why or when it closed?"

After the introductions, Luca listened to the three options and considered where he would be best suited, "I think I'm best suited to the museum. As a magician I suspect those talents would be valuable searching for tomes or info therein."

He thumbed the filigree rod idly, sending a few points of light traveling at random directions along the pattern. He had moved to look at the supplies, pulling the rod out of the holster and holding it over the items to see what magical devices had already been gathered.

Luca chuckled lightly. "I would be happy to take a look, if for anything to know fully what resources may be available should the needs arise. I tend to keep away from the...ah...modern elements of science. The craft has served me well, and tends to like my attraction to it."

He held the filigree parallel to the ground and snapped his wrist to activate it. The silver filigree glowed brightly. From either end, beams of aural light extended to appear as a long staff weapon. The color was similar Another shake and the beams curled to form a bow. A final shake and the beams disintegrated. The glowing filigree dimmed until the device quieted completely and was holstered once again. "I've yet to find a limit of what it will project, but it's also been equally untested in that regard."

He strolled over to the trunk and began examining what spell components were present and made a mental list of the resources.

Unknown now in her female disguise headed out of the plane and stood looking at the sun without a hint of trouble. "Sky is clear of vapors the light is purer. Such a paradise." Then she looked over "Will I be required to stay in human form? I could run as fast as one of those crafts. If not I would need a ride, I can't control such a device."

Elsewhere Jutan frost wasn't so happy about the Egyptian weather. "Accursed place may it be the first to be ravaged." Sunstroke looked over "What was that boss? Didn't quite hear you." "Nothing Sunstroke. Using my contacts I might have a faint lead. There was a Museum that now closed seems someone connected to the place been doing a lot of research into mystical arts." "You mean those rifts in reality, someone Wants to do that?" "They are children playing with fireworks, uncontrolled and chaotic. However they are learning." Out of the back of the plane rolled out a tan colored Hummer drove by Phantasm "Give me the directions and we be on our way."

"If you wish to stay in human form, I'm fine with a passenger. I don't know enough about the locals or your natural form to offer other advice," He said to the Unknown-woman. Luca hopped on one of the bikes, fitting a proper helmet and goggles before he waited for Unknown to decide her mode of transport. Once she decided, he'd speed off to follow behind Heartseeker.

[font=lucida bright]AIko[/font] considered the feed from the satellite. "Looks like someone has a big operation going on. That could be their local headquarters."

In the City the Hummer comes to a stop in a back alley near the Closed Museum. "Phantasm this is your style. We don't want to alert the authorities any more then Sunstroke done." "Hey It would have been easier if spook here vanished the plane before we entered the airspace." Phantasm shook his head "I am not limitless." With that he exit the vehicle and faded from view. Much like the Predator from the movies there was a slight distortion where he bent light around himself. He then scaled easily up the side of the building to the roof. A quick search and he found the old AC vent, removing the panel he shimmied down into the museum. "Did he have to go in the vent? The place is closed why not just bust down the door?" Sunstroke said. Responding with a bit of gasp to his breath Jutan Frost responded "It's called stealth tactics Sunstroke. The place is closes doesn't mean the alarm system is not operational."

Unknown looked out at the desert "If I miss my guess we should try to lay low. Don't think the Egyptian entity would like intruders." The awareness still having trouble with the ideas of Cities and Nations. It views such things as larger organisms like itself. Seeing the sunglasses on Kat soon a pair grew on her own face just like her hair, black. "There was a box of information on people. I modeled myself after one." Then she shifted from becoming her a panther/cheetah like shape. "If we meet hostiles should we be aggressive or passive?"

"Roger that," replied [font=lucida bright]AIko[/font] from behind just him. Magic wasn't completely outside her experience, but she had no way of detecting it unless it was making overt effects. This made it something she had to be cautious of, relying on her allies and physical clues.

Unknown got into the buggy and returned to the woman disguise. "Ready. Let not let them have all the fun."

Phantasm removed the vent grate and dropped down. The dust was both good and bad, good that it meant no one been here and so the energy residue wouldn't have been overwritten by newer activities. Bad that it left foot prints where he was standing. He waved his arm letting his powers interact with the latent energy within the room. Energy was always there never destroyed people leave energy imprints like they leave skin flakes. The trick was to get those imprints to reawaken replaying the events that triggered the imprint. Most ghost reports end up being false or energy echos recorded in a building or bedrock. Phantasm didn't need quartz or elemental effects he can trigger the energy recordings at will. So he did and watched.

Parking next to Heartseeker, and fairly certain she was playing a role, [font=lucida bright]AIko[/font] refrained from translating as she caught up. A bit darker than most of the locals, and with excellent Arabic (among other languages), she could almost pass for a native. Except for her American style clothing. She waited, listening both for sounds and for EM signals.

"Can do, pardner." Cal said as he shimmied around and then lifted himself to sit up on the bar that usually served to keep passengers inside the vehicle. Doing so lifted his head and shoulders above the low roof of the buggy and he drew his right pistol then braced his arm on the roof of the buggy. He looked ahead of the tractor for a moment, then squeezed the trigger just as the engine roared when its driver downshifted to tackle a dune. The bullet cleanly parted the strap and the wind caught the tarp, blowing it up to flap over its now revealed load.

Kat had no trouble with the bike, but chose to stay with the main group. Once at the market place, she parked the bike a bit further down the block from Heartseeker and Aiko. She trailed her way along the booths as she moved closer to the museum area, fingering a scarf here, a trinket there, and merely shook her head as if she didn't understand the vendors. Which, in fact, she didn't.

Her focus, however, was on surreptitiously scoping out what could be seen of the museum from where she loitered on the street, looking for any sign of activity there.

"Nothing of obvious interest. Local radio station, occasional chatter on the police frequencies, military running a search-and-rescue off in the Med," [Font=lucida bright]AIko[/font] whispered back.

Luca arrived well timed with the others, having taken a slight detour to chase a magical distraction. He had quickly disregarded it as a red herring or a long dormant device buried below the sands. He set his bike next to the others and looked around at various fedoras and dusters. "Is this everyone?"

The filigree device had been neatly locked down on the holster, guaranteeing any pickpocket would be blasted away before any efforts to swipe it could be made. An uneasy chill crawled on the back of his neck, and he made sure to tell the group something was unsettled nearby.

[Font=lucida bright]AIko[/font] was even less obvious, as she didn't need to finger her comm, or even speak aloud. The voice went straight from her sound cards to the transmitter. "Sounds good to me. I advise caution, and remembering what Mister Luca said."

[Font=lucida bright]AIko[/font] considered replying in Momma Marianne's authentic Reseda accent, but, deciding that was too close too the one Sister Flare was using, instead went with Momma Millie's Savannah dialect.
"Well, shoah, let's try it out. Cain't travel this far and not sample the local eats."
And softly, "No, but the satellite puts that transport cutting right across their path. They may have run into it already..."

He saw all he needed to see. He was a ghost a snoop, and often times an assassin. If those things were still in the back room he wasn't going to disturb them. Retreating back the way he came he moved carefully retracing his own steps through the museum back to the air vents. There he stopped spotting Kat he knelt down still bending light around himself. Backtracking again till he thought he was out of earshot.

Once he believed he was out of earshot he opened his phone and called Jutan or tried to spotting no bars. "Okay time for some tricks" He moved back to where he spotted Kat and drew a gun than speaking in Egyptian [i]"Halt Don't move! I'm special agent Hakim"[/i] he made himself visible but was now disguised as an Egyptian man complete with what might be a detective clothing. Heck he even flashed a badge. it was all illusion bending of light of course. Then makes a face as he just now spotted she was not a native then in English "Why shouldn't I arrest you for trespassing? This is a restricted area."

Once outside Jutan tried to call Phantasm having spotted Kat entering the building. Jutan thought for a moment "Seems we aren't the only ones on the hunt."

Jutan shut the phone and thought "Sunstroke get up in the sky do some aerial recon." "If something tries to stop me?" "You may do what you like, litter this whole place with courses I want that ORB." Sunstroke burst into flames and took off into the air like a flare doing a ever increasing spiral pattern of flight.
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Unknown shifted a bit as the truck came to a jackknife stop. Seeing the weapon and spotting the fellow flipping switches "That wasn't an option." With that he punched in the window and his crystalline claw blade extended as he thrusted it to the driver. Impaling him "You in the back can you reverse what you done? I can kill you fast, or slow."

"It appears so. I hope they can handle whatever is out there." Luca stopped and considered his options, "No, I should have a trick that can grant me roof access."

He set down the hats and gripped the filigree device. It had a dim glow, but flickering about like a candle. Looking at the others and then back to the museum, "Something doesn't feel right."

Sister Flare nodded to Heart amidst pointing and gawking at Sunstroke, subtly summoning her flaming whip on her belt, only a bare impression seen if anything at all. Eyeing 'Detective Hakim'; keeping him subtly locked in her peripheral vision as she whispers to the group.

"All is not what it seems. Regardless I am prepared to fight, should we be needed. Kat must find that orb first."

As Cal rode towards the truck, they two huge rhino-like creatures came boiling out from under their tarp and charged straight for him. "Yeehaaa! Looks like we got some dogies to round up, Penumbra!"

Cal flicked his lasso and it loosed the man he'd been dragging, then coiled back into his hand. Cal spurred Penumbra and the shadow-horse galloped straight at the charging beasts. The cowboy leaned way over to the left, his lasso at the ready. At the last second, Penumbra veered hard right and Cal let go of the saddle. There was a blur of motion, but those with especially good eyesight would've seen Cal straighten himself out as he slid across the sand and underneath the first charging beast. As that happened, he slipped his lasso around the snout of the beast. As Cal slid out from underneath the beast, Penumbra curved back in and Cal skidded to a halt next to the shadow-horse. He hopped to his feet and wound the rapidly tightening lasso around the saddle horn, then pulled it taut. What happened next was simple physics.

Though Penumbra had the appearance of a normal horse, albeit one cloaked in shadows, he was anything but. When the lasso looped around the beasts snout snapped taut, it yanked on Penumbra, but Penumbra simply chose not to be moved. So instead, the beasts front end was jerked to a halt while its rear end continued forwards. The result was the ungainliest front flip in recorded history as the rhino-like beast's rear end flew over its stationary front end and and its back slammed into the desert, leaving the beast stunned.

Cal jumped back onto Penumbra and they rode straight for the stunned creature. As its partner skidded to a halt and turned clumsily, Cal dove off Penumbra and hog-tied the beast, figuring that the brainy types might want one of these monsters to study. Scrambling back onto Penumbra, he stared down the still free beast and waited for it to charge.

"Ah. There's the transmitter." The burst of EMP [font=lucida bright]AIko[/font] sent at the scarf vendor's device would probably fry anything that small, unless it used vacuum tubes or was well shielded. She didn't want to use more power because she didn't know what might be in that other building behind him. In Arabic (not Egyptian Arabic, but she hoped the official Modern Standard Arabic would do) she warned the man drawing the gun, "That will do no good. Please put it away." She also brought up her force field in case he didn't listen to her.

Kat had let herself out of the air vent and begun moving from room to room. As she was suddenly addressed sternly in Arabic, and then in English: "Why shouldn't I arrest you for trespassing? This is a restricted area", she flicked hair back from her ear, unobtrusively opening the commlink broadcast so the rest of her team could hear, and raised both hands.

Playing “bewildered student tourist” to the hilt, she hastily (and a bit loudly) blurted, “Woah, take it easy, dude, this is a museum, it said so in my guidebook. If it’s restricted, why aren’t there ‘No Trespassing’ signs? I mean, my History of Ancient Civs Professor said I should check it out - I’m doing a thesis, see, on “Historical Pottery: Portraits of Day-to-Day Life”, and he said to be sure and check this museum out, you know? Front door was locked, see, but I tried around the side, and there was a door open there, OK?”

She favored the guy with her best “Oh man, please don’t shoot me!” face, while checking with peripheral vision for any one else in the room she might have to deal with.

"Earlier break-in attempts," Kat stalled. "Dude, I just got here. If somebody else was breaking in earlier, they might still be here, right? Shouldn't you be looking for them?"

This was clearly going nowhere, so - without warning, Kat attempted to project an icy coating around the guy, as if he were literally and nearly instantly trapped in a block of ice. Kat hoped the water she'd drunk earlier would give her enough 'juice' to make this work. On the other hand, there wasn't a lot of external humidity to work with, and even if it worked, she knew the ice wouldn't hold for long.

He looks to the side hearing the commotion at the front door "amateurs, I don't care what you do. What I came for isn't here and what happens next doesn't involve me." With that Phantasm sent a blast of energy at the ground stirring up the dust at the same time he faded from view and headed for the door. He didn't run that be stupid he went for a location where he could wait for the Ice woman's friends to rush by before he headed out. Up above Sunstroke spotted the chaos at the door "Boss seems Phantasm about to have unwanted guest. Should I teach them manners?" "We lost contact with him, if there something in that building let the party guest clear the way. Either way a problem gets solved, besides Phantasm can handle himself."

Unknown recognized the behavior "These beings minds are empty, like the drones there no real thoughts left in there heads." He finished off the wolfman with a blade through the skull before he turned to the next one as it pounced at him. He extended his armor spikes letting the foes cut themselves as they attack.

Meanwhile, Sister Flare would be flanking right beside Heart, her earlier disguise discarded in a waft of flames as she stands in her huntress outfit, her flaming whip held firm within her right hand as she whispers to the Archer.

"You realize that display, however unintentional just likely alerted whoever was in charge of any counter efforts against us to a confirmed second party?" She then pauses to stare at Sunstroke, eyeing her for a moment before adding.

"I'll be sticking to the shadows, and will take point just in case something's amiss." She assures as she races stealthily forward into the museum, her aura and presence literally and physically masked in smoke, not yet casting away subtlety as she slinks into the shadows, searching for Kat and the orb within the corridors.