Atlas City

Klaus raced to the top of the building, he knew Richard needed him, and he would be there to offer whatever support he could. He wasn't expecting to bust through the door that led to the rooftop and find Richard slowly trying to use his powers to "feel" out their enemy.

"Mind if I try?" he started, throwing a few disks across the gap between the highrises. If an enemy was there, displacing them out of time should render whatever cloaking they were using useless. There between flickers of time dilation, the pair could make out what looked to be a robot? it was a brief view as the disks short-circuited, there was likely an EMP field emitting from the robot but it was enough time to see what they were up against.

"There's your sniper, any ideas?" he took a stance to ready himself for the chase he expected was coming.

INTERLUDE...

Egypt

The flight from London to Cairo was ten hours. The jeep ride from the city's outskirts was only three. The jeep ride felt longer. A long trek through rural Egypt. All so they could plunge into the depths of the desert. There were four of them. Fortune hunters. An anthropologist. And then there was him.

He lead the trek, he knew the old routes. He took them far beyond the sprawling cities, well beyond any veneer of civilization. Cairo soon became a blip on the map as small as any grain of sand. Their only compass as the Nile as they wound along it's path like a sidewinder, in silence. Each passing town quickly became more rural then metropolitan as the distance between them grew sparser and sparser.

The sun began to set, reflecting in red across the vast stretch of water before they reached their destination. He was the first to step out, sandaled feet alighting with Earth. He was the first to be greeted, but only in a whisper.

"Piaulef."

They knew old ways here. Didn't practice them but they knew. These people were smart. They knew where that road often lead.

"Aben Ecgetheow."

"Khadhani iliha," he replied back to them, eyes imperceptible due to the slick pair of shades strewn across his face. They knew him even with the tagelmust wrapped around his head. Their eyes glared past the cloth, past the flesh. They glared directly into the soul. Seeing his intent, they nodded and led him up a hill as he was reluctantly followed by his three companions. The villagers payed him little heed until they saw where he was heading. A small secluded hut behind a row of houses atop the hill. Barely visible unless one was looking for it. Maybe only visible if one were looking for it.

He pushed through the veil, greeting an old woman smiling upwards at a small desk full of trinkets. She lifted one up, a golden badge in the shape of a bull and offered it to him. But they both knew he had no interest in such things. "Al-katib al-mofqud...I want the book," he stated in a low growl.

"Have you decided to finally lay yourself to rest?" the old woman replied, in English after a moment. "Do you need instruction?"

"We ALL will!" He shot back. "If we're not careful. If and when the world turns on it's head again. That book's the key to somethin'. All you gotta do is let me take a look."

The woman studied him for a moment. Quietly, she gave a nod and walked behind her desk towards a small window, that faced opposite the stone wall her tiny house had been built against. While it didn't offer much a of a view, what it had in store was so much more. She pulled down the tassel and the entire wall fell downwards, folding into a short staircase that lead directly towards a cavernous pit.

He took no fear as he stepped forward into the abyss, those that followed him, tiptoeing behind with far more reluctance. He drew a lighter from his coat and used it to set the torches laying on the walls ablaze. The sight they were greeted with was one not once recorded in the annals of history. Two stone rings the size of minivans, spiraling against each other intertwined in midair.

In their center was not written word was the script. Words Emerging Forth Into Light. He began to reach out toward it, but thought better fairly quickly. all eyes were on him now. And when he read, his eyes widened. "What came before would come once again? Nothing set in stone, no crowns no kingdoms. Just a banner..." he stopped reading suddenly and turned to face the old woman. "On second thought...I'mma need to take this with me."

Maxwell grinned under his mask at Vic's various remarks, a little amused by her candidness in what she had to say. "You know Miss Vortex, our resident tinker may be away, but I certainly think I could be of some assistance to you. Both in getting back your 'personal investment', and I suspect in many other things." His gaze was fixed on the rocker, considering her, and what she'd been through. She'd told him next to nothing, but she didn't have to. The Shape had seen plenty of performances before, and while her almost flippant behavior was authentic, Vicky Vortex was practically draped in pain.

"As for keeping my secrets Vicky, I'm not really worried about any of that. You don't seem the sort to burn bridges with friends, and I think you might be looking for some right now. Some resourceful, well connected friends."



Richard stared down the glistening air, noticing a red dot now trained on him. "Carlisle? Oh he's my grandfather figure." He remarked sardonically to the sniper. Richard's right hand was tensing up, readying up as he responded again. "As for how many of us he's got around, that's need to know information. And you don't need to know. Though I have to ask; who hired you to kill some random, old billionaire, and why?"

Before an answer could be given, time began to skew around the sniper. Klaus had arrived, and not a moment too soon. "Appreciate the help! Now as for ideas..." Richard paused, finally being able to see glimpses of the enemy. A robot? Seriously? This was beyond anything he expected... But not something he was going to be any more intimated by.

"I've got a few." Richard grinned as the red dot swayed slightly. He flicked something with his right hand, and the red dot quickly separated into thousands of directions as it shone through a piece of glassy ice. Taking a dive to the side, Richard fired off a few shots at the robot, before tucking and rolling into cover. A few shots silently rang out from the sniper, but while Klaus made a few attacks of his own, Richard came back around in a full charge at his steely foe.



George nodded stoically to Henry, though his eyes showed a certain dread, the realization of how precious a commodity time was, and how forces were now at play that sought to rob him of as much of it as possible. "We'll need to contact the others. Richard is going to try to subdue the shooter, but you're right, we need to get out of the city. I think it's finally time we made that trip out to sea..."



THUD

CRACK

Richard's body slammed into a sheet of reinforced, skylight glass, causing the whole piece to buckle and crack. He gasped silently, his whole back searing in pain from where it connected with the skylight, his chest contracted and unable to move, incapable of taking in any air. Gripping onto the side of the angled surface, he steadied himself enough to roll off of the glass and onto the layer of concrete that made up the roof of an entirely different skyscraper. The fight had gone unexpectedly wrong when the assassin grabbed Richard and threw him from the roof of the Galliant building, and onto whichever building he was on now.

His whole body shook violently as the realization came over him of just how close to death he had been. The assassin made a miscalculation, a mistake. Had he thrown him in a different direction, or with less strength, it would have been pavement Richard was landing on. Finally, his chest managed to release from its contraction, and deep, shaky breaths returned to him as he gulped up as much air as his lungs could handle.

Laying prone, resting his forearms on the ground for support, Richard slowly rolled himself over onto his aching back, gazing unsteadily into the bright blue sky above him. There was rapid, unintelligible chatter come through his comms device, something about the other group being attacked by some villains? An explosion at the mansion? Needing to retreat? His brain couldn't make any sense of it, so he pulled the device from his ear and decided to just lay there.

Just 10, maybe 15 minutes. 20 tops. He just needed a second. He just needed some Time.