Disclaimer: I bought the NATM franchise the day I grew wings out of my back and flew to the moon to get my pink llama a hot dog.
-Full- Summary: Things are not well at the museum when a new exhibit arrives. With a new artifact comes new curses, new magic, and new friends. At first, things are great, and the museum is more popular then ever! But suddenly things take a turn for the worst when three all-powerful ancient Egyptian gods get involved, wanting revenge on mankind.
Now it's up to Larry and the gang to stop these misfit deities from taking out everything and everyone in their path, all before sunrise!
A/N: Holy crow! I'm updating this thing like, seriously fast! I must have a lot of inspiration! (Either that, or I just need to get it out of my head in order to think straight again.) ...I'm gonna go with the latter. XD In this chapter, more things get explained and you get to meet the comic relief, my boyfriend and future husband, Ahy! (lol but I don't think he knows it yet.)
Ok, once again, I'm twisting the mythology around. A couple sites said that Ahy was supposed to be a "boy god", but a few others said that he was supposed to be a teenager. For the sake of the story, I'm making him eleven, so he's old enough to understand things, but still young enough to be hyperactive. Got it? (PS: I love the skirt lines XD)
"You're kidding," said Sekhmet. "How do you think that he can help?"
The two twin goddesses were standing on the sidewalk in front of the museum. It had just gotten dark, and there were crowds of people going inside of the museum. Hathor had removed her sunglasses (apparently, mortals didn't wear them at night) and was twirling them around in her fingers. She shook her head.
"I know it sounds a little...impractical to use him-"
"Impractical?"
"-but he is my as well as Horus' son. If anyone can bypass the curse, it's going to be someone from Horus' own bloodline," said Hathor, turning her eyes to watch her son.
Who the two women were referring to was a eleven year old boy who was standing just out of earshot, watching intently as cars passed by on the street. The boy was tall for his age, and he had black hair, was wearing a loose white shirt and jeans. He turned his large brown eyes to them and suddenly disappeared.
CRACK!
"Mother, have you seen those things?" asked the boy quickly, appearing next to them. "They're like chariots, only without horses or reigns! It's like they're self-piloted! And the way mortals dress is so weird! Only women are in skirts! And they're more advanced! Look up there! There are balls of light trapped in those poles!" The boy continued his rant, and Sekhmet looked at Hathor and raised an eyebrow.
"He hasn't been out of the Underworld for a while...," she muttered.
"A while?"
"A thousand years."
"Ah."
Hathor turned her attention back on the boy, who was still talking rather quickly. "Ahy?" she asked, putting her hands on his shoulders. The boy immediately shut his mouth and looked at her. "I need you to go inside of that building-"
"It looks like a oversized temple."
"Whatever floats your boat. Now-"
"I saw a couple of those, too! Out over there-"
"Focus! Now listen. Go inside of there, and reverse the spell your grandfather put on there. You still remember how to do that, don't you?" Ahy nodded. "Good. Now go."
Ahy nodded and with another CRACK was gone. Once inside, Ahy momentary forgot what he was supposed to be doing. Mortals sure had changed in the thousand years he had been in the Underworld. Then he remembered that he was here for a reason. Closing his eyes, he recited the special mantra that Horus had taught him when he was younger, only in reverse. He opened his eyes, and saw the shield fully illuminate before disappearing altogether. Ahy smiled, mentally patting himself on the back. It had taken eight hundred years for him to get that spell right!
"What are you doing?" asked a voice next to him. Startled, he turned and saw a little redheaded girl looking at him with wide eyes.
"I'm just – you can see me?"
"Of course I can, silly," said the girl. Ahy cocked his head. Mortals couldn't see the gods unless they wanted to be seen. However, there were occasionally a handful of mortals who could see them even if they didn't want to be.
"Who are you?" asked the girl again.
"I'm Ahy."
"That's a funny name. My name's Sadie. Where's your mommy?"
"Outside."
"Are you lost?"
"No," said Ahy, though he was in a way. Nothing in the Overworld looked familiar anymore.
"Sadie!" called a brunette woman (in a skirt!).
"I have to go now. Bye!" said Sadie, before skipping off to the woman. The woman took Sadie's hand and walked away with her.
"Ahy," said Sekhmet, walking into the museum behind Hathor, "what are you doing?"
"Someone saw me," he answered simply, shrugging.
"What!" cried Sekhmet.
"We'll have to worry about it later," said Hathor, waving a hand in the air to brush away the thought. "Right now we've got a scepter to find."
CRACK.
"You mean this one?" asked Ahy, who was now standing across the room and was pointing at a sign. "'The Scepter of Ra'," read Ahy. "That's not his scepter. 'Now on display in the Tomb of Ahkmenrah'."
"See?" said Sekhmet triumphantly as she and Hathor hurried across the room. "He isn'tin the Underworld! I told you!"
"That must have been where we saw the Tablet," said Hathor. "C'mon."
Larry had found Rebecca in front of Ahkmenrah's tomb, where there was a line of people. It wasn't big, but it was long, and stretched almost halfway down the hall. This must've been where Dr. McPhee had set up the new exhibit.
Rebecca looked relieved when she saw him.
"There you are! It was supposed to open like, three minutes ago. I sent Ahk to go get you!" she said in a hushed tone. He pulled out his keychain and unlocked the door.
"Dexter got my keys," he said simply, and Rebecca rolled her eyes.
"Damn that monkey."
"You're a little edgy without coffee, you know that?"
"Am not!" Someone behind the pair cleared their throat loudly, and that seemed to snap Rebecca out of it. She opened the gates, and as if on cue, Dr. McPhee appeared out of no where and started ushering people inside. No one noticed three extra people joining in the group as it went inside.
It was official: coming to the museum was a total waste of time. Brad was far too interested in that stupid stick then her. It made Bonnie want to scream. But since that would probably get her kicked out of the museum and embarrass the crap out of her, she did the only other thing that made sense: she took it out on Viola.
The skinny nerd was always so stubborn, but she always did what Bonnie asked. Must have been in her "good girl" philosophy. Viola was currently about to walk into that one creepy Egyptian tomb or whatever the hell they called it when Bonnie smirking and caught her shoulder.
"Viola," she said in a sweet voice, "can you go out to my car? I don't think I locked it."
Megan, who was standing behind her, hid a snicker behind a cough.
"Why don't you check it yourself?" snapped Viola.
"Because," said Bonnie, throwing the car keys up in the air for her to catch. Viola stumbled, trying to catch them and not drop either of the purses. "I want to stay here with Brad. And you can go ahead and drop my purse in there too. I think we're gonna leave soon, anyway." And with that, she turned around and walked away, Megan and Sara in tow.
Viola scowled, but turned around and walked in the other direction. Bonnie was a jerk, but she did have a pretty cool car. She had got it three days before she got her driver's license, and drove it around the driveway a few times.
The sister's parents were very wealthy, and they lived just outside of town in a mansion. Viola hated to bring up the fact that her family was rich – Bonnie, however, didn't mind once bit. Maybe that's why she wore only specific clothes from specific designers and never wore one outfit twice. Megan was their neighbor, but Sara was in middle class. She had just moved from Kansas and had originally been friends with Viola briefly before the day when Bonnie put an arm around Sara's shoulder's and 'accepted' her into her clique.
Walking out the museum's main doors, she headed across the street to where Bonnie had parked her car: a pink Bug Volkswagen. Viola rolled her eyes when she walked up – Bonnie had parked literally on the curve – and hit the unlock button on the keychain. The car's light's blinked in response and made a little click sound. So Bonnie had locked the car. She just wanted to get rid of Viola for some reason. Typical.
She opened the front door, and tossed Sara's purse in the back, put Megan's in the passenger seat, and but Bonnie's next to hers. Viola shut the door and locked the car again, but suddenly froze. The hair on the back of her neck rose.
It felt like someone was...watching her.
She whirled around. No one. She shook her head.
"I've been staring at blueprints for too long," she muttered, before walking back to the museum. Viola spent many sleepless nights observing and studying blueprints of certain machines. She loved to work with manics, and even built a computer from scratch and rewired a TV. It wasn't hard; at least, it wasn't for her.
Sekhmet scowled, listening to the complete nonsense of how the 'Scepter of Ra' came to be. "Even if I could take it, there's too many mortals. They would notice something, and if the mortals notice something, then they'll notice something, and then we'll get busted," she said bitterly.
"Why are you so afraid of getting caught? Haven't you done stuff like this before?" asked Ahy.
"Of course I have! But when we're dealing with both the Tablet and scepter, then we need to be careful. Mortals may be stupid, but they're aware of what goes on around them."
"Extra careful, got it! Hey – where'd mother go?" asked Ahy, looking around for Hathor. As if on cue, there was a CRACK, and Hathor appeared in the tomb's doorway, motioning for them to join her out in the hallway.
"Where'd you go?" asked Ahy almost immediately.
"Followed the girl. It's Sulipica."
"How do you know?" asked Sekhmet. "If we attack an innocent mortal, then father will-"
"I know it's her. She looks just like her, and I even tried to put a mild spell on her. Nothing. I almost thought it was a coincidence, but then she said something about mechanics."
Something seemed to click in the back of Ahy's mind. "Wait, Sulipica? You mean that skinny girl with the freckles who fell through the Gate with the Half-Bloods?" Sekhmet snorted at the word "fell" and Hathor nodded. "I thought she was cute."
"Ignoring that," muttered Hathor.
"Oh oh oh!" cried Ahy, grinning and jumping up and down. "I think I just thought of something! If you want to get back at the Half-Blood, then why not use her? Mother can just use a love spell on him, and when he's distracted, Sekky can go in and grab both the scepter and the Tablet! And Isis and Ra will never know because it will look like mother was just doing her job! It all fits! Then, later you can kill them both or something."
Sekhmet laughed once, but then stopped. She and Hathor exchanged glances. "Actually," said Sekhmet, "that sounds like it would work!" Sekhmet briefly ruffled Ahy's hair. "I knew bringing you was a good idea!"
Hathor rolled her eyes, but didn't correct her sister. "Ok, one distracting love spell, coming up!" CRACK. She was in the miniatures room, standing right in front Ahkmenrah, who appeared to be talking to a cowboy, looking right through her. Wishing not to be seen, she opened her hand, palm up, and a ball of red the size of a quarter appeared. The ball grew, until it was the size of a baseball, then stopped. Hathor closed her hand around it, and it started to shrink back down again. It shrank until it crumpled to dust in her hand. She held her palm up to her face and blew the dust in the boy's face.
Ahkmenrah stopped talking mid-sentence and blinked rapidly. Hathor smiled, pleased with her work, and was about to teleport back to her sister and son before she got another idea.
CRACK!
Viola walked back into the museum and headed for the tomb where Bonnie would surely be waiting, but she must have took a wrong turn because somehow she ended up near the loading docks.
"Just my luck," she muttered, and turned back around and tried to re-trace her steps. This time, she walked into a room with a few families, and three dioramas. She looked around helplessly and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, trying to think.
It shouldn't have been that complicated, she thought, Let's see...I went left, right, then left...or was it right, left, then right...?
"Ya alright there, missy?"
Viola looked around briefly, then looked down. Cocking her head, she knelt down, and looked at a little cowboy. He was only about five inches tall, and her curiosity spiked.
"Um, ya I'm – wow. I mean, I knew the museum had upgraded the animatronics, but this – this is awesome!"
The little cowboy looked at Viola like she was crazy.
"So is there like a remote controlling all this or something? Like a hidden room?" Viola seemed to only be asking herself these questions.
"There ain't no hidden room," said the cowboy, crossing his arms.
"Oh I get it now. I bet you're motion activated, yeah that'd make sense. Anyway, I'm sorta lost, d'you think you could tell me how to get outta here?"
"Depends where you're headed," said the cowboy.
"To meet my sister at the new exhibit. I think it's the Egyptian room or something."
"Well he could actually show you," he said, pointing over her shoulder. "HEY, AHK!"
Viola turned her head around, and almost winced. The guy with the weird cape thing who she had run into before was looking at her, and walked over. She almost immediately stood up, and he bent down and picked up the little cowboy in his hand.
"Yes, Jedediah?"
"Can you take this young lady down to the new exhibit? She says that it's right by your tomb."
He glanced at Viola for a second out of the corner of his eyes, then turned back to the cowboy named Jedediah and said, "Of course." Then he set down the cowboy on the armrest on the bench in the middle of the room and turned to Viola. He motioned for her to follow him and walked out. Viola quickly hurried after until she fell into step with him.
"I'm really sorry about earlier," she blurted out. "I'm Viola by the way."
"I am Ahkmenrah," he said, then continued into a short rant about "the land of my fathers".
Viola raised an eyebrow, but then remembered that this was one of those volunteers, and almost slapped herself. "Of course you are," she said. "And thanks by the way, I get lost a lot. This place needs a directory," she muttered the last part, but 'Ahkmenrah' must have heard it, because she saw him smile slightly out of the corner of her eye.
"How long has this place been open late?" she asked, wanting to keep a conversation up.
"I believe two months. It is hard to be sure; your time is recorded differently then mine."
"Okaaaay," said Viola. Then she looked at him again. "Seriously, have we met before? You look really familiar. Did you go to my high school or something?" He shook his head, but Viola wasn't discouraged. "How about living on my street...? No, Bonnie would have probably dated you if that happened, and I know I haven't seen you from that..." Viola was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't notice when Bonnie passed her and grabbed her arm. She yelped, being roughly pulled away from thinking.
"There you are!" said Bonnie. "C'mon, we're going. Brad's going to one of those twenty four hour Cold Stone's, and I'm going too, so come on!"
"But I – he – whatever," said Viola, defeated. She turned back to Ahkmenrah and waved slightly. "Bye then, I guess. Thanks anyway." And with that, she followed Bonnie out to the museum lobby and out the door.
"It must be the apocalypse, Viola was actually flirting," said Bonnie, turning around to face her sister and walking backwards.
"What? I wasn't flirting. That guy was taking me to the new exhibit – which I didn't get to see thank you very much," said Viola crossly, handing Bonnie her car keys.
"Yeah, it wasn't all that great," said Bonnie, turning back around and unlocking the Bug. "Definitely not worth coming to see. Look it up on Google; that would probably save you much more time."
Viola rolled her eyes, but got in the car along with Bonnie and her friends.
CRACK!
"What the heck took you so long?" demanded Sekhmet. It had been fifteen minutes, and Hathor wasn't known for being slow.
"What's love without a little competition?" asked Hathor, smiling warily. "But we're going to have to watch it; doing two spells that close together makes them unstable. If they get to close, they might backfire."
"So we have to stand around all day and watch them?" whined Ahy. "Awww!"
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with the kid," said Sekhmet, pointing her thumb at Ahy. "I can name at least forty different things that I could do rather then watching two mortals fall in love. That's your thing."
"We're not going to stand around all day," snapped Hathor, "but we're going to have to watch them somehow. And going back into the Underworld isn't an option. If we do, and father catches us spying on those two specifically rather then other mortals, then he'll know something's up. So, for now, we are going to stay in the Overworld."
"What?" cried both Sekhmet and Ahy in unison. Ahy looked overjoyed; Sekhmet looked completely horrified.
"Great!"
"Are you crazy?"
"It's settled then," said Hathor, clapping her hands together. "We're staying, just for now." She directed the last part at Sekhmet, who rolled her eyes.
"Ok," Sekhmet said, putting her hands on her hips, "what do you suppose we do? Rent a hotel room?"
"What's a hotel?" asked Ahy.
"It's like an inn, sweetie. And no, I already have an idea."
Teresa had always hated going out of town. It left their apartment so…vacant and it was just being asked to get robbed. (However, her husband, Jim, was the chief of Police, so he always re-assured her that if anything went wrong, he would be there to protect her.) And it didn't help that they would leave their cat, Mittens, alone as well. But there was a nice lady who lived across the hall names Rebecca Hutman who would come over on the rare occasions that they were gone and take care of Mittens for them.
Still, Teresa hated leaving.
But on her and Jim's anniversary, she agreed to leave to go to Hawaii. Three weeks had passed and now they were finally back in New York, and Teresa was glad. She had become slightly homesick, but that was nothing that sand, sun, and surf couldn't fix.
Jim had been carrying most of the baggage when they finally had gotten to their floor. (Teresa hated elevators ever since she had gotten stuck in one when she had been eight, so she insisted that they both use the stairs.) Teresa fished in her pocket for the apartment key, and stepped in front of Jim before turning it in the lock. Opening the door, she blinked, trying to navigate herself through the pitch-black apartment. She heard Jim stumble as he dropped a suitcase, but he walked in behind her and flicked on the lights.
It took a moment for Teresa to process what was going on. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision of the black spots that danced across her vision, but something was wrong. There were two people sitting on her couch; both of them having jet black hair, one a woman and the other simply a boy. There was another woman, blonde, who was leaning against the wall closest to them, mere inches from her. The three of them were stunningly beautiful.
Teresa froze, and she heard Jim drop the rest of the suitcases and step in front of her. "Who are you?" he demanded, raising his fists in a fighting position.
"Oh please," muttered the woman on the couch, rolling her eyes. The blonde woman straightened up, said something in another language that Teresa didn't recognize, and everything went black.
A/N: Reasons why this chapter was late: I just got back from vacation, and I didn't have internet. I would have updated this so much sooner. Anyways, thanks for reading. Review! (PS: "Damn that monkey" was by-far the best line I have ever written XD)