[CHAPTER_09] The Path Of Sand

[SSJ Girl]

The path of sand: Egypt's fate

It was yet another day in the fallen country of Egypt. New home of mega-villain Avalanche. Said villain was currently hanging lazily on his throne made out of pure sand in his castle, also made out of pure sand. He was currently staring at his apprentice: Scorpion. The young girl in question was hanging upside down in a smaller throne also made out of sand and legs dangling in front of her face.

"What?" a yawn. The girl appeared to be as bored as the mega-villain himself. If the attendance of all the scorpions in the area was any indication, then it would appear she was terribly bored indeed. The throne and floor were crawling with them as they flooded around in seemingly random patterns. It appeared to interest Scorpion greatly. But then again; not really, seeing how she kept on poking and prodding them, changing them into different patterns with every prod.

Avalanche tapped his fingers impatiently on the hardened sand of his throne, remaining silent. He kept on looking at Scorpion, an intensily assessive gaze.

She slammed down her fist against a wall, crumbling it and striking a hole in it. Almost instantly all of the fallen sand flew back up and rejoined the wall. The whole process took less than a second and when it was done, the wall looked as solid as ever, showing no sign of its previous destruction. "What?" she sounded very much annoyed now.

"You're being quite useless around here." Avalanche sighed as his eyes flicked over to a wall which promptly expelled a pair of snakes, performing a majestic dance.

Scorpion, glad with the challenge, jumped up. "Did you forget what I did?! I was the one that levelled Cairo! I was the one that took out the opposition and I was the one that drove away those f*****g supers," she exclaimed arrogantly.

Avalanche smirked as his gaze fell back on his young apprentice. "I would warn you to not strike such a tone at me weren't it for the fact that I actively encourage it." He grinned widely as another snake elevated itself out of the floor and wound itself around Scorpion's legs.

"Bah." Scorpion sneered as she swiped her hand impatiently through the snake, dissolving it into a pile of sand. She jumped forwards and grinned widely to accept the unspoken challenge. "I'll do whatever you say, master! Anything!"

Avalanche finalled deemed it worthy to sit up. Supporting himself with one elbow he turned towards the young girl. "That's my girl," he grinned widely, "I have just the thing for you."  

[Solarduct]

"I want you to gather all that Egypt has to offer."

Avalanche had smirked eagerly, already thinking ahead of what he could do when that had been accomplished. It wasn't really a fun job. Not that Scorpion was complaining. It gave her something to do.

She rode on top of her largest scorpion. Mostly throughout the desert, but there were little settelements she loved disturbing. Right now she was bulldozing her way through Giza and smirked each time she heard the cries of the frightened civilians as they scattered to make way for her 30-foot high scorpion.

Of course, it had only been two days since they had succesfully taken Egypt so they couldn't expect too much, but still... only two of the native Evos had reported to their castle and that was worrying. Weren't there more? According to Amisi, there were. Some guy named 'Lord Odjit' was the one that was supposed to be the resident coördinator and had apparently gathered Evos from all over the country. And now it was her job to raid the deserts in order to find him and consequently all of the others. Oh joy.

Deep in thought, she only became aware that the screams of the civilians had stopped because all of a sudden her scorpion vanished and she was forcefully flung forwards. However, before she could make a very deep and rather painful impact with the ground, it rose and gracefully twisted itself in a large hand which neatly caught her.

"Avalanche?" she asked, a hint of bewilderment in her voice.

"Not quite." A cool female voice from her left, followed by a deep male chuckle.

"Figures. Odjit?" Scorpion's voice remained quite flat as she rose gracefully to her feet, not bothering to dust off all of the sand and dirt. The woman that had spoken was accompanied by a man. Both of them wore desert clothes with the slight difference that the man had covered up his mouth and nose with a veil. The woman had dropped the veil in order to speak to the young villain.

"Yes," the woman said, sounding amused. "I see you are quite well informed. The Lord will be pleased."

Scorpion didn't give any outward reaction and merely awaited what would happen. This seemed to please the woman even more.

"Mesi," she slightly inclined her head and made a motion with her hand. The sand beneath Scorpions feet slid forward as if it were some sort of conveyer belt until she rested next to the woman. "This is Chike," she motioned to the man, who inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement.

Scorpion gave both Mesi and Chike a clearly unimpressed look. After all, having Avalanche as mentor had assured her to having seen pretty much all there was to see when it came to 'neat' tricks with sand. The only thing that worried her was what they had done to her scorpion. Mesi couldn't have done anything, being an earth manipulator so that left the man. She looked him over, wondering what he could do. Some sort of energy implosion, Mind control, illusions... really, there were plenty of options. But if she was to stay alive right now, she had better not show weakness. She let out a bored sigh.

"Look. I'm with Avalanche. I've seen it all. Take me to Odjit or whatever. I don't like to wait."

Mesi frowned lightly. "Don't worry, there will be a time to impress later. For now, we have been instructed to take you to the Lord," she said coolly.

Mesi spread her arms wide and the sand beneath them lifted and formed itself into a plateau before it started moving quickly to.... somewhere. In the desert. Not that Scorpion saw the difference. It was all sand anyway. And she still didn't get what fascinated Avalanche so much about the stuff....

Ah well.