-Sadie Kane-
Amos observed as I burnt his little shabti buddy before shooting me a nervous smile. "Maybe you shouldn't have done fire so soon."
What is he talking about? I can't apparently hit it with any divine words now. This really isn't funny, and I was getting tempted to smack my uncle instead. "What are you talking about? I'm venting-"
I was quickly interrupted by an explosion of blue light from the annoying left-handed shabti's ashes. I turned away, covering my eyes. What kind of fresh hell is going on now? Do they have some special ability if you melt them? I wouldn't be surprised, Uncle Amos already yanked out a banquet of insane 'little' details as it was.
Once the light let off from trying to burn my eyes, I managed to see it fade into the newly formed shabti. "Bloody annoying, that's what you are," I snarled; quickly go through spells that might bring it down again.
So, this shabti apparently only knows how to swing a staff around. I don't see it as being very helpful if we were to turn to it for defense. Really, the other one is probably the best bet seeing as he has a kopesh the size of Felix.
Speaking of Felix, he was now suddenly in the giant clay man's left hand, hanging upside down as he screamed bloody murder. Avoiding another swing of the staff to my head, I skid across the gym floor towards the other shabti. Apparently our gym floor is in desperate need to be waxed because I only went two feet.
The next thing I knew, I was face to face with a snake. It's an average sized adder though, not something as big as, say the Lord of Chaos. Still scared me that I actually jumped back onto my feet. Then I noticed Walt grip the oversized hilt of the kopesh, disintegrating the shabti into gray dust. Felix ended up getting a bath of ash.
"A little help here?" I yelled out as I ducked to the right, the big staff almost bonked me on the nose.
Felix managed to swim out of the mess as Walt rushed towards me. The snake immediately went to attack the shabti, which just confused it on who its target was. So the staff smacked the snake in the face, earning a vicious hiss as it sank it's fangs into the right ankle of the giant.
Walt gripped the other ankle and gained the same reaction to the death magic at his fingertips. The snake quickly turned back into a staff, which Walt grabbed off the floor before turning to me. "Maybe they can go back if they don't see us." Walt urged for the door, the other shabti starting to reform again.
I looked around to see Uncle Amos was nowhere to be found. Ditched us to his very big and very irritating minions of clay. I pushed Felix out as I looked over my shoulder for a second. The kopesh clay immortal was almost completely reformed, eyes on us as the door slammed closed.
"I think it saw us," I whispered to Walt as Felix crawled away from the door after landing on the floor headfirst to my panicked push.
Walt shook his head, refusing to let my words sink in. "Just keep quiet, it'll go back."
"And how certain are you on that?" I demanded immediately. "And where did my bloody uncle run off to?"
Walt was about to speak when the wall suddenly blasted at us, as if the twins kicked the wall down just to find us. "Run," I grabbed Felix by the left arm to get him to stand as we made a mad dash down the hall.
These giant clay men barely fit in the hall, and they went about tearing apart the walls in hopes they could catch up to us. "Isn't there some word we can use to get them to stop?" I screamed over the raucous behind us.
"No, it's kind of like Doughboy; they only listen to one person," Walt yelled back, narrowly missing running into a small statue of Ra.
"Then where the hell did Uncle Amos run off to?" I snapped, really contemplating punching his smug face in.
"What are you two doing?" Carter suddenly approached us, outrage in his eyes as Zia stood against the wall, shooting us a curious look.
"Love to chat, got two very insistent shabtis chasing us though, bye!" I brushed past him as he gave me a blank look.
"Two wha-What the hell?" See? Even Pharaohs freak out.
"What did you guys do?" Zia asked, apparently getting the message to run with us, Carter following.
"I completely blame this on Amos," I summed up, which wasn't good enough in Zia's glare.
"Are they from the gym?" Carter finally managed to catch up.
"Recognize them do you? Maybe you can talk with them, come to a common understanding that chasing kids down a hallway is not cool?" Carter was now a twin of Zia's with his glare.
Zia abruptly stopped, whipping her staff out as she immediately summoned fire in her fingertips of her free hand. "Uh, Zia," I started as she threw the fireball at the guy with the staff.
We all froze to see the shabti absorb the heat completely, still following us as if nothing had happened. "He's fireproof?" Zia's eyes widened to the thought.
"You can thank me later, come on-" I was stopped short as I ran into a figure a little taller than I.
"Sorry," I looked up to see it wasn't anyone I knew, "uh, random kid."
He didn't like the name; his expression told me so as his brown eyes took me in. "Actual introduction later, yes? You need to come with us or die, your choice."
"Or die?" His eyes narrowed, "Would you mind doing me the honors of telling me who you-"
"No time to talk, get moving!" Carter harshly gripped his right arm as the strange kid took in the occurring scene behind us.
The stairs, we all rushed down them in hopes they'll stop following. Boy, were we wrong or what? The one flight of stairs down to the Great Room was now pretty much rubble thanks to these two shabtis. "Carter, you want to try?" Walt asked.
Carter was quick to whip his kopesh out of the Duat, letting go of the new initiate. "Walt, there has to be something to stop them. He said something that triggered them to attack in the first place-"
"Yeah, but I don't think it was a special code like you're saying," Walt continued as Carter launched at the one I had been fighting.
The boy gave me an observant look in his eyes. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with any judging, especially by a kid wearing linen clothing and a navy cloak, letting his hair just hang to rest on his shoulders. He looked like he popped out of a King Arthur retelling, one where the writer insisted everyone was black. "Whatever Walt, do you remember what he said exactly?"
"Gibberish," Felix announced quickly.
"It was certainly in a different language," Walt confirmed as Carter took on the next one, standing on the clay remnants of the first.
"You're saying we're wasting time trying to figure out how to stop these things?" I snarled, crossing my arms out of irritation.
That's when I noticed the kid pulled a staff out. "Uh, what are you-" I started to scowl as he just ignored me, standing five feet before the reforming shabti that Carter had managed to bring down.
"Hey, pull back," The kid demanded of Carter, which now earned everyone's attention.
Carter ducked the swinging blade as he turned, giving the kid a puzzled look. "Sorry, but I don't think I really trust a novice taking over from here."
That seemed to royally piss this kid off. "Stop fighting!"
Surprisingly, the shabtis responded, taking a knee as they kept their unmoving eyes on the newbie. Carter froze, observing the kopesh shabti was obeying without any fight. Even weirder? The Merlin wannabe was stunned as well, "Uh, return to whence you came?"
They took his question as an order, climbing the destroyed flight of stairs to the gym. "What did you say your name was?" I asked.
"I didn't," the kid's judging eyes landed on me again, a look of disdain in his expression. "And neither have any of you. If you're friends of Kyra's, I suggest you don't touch anything-"
Carter cleared his throat, gaining the new kid's attention. "Welcome to the Twenty-First Nome, I'm Carter. You don't seem like an initiate."
"I used to be, but why should that matter?" The kid snarled.
"Wow, you are gutsy," I stood up in my brother's defense, really starting to hate this kid's stuck-up attitude.
"No, just irritable," he brushed off. "Why are you here? Where did those shabti come from?"
"The gym, and we're here for the same reason that you are," Walt continued. "You are blood of the pharaohs, right?"
The kid tensed, taking us in again. "Why does it matter what my bloodline is?" He snapped, getting defensive.
"Because your family probably has important ties with the Gods," Bast interrupted. "Hello, I'm Bast, protector of families and warrior of Ra's."
"Who are all of you?" The kid suddenly yelled, taking a step back as he looked prepared to fight Bast.
All six of us blinked at him. "Um, will you allow me to explain?" Zia offered peacefully.
"Do you people even know where you are?" He immediately snapped, distress written in his expression, "You just attempted to destroy the family mansion of the noble Kane family!"
"Destroy?" Bast turned to me for answers.
"And you've befriended a Goddess? The Chief Lector will hear of this!" Wow, this kid has a wild temper.
"Um, he knows," Carter informed him quickly.
"Two very big, very mean shabti followed us down here." I pointed to the staircase to give an example of the destruction for Bast's question.
I've decided I'm calling him Merlin. So, Merlin took us in as if calculating the pros and cons of fighting us. "How about we just calm down?" Walt suggested. "We just survived a near death experience, let's make some hot chocolate and cool off."
Merlin laughed now. "No, all of you are getting out of here. If you don't want me to call my father in, I suggest doing as I say."
"You know, you are too pompous," I snapped, hands tightened around my staff. "You can't kick us out of our home. We run this place, you don't. We're generally accepting of all personality types, but I might have to kick you off the roof of the mansion if you keep it up."
Now he looked extremely confused. "What Nome are you from? Maybe I can redirect you then-"
"This is our Nome," Felix explained.
"What is your name?" Bast asked, shooting the annoying brat with a worried look.
He was still tense towards her, making sure she knew as he thought for a second, "Kaden Anderson."
Bast crossed her arms now, really focusing on him with her sharp golden eyes, which apparently seemed to make him nervous. "Why did those shabti respond to you?" I asked now.
"Uh, maybe they just recognized me as a statuary magician?" He offered, seeming a little lost himself on the details.
"What Nome are you from?" Zia asked next.
"Sixty-Seventh," he answered without hesitation. "Miami."
"Are you here to talk with me then?" Carter wondered.
"Wow, someone thinks he's important," Kaden quickly dissed. "I'm here for a Jabari Kane."
Bast hissed now, looking ready to fight as well. "Jabari is long gone," Kyra's voice spoke up with absolute certainty. "Where did you hear that name?"
"Uh," now he seemed like he was digging for an excuse.
"Oh whatever, you're staying here a night. We'll figure this out tomorrow." I decided, earning a glare from Carter.
"Hey, I'm the Pharaoh here, remember?"
Kaden/Merlin snapped out of his faze. "I'll just head back to my Nome-"
"I'll contact Miami," Kyra reassured. "We have a spare room for you to take. I'll also inform the Chief Lector of your presence so he's not startled."
"Kyra, about that-" Walt started, nervousness creeping into his tone.
"Your name is Kyra?" Kaden looked surprised.
"Yes, Kyra Teal, Nome Leader of the Forty-Sixth Nome, that's in Seattle," she introduced. "And the group of troublemakers is Carter, Sadie, Zia, Walt, and Felix."
Kaden seemed like he relaxed, only a little though. There was a look in his eyes that stated something was wrong, and I don't think I'm going to let him slide without talking about it. "Well Kaden, want to help us fix the Nome?" I asked, deciding the best thing to do is act like everything is normal.