Chapter 3
Natasha Romanoff looked over her shoulder as she entered the Natural History Museum of London. Beside her was Clint Barton. The archer too was watching every direction. London had changed in the past few months. Security around the city had doubled in the past few months. There was the Dalek Invasion that was lead by Dalek X as the Devil Dalek looked to use the Star Bane on Earth sun and take the world by force, which like so many other times had been stopped by the Doctor and UNIT. UNIT soldiers walked around the city ready for anything that might appear suddenly. They were ready for the weird.
Natasha looked back a head when she was sure that she was not being followed. Her guard was still up. She could not allow herself to be distracted. The stakes where high. She had heard from Rogers that Seth, an Egyptian God was nothing like they had faced against in the years that the Avengers had been formed when Loki had attacked New York City with the alien army. The God of Chaos from what she had learned from researching after she had learned of Seth. She along with the rest of the Avengers had found out about Seth and Leatherback (who had vanished without a trace) when the two had appeared in Captain America's appartment just after the Loki event. It was not just Seth and Leatherback that the Avengers had come across after Loki attacking New York City. They had meet two poeple who Rogers thought had died after the war when he had gone into ice. Thor and Iron Man had seen two people, well creatures that should not exist.
Natasha had searched for Nightshade and Edward only to find out that they did not exist. She then asked Thor what had caused him so much worry about two possible allies to find out that the two allies were aliens just like what Loki had used to attack New York. The were from a planet that had been destroyed during the Time War which Thor had told all the Avengers was a war that he would have loved to get involved in. That was until he had found out the amount of destruction that the war was costing. He had then told them that Nightshade was a Dragonoid and Edward is a Ghoul. Natasha had not believed what Thor had told them until Sokovia. Sokovia had shown her and the rest of the Avengers that there was things that even they could not explain what they had seen.
They had seen Edward fight alongside the Hulk like they had been fighting for years. The Ghoul had been a sight for sure. He had been something that they had not expected for a Ghoul. She had expected a rotten corspe that had been brought out of a grave. But he wasn't. Edward was a corpse for sure with green skin, his ribs showing with a faint show of his beating heart. Huge tusks broke out of his bottom jaw with half of his brain showing. His axe was the heaviest weapon of all the Avengers, even Thor had difficulty lifting the axe thay had a purple head that glowed brightly after the whole Sokovia incident.
Then there was Nightshade. Natasha had managed to find out some information about her. Many of the information that she got was the information that UNIT wanted the world to know when they knew what they were looking. Nightshade's past was unknown even to UNIT and anyone else that had meet her. What was known about Nightshade was that since the end of the Second World War after Captain America had gone into the ice was that Nightshade had joined UNIT when it was first formed and begam soon adviser during the 1960s and by the 1970s she was trusted by many agents of UNIT from around the world to become just a shadow with little work needed from a human operative to watch her back. Nightshade had remained in the shadows, fighting the fights that no man would be able to fight both political and full scale fight. She had learned that even though Nightshade had Howard Stark leave Rogers in the ice she continued to look for HYDRA agents along with Seth and Leatherback. Natasha had tried to pry some information from Thor, Captain America and Nightshade herself but Thor and Rogers only had a limited amount of information about Nightshade. Nightshade however had remained silent finding a way to change the subject or just walking away.
She and the rest of the Avengers had found out that there was somone else who Cap had meet during the war all those years ago and was not present to become a member of the Avengers. Julian as far as she knew was a phantom. He was the spy out of Nightshade and Edward. He had skills that she could only wonder where he had trained before joining UNIT. From the records that she had been reading that in all of Julian's missions they were always successful, but the amount of deaths was high. The deaths had been caused by what she could describe as an animal attack.
Natasha shock her head. She had a mission to complete. She and Barton had come to London while Nightshade and Edward took the Mummy back to the New Avengers Facility. Another Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus had been found outside of Thebes in a ruined ancient city. The sarcophagus had then been brought up to London by a joint operation of SHEILD and UNIT. UNIT had wanted it to be placed into the Black Archives but a recent attack from Seth had made them change their mind to the closets other UNIT facility that had been built to hold ancient relics from Earth and from other planets: the British Museum. She and Clint had been sent to London to pick the second sarcophagus and take it back to the New Avengers Facility. Captain America and Nightshade wanted to make sure that the second mummy had no links with Seth or Imhotep and the Book of the Dead.
"Agent Romanova? Agent Barton?" a man wearing UNIT uniform said as he stepped in front of the two SHEILD agents and member of the Avengers. He carried a rifle that was ready to fire at any moment. Natasha looked the man up and down as she and Barton stopped in front of him. He was a small man with a uniform that was fitted to his small body. She looked at the rifle and then back at the mans face to see that he showed no emotion. She looked back at the rifle to see strange etchings marked onto its surface. She could only assume that UNIT dealt more with the supernatural than what SHEILD did.
"Yes!" Natasha responded to the man who nodded his head and then turned on his heels and led them away from the entrance of the British Museum. She kept her eyes narrowed as she felt Barton doing the same. There was something off about something. Something that she was not sure about yet. She had to keep on her toes as she followed the UNIT agent out of the crowds of people who were being held back by the London police. Many civilians had recognised them from the fight in New York and then Sokovia. Natasha could not help herself as she glared out at the crowd of people that walked about the British Museum. Any of them could be Seth or an agent of HYDRA or something else that could try and kill everyone in the city. She knew that there was UNIT agents stationed all around the museum but that was still not enough to settle her churning stomach. She looked over at Barton as he too followed the UNIT agent into the storage room that was behind the main part of the museum.
Barton grabbed Natasha's arm. Natasha looked over at him but they still kept walking. "He's here!" Clint whispered as he looked over at her as they kept walking after the UNIT agent. "He's wearing a suit and is not alone! Two armed men! Possible HYDRA agents!" he whispered looking back at Nat as they walked a level lower into the basement of the British Museum.
"How far away?" Natasha asked. She knew the UNIT agent had heard them as he reached for his radio and spoke about a code that she was unaware of. Not a second later all UNIT agents around them strained along with the under cover agents that Nat had marked as soon as they had walked into the museum.
"Heading this way slowly but surely! Making it seem as if they are looking at the exhibits!" Barton said as the door slammed shut behind a UNIT agent that had taken a position behind them. The archers fingers were starting to twitch at the thought of putting an arrow into Seth's face. He like Natasha had heard a lot about Seth and done a lot of researching about the Egyptian God. He had learned that there was a few things that can bring down a few Pagan Gods. He had experience of hunting many things that go pump in the night. When he had seen Edward the first time he had tensed up and had almost reached for his bomb arrow that would go through the Ghouls head to blow up its brain. The only weakness that a Ghoul his size had.
Natasha looked over her shoulder to see the UNIT agent had fallen into step behind him. His face showed no emotion and his eyes focused on a point up ahead. He was not a threat. She had read about UNIT when she had been reading about Nightshade and Edward and found out that UNIT was very much like SHEILD. They dealt with a lot more things than what SHEILD dealt with. She then looked back at the agent in front of them to see that he had stopped before a massive door. Natasha stopped and stared at the door. The door was not like the other doors in the museum basement. These doors were massive and heavy that would take both the Hulk and Thor would have difficulty on opening it. The doors had strange markings worked into its surface.
"Warding symbols?" Clint asked as he looked at the markings. He knew most of them. There was one for keeping demons out and angels out along with other creatures that go bump in the night. He bore a smug look as he saw the stunned look of the UNIT agents face. "That one there is for warding off demons!" Clint said as he pointed at one of the symbols. He then pointed at another one and said, "And that on is for evil spirits!" His smug smile was growing when he noticed that Natasha was looking confused and the two UNIT agents were just staring at him.
The UNIT agent that had taken a flanking position behind Clint and Natasha then spoke up with his strong London accent, "How do you know that Agent Barton?"
Clint looked at the UNIT agent who had spoken to him. His smug smile was still there. Who knew that his strange childhood would help him to become one of the greatest SHIELD agent alongside Natasha Romanov and Nick Fury. His bow and arrow was always his choice of weapon. That had been something that he had picked up at a young age when he had shot a Werewolf in the heart with a silver tipped arrow. The werewolf had dropped the ground so fast that his dad had not even seen him firing the arrow. That had been his first kill followed by a ghoul who had started to eat the living, something that ghouls tended to eat dead flesh found in graves.
"Let's just say that I know my stuff of the supernatural that not even UNIT would know!" he said still smiling. He then looked back at the UNIT agent staying by the massive door. "Well what's behind the door?" he asked the agent.
The UNIT agent nodded his head and then walked over to the side of the door. He typed in his password quickly, but Natasha and Clint were able to see the password that he typed in but they did not say anything about seeing the password. Instantly the door swung slid open like it was a normal sliding door that would be found in a shopping centre. The UNIT agent stepped into the room with Natasha and Clint right behind him. The two Avengers looked at the room to see a sarcophagus that was being guarded by five soldiers of both UNIT and SHIELD agents. Black chains that had been wrapped around the sarcophagus had not moved since they had wrapped around the highly decorated stone work that was holding the body of the Egyptian who had died 3000 years ago.
"Whose taken the dirt nap?" Clint asked as he walked up to the sarcophagus. His fingers were still itching for his bow and arrow. Captain America had told him and Natasha that the Mummy, Imhotep was alive when Edward had pried open the sarcophagus with his axe. It had been found out that he had been buried alive, something that freaked Clint after years of fighting against the creatures that go bump in the night.
The UNIT agent looked up at Clint. "We have been able to translate that it is Anck-Su-Namun! A follower of Seth along with Imhotep!" the agent replied. "We got a message from the Moonray saying that Nightshade and Captain America wants it moved well away from here! And for once I agree with the shapeshifter!" the agent said as he looked at the sarcophagus. He could not help but sent a shiver down his spine. "Since this was brought in from Egypt its been causing a lot of tremors through the ranks and we have been trying to get in touch with Nightshade to get this away. Maybe to UNIT Stirling just as long as it is away from here!" the agent said as he looked back at the two SHIELD agents.
"Why?" Natasha asked as she stepped closer to the UNIT agent. She had narrowed her eyes as she waited for the man to speak up again. She had a way of making men speak. Just her glare was enough to make them speak what they had been paid to keep quite. "Surely you guys deal with a lot of strange things in dealing with aliens and supernatural?" she asked stepping closer to the agent.
The UNIT agent took a step back and away from Natasha and found himself walking into Clint Barton. "We do! This time it just a feeling. Its like a predator waiting for us to lower our guards!" the UNIT agent with his colleague nodding his head in agreement.
Natasha nodded her head at Barton and he stepped away from the UNIT agent to give him space. "Has anything strange happened since it was brought here?" Natasha asked. She heard the huge doors behind her opening and the clicking of the other agents gun. She reached for her own gun and saw Barton reach for his arrow. The UNIT agent who was staring at the door let out a shriek before he dived behind the table next to the table that was next to the sarcophagus.
The two Avengers in a flash had brought out their weapons. Natasha aimed her pistol at Seth who stood with a clawed hand around the UNIT agents throat. Natasha heard the twang of Clint's bow as the archer took aim of the Egyptian God. "Drop the weapons!" Seth growled at the two members of the Avengers. His claws dug deeper into the UNIT agents neck that they could see that it nearly broke the skin. "Now!" he roared. He smiled as the two SHIELD agents dropped their weapons to the ground. "Good! I assume that you know who I am?" Seth asked as he kept his claws wrapped around the UNIT agents neck. "But I don't know who you are? Just a bunch of clowns pretending to be spies?" he asked with a smirk on his face.
Natasha could feel her finds clenching. She wanted to pick up her gun just to shoot Seth in the face and end it there and then. It was something she knew was not possible. Seth had been shot by Bucky and other agents of the SSR in 1944 when they were fighting HYDRA full time. He had then been shot by Dalek Sec during the Dalek Invasion only a few weeks ago that was lead by Dalek X, again nothing happened to him. Nightshade and Edward had been fighting Seth every time he popped up all around Europe and those two had hit him but no damage had been dealt to him. She narrowed her eyes as she took a step to the right and blocked Seth's view of the sarcophagus. It was the reason why he had come to the British Museum rather than the Black Archives which was located not far from there.
"So Agent Romanov are you going to step away from the sarcophagus or am I going to have to move you by force?" Seth asked as he took a step forward. He still had the UNIT agents throat in his clawed hand.
"So you do know my name, Seth!" she spat at him. She caught her gun in the corner of her eye. She looked back at Seth with a plan already forming in her mind. She just needed to find out what Seth was up to in trying to get the second sarcophagus that had been brought out of Egypt. "You want to tell me why you are doing here?" she asked. She hoped that asking a simple question that Seth would take the bait and answer the question.
Seth snorted back a laugh as he finally let go of the UNIT agent he was holding in his clawed hand. The man went down to ground and with speed that all trained agents had his gun in his hand and was firing at Seth. The bullets smashed into the man's face but all they done was cause a small amount of blood to come seeping out but nothing happened. Seth looked down at the UNIT agent and before either Natasha or Clint could see had killed the man. Seth fixed his suit and was focusing his attention back on the two SHEILD agents. "I see what you are doing Agent Romanov"!" he simple said as he stepped over the dead UNIT agents body.
"What am I doing?" Natasha asked looking as innocent as possible. She needed the information. They needed the information. If they were to stop Seth quickly they needed to know why he has waited so long before he has made any moves in doing whatever it is that he is planning.
Seth was right in front of Natasha that she could even see the smaller tattoos that covered his face. The face of a young man that he was possessing. She and Clint had been updated as to what Imhotep had told Rogers and Nightshade back at the Avengers Facility. Imhotep was not an ally of Seth. In fact he had been one of the humans during Ancient Egypt who had managed to stop Seth all those years ago and forced him to be nothing more than black smoke. Black smoke that could only plot and scheme until the Second World War when he came into contact with Leatherback. How those two came into contact was unknown.
"Your hoping that I am going to speak my plan so that you can find a way to defeat me! And I am not going to do!" he said keeping his charming smile on his face. "I am only here to pick up what is rightfully mine!" Seth said as he made his way past Natasha and Clint.
He placed a hand on the stone lid that was keeping his love locked away. If it had not been for Imhotep he would be the most powerful out of all the gods. Instead the Osiris Priest had read from the Book of the Dead that had been given to him by the Horus and read the one spell that he did not want in the book. The spell that caused a god to lose their power and to just be black smoke. He had caused Imhotep problems after he had found out that he had got the Book of the Dead and was protecting it. He had only been too late in getting Imhotep away for good. Imhotep had read the spell from the Book of the Dead. He had managed to save Anck-Su-Namun. He had used the last of his powers to allow himself to bring her soul back from the dark Underworld to be at his side once again. He just needed to open the lid and see what time has done to his beloved. His beloved who had tried and failed to get the Book of the Dead from Imhotep, a failure that had caused them to be in this situation right now. He would need to teach her not to fail him again. Not with the Book of the Dead was involved. It was too important. And as far as he knew the Avengers did not have it or they would be trying to find the right spell to kill him off for good. That could not happen. It was not the Black Archives he had checked. He could have brought out Unicron, but he like to keep his cards where he knew where they were. Leatherback was due to return from hiding after being beaten so many times by Edward and HerculesKabuterimon that he needed to find his pride that he had lost. He hoped that his ally would see him when he got all of his powers back along with the other gods.
"Your mistress? Your a dog!" Clint sneered at him. He like Natasha had wanted to find out what Seth was planning but he knew that he was not going to speak even if they interrogated him. He kept looking at his bow and quiver filled with arrows that lay on the ground just by his boot. He could see Natasha's knife just jutting out of her belt. It was hidden from Seth's view but he had a sinking feeling that Seth knew that it was there.
Seth turned on him like cobra. His yellow eyes narrowed at the archer as a strange coloured fur began to sprout out from underneath his skin. His fingers became claws and he could not help but show the archer his teeth that were sharpening with every second. "I am no dog! I am no Werewolf that hangs around Nightshade like a lost puppy! I am a Wereset! I am the most powerful being in the universe! Not even a certain Mad Titian can stand against my powers!" Seth snarled at Clint who took a step back and raised his hand in showing that he was not going to push him. "Wise choice Agent Barton!" Seth said with his educated voice. A voice that he had stolen from the young man who he had possessed 70 years ago. He liked this body, but if he chose that he needed to change bodies he would go to Steven Rogers. He knew the supersoldier would keep on fighting as his soul was crushed by his essence. That was if the body that he was in just now was no longer needed or it was badly damaged. He hoped that that would not happen as he had gotten use to walking around in Thomas's skin suit.
Seth grabbed the chains that were wrapped around the highly decorated stone lid that was keeping his loved ones body save from the passage of time. He knew that there was going to be some damage to her beauty that had been caused by time. The Book of the Dead along with his limited amount of power would be able to restore. With his strength he forced the chain onto the ground with a loud clang. The two SHIELD agents suddenly moved and picked up their weapons. The fur on the back of his neck rose as he felt the gun and bow and arrow aimed at him. He knew the humans would aim their weapons at him as soon as they could.
"Soon my love!" he whispered as he pushed the stone lid off. With a loud clattering noise the lid landed onto the ground and smashed into pieces. The stone lid was nothing he was concerned about at the moment. He looked into the now open sarcophagus and could only stare at what the primates had done to her. The bandages that had been wrapped around her with great care had turned brown over the years and he could just see her bones of her fingers and toes. Her white teeth had also not been spared with the passage of time as they had been turned yellow. Her beauty was still there. Well he could see her beauty. If anyone else saw her at the moment all they would see was a rotten corpse.
Seth leaned in closer to the mummy that was his love. Whispering to himself and her corpse he allowed a lot of his magic to course through him. He heard the clicking of guns but he did not do anything. He was just focusing on bringing her back. That was all that he needed at the moment and then he can stop playing cat and mouse with all the heroes of earth. He had enjoyed annoying Nightshade over the years. He and found out a lot about Nightshade and her team to know how to deal with her when the time came about. Other than Imhotep who had the knowledge to end him Nightshade was another being that he saw as an equal and as a threat.
"Do not say another word!" Natasha snapped as she brought her pistol right to Seth's head. "Don't!" she snapped but it was too late. The mummy that was in the sarcophagus took a deep breathe in to damaged lungs. It raised itself out of the bed that it had slept in for 3000 years. The corpse looked at Natasha who was holding the pistol to Seth's head and then to Seth who wore a victory smile.
"Seth?" Anck asked as she was helped out of her sarcophagus by Seth. The mummy with empty eye sockets kept looking up at the man who had managed to drag her soul out of the underworld. A smile cracked her rotted away lips when Seth nodded his head. "Is that you? What did Imhotep do to you?" she asked as she reached a bony hand up to Seth's face. She jumped back when she heard the clicking of weapons. "Seth what is going on? Who are these people?" Anck said as she looked from the two Avengers back to Seth. She shied behind him and grabbed his suit to make sure that Seth did not disappear.
Seth made sure that Anck was still behind him as he turned back around to face the two Avengers. He smiled like a psychopath when Natasha's pistols barrel pressed against his forehead. He could hear Anck squeaking behind him. She was not use these weapons or these people. He however had been right in the middle of it. He had watched the world grow and develop from using swords and spears to the weapons of destruction that they used in warfare in the present world. "It is nothing that you need to worry about! Now where is the Book of the Dead? It was not found with you when they found you!" Seth said to Anck but he was still looking straight at Natasha.
"It will still be in Hamunaptra! The guards must have hid it as soon as they had executed Imhotep!" Anck said grabbing Seth's suit tighter in her bandaged covered hand.
Seth finally looked round at Anck. "He was not executed! He never got to go to the Underworld. Horus made sure of that and he was buried alive to become an Undead Mummy which he is at the moment!" Seth said as he brought Anck much closer to him. He looked back at Natasha and Clint and smirked. "You can lower your weapons you two! I am not here to cause any problems to Nightshade's beloved country! No I was only hear to make sure my love was safe from that monster that you have taken back to New York City!" he said as he brought her even closer to him.
Natasha glanced over at Clint. They were both not letting him go. Not when he could bring back a mummy back from the dead. They did not know if Seth brought Imhotep back from the dead, but he was alive when Captain America along with Nightshade and Edward had found him in his sealed sarcophagus.
"If Imhotep is still alive we need to find him and kill him! He should pay for what he has done to you! To us!" Anck squeaked. She looked up at Seth's face and with a snapping of his powers was whisked them away from British Museum.