Encroaching Darkness: Ebony Game

It was raining in the streets of a small city, all was quiet and silent for the night, save for the pitter-patter of rain drops as they hit cars, windows, and concrete of the cement jungle. A red robed figure with hair as white as a sheet ran down an alleyway, smirk donning his pale features as a building came into view. Purple eyes scanned the area for a few moments before the figure ran up to the doors and materialized through them. Dark energy represented by black flames escaped the figure's robe, floating to cameras and other forms of surveillance

"Pathetic... The security here is meager at best." A bank no less was in the process of being robbed by the thief, who grinned as he approached and easily opened a safe with a wave of an arm. He entered the large safe, easily finding some money to be able to start off his new life.

"I think it's far easier to steal in this age than it was back then, don't you agree Wadjet?" The white-haired thief smirked at the cash he now held in a small bag. A ghostly snake materialized behind the thief, producing a slight hiss as it came into view. It's white wings and red eyes faintly glowing; it flicked its tongue out at the air.

"Yes, I'm positive that I disabled the alarms and cameras; if I didn't there would have been police swarming the area right now. Now go look around the rest of the place, keep a lookout as well." The winged serpent obeyed, floating out of the safe to go look around the rest of the dark bank. "You'd think that there'd be more of a challenge, especially with the new technology of today."

A hiss escaped his Ka, his spiritual snake, one that caused the thief to become tense with uncertainty, 'Don't tell me that someone has already caught on to my antics.' The thief mulled over in his thoughts, 'No way that there is anyone fast enough or smart enough to know I'm here already.'

The thief strode from his recent find out into the open of the bank to find the front doors were wide open, "Ah, so someone has already caught on, indeed." The thief looked around, trying to find the culprit that planned to intrude upon his own attempt at stealing.

"So, where's the mortal that has performed this act, Wadjet?" He looked to the floating spiritual serpent for answer, to which the snake stared at him, merely flicking its tongue out. "You have no idea...? Well, that's just great. Search for him or her then, I cannot have a mortal in my way as I perform my art."

"Thought I'd find you here." said a familiar voice from behind.

The thief turned around to around at that instant to find the intruder standing there before him, "Ugh... What do you want...?" Ateo's eyes narrowed, "I'm busy, can you not see that?"

Philip raised an eyebrow, "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to let a thief just roam free without some surveillance?" A tiny nanobot zipped from Ateo's shoulder and back to Philip. "So, what are you after now?"

"I figured I'd need a little headway." Ateo's eyes glinted, "Money is something that can give me that. In my time, money was everything, I'm going to assume it's the same here as it was then, no? Besides, the people who work here won't notice anything is gone, not right away at least." Ateo snickered to himself.

Philip looked over his shoulder to see if people were coming or not. "You do know there are ways to legally obtain money right? Like a job? Or welfare? Something like that. Stealing is not necessarily the answer." Philip faced Ateo, secretly making eyes to see if anyone was coming on the off-chance the thief tripped a silent alarm.

Ateo laughed, "You forgot my namesake didn't you?" He chuckled, "Thief King ring a bell, Philip? I can steal what I want when I want to. No one really has a say on what I do when it comes down to it. I can do whatever I want without anything holding me back now."

Philip then asked, "What about the awkwardness of being a temporal fish out of water?" He cautiously took a step forward, "Doesn't that ever get in the way. I mean you call Hebrew "the language of the slaves". God (or Ra in your case) have mercy on you if you ever go to a temple."

The winged serpent hissed, "Calm down, Wadjet. I doubt he'd actually harm me now. And in response, the gods forsook me long ago." Ateo stated, "I don't think I really need to bother with them now anyways." Ateo took out a dollar bill, looking at it carefully, "Why on papyrus, I'll never understand." Ateo mulled over the money, seemingly distracted for the moment, somehow comfortable in Philip's presence.

Philip slithered his hand, erasing his fingerprints, and took the dollar from Ateo and placed it back on the pile. "Now come on, don't want to risk getting caught do you? Why not use your dexterous hands for..." Philip stopped, muttering to himself, "Blast, what is it that people with dexterous hands do... Painting!"

"Caught? Don't think so little of me Philip. The security has been disabled." Ateo stated, "I'm not going to take up art for my life, pottery and painting was never my thing. But I got money now. It was nice seeing you for the time being, but I have more business to attend to." Ateo seemed in a rush, turning around and taking his bag of money with him too.

Philip shot out a few nanobots, trying to land on to act as a tracer again; a purple energy seemed to shock those very nanobots, to which Ateo turned around with a grin on his face, one eye widened while the other was somewhat closed, giving him a creepy expression, "Sometimes I don't think straight. But when I do, I know what you plan. Heheheh... You're such a stalker Philip. Now, stay still while I reactivate security."

Not wanting to be caught in a bank after hours, he dissolved and slithered towards the exit. Once he was outside, he looked towards the roof to see if Ateo had left already. While doing this he muttered, "I'm not a stalker... anyway, what the hell does he think I'm suppose to do. I can't just let him roam around free."

Wadjet was already flying above head, Ateo laughing maniacally at the pace the winged serpent took, "See ya Philip! Enjoy whatever time you have. Got much more fun to make tonight!" Ateo laughed until he was gone once more, heading to the nearest place to keep shelter from the rain. Philip sighed.

'Maniacal laughter is not helping your case Ateo.' He began to sprint under Wadjet, watching the snake to make sure that it wasn't looking down, getting ready to use evasive action if it did look down.

The snake flew over the city, taking its time with the travel, it looked about for any places, and spotted one far away. It began to fly over a wooded forest, Ateo on the other hand mulled about looking at the skies and the ground, "Twerp isn't following, is he?" He looked down to check for Philip. The hivemind quickly changed into a wolf form and continued to run, hoping that the two wouldn't notice.

Wadjet landed down near a cave, Ateo hopped off, "That was nice, we bagged something somewhat neat now didn't we?" Ateo grinned at Wadjet, who merely hissed and faded into nothing, for the time being. Ateo walked into the cave, unaware of Philip still on his tail. In order to avoid being noticed, Philip shapeshifted into the form of a milk snake, thinking to himself, 'What is he doing now?'

A few seconds later was all it took for Philip to realize a fire was inside the cave, Ateo merely munching on an apple and quietly counting the money he stole from the bank. Keeping to the shadow, Philip slithered closer to try to hear Ateo, if he was saying anything aside from counting.

"Bleh, dumbasses... Using papyrus for money, it was not worth much back then but it seems to be praised now. Hm?" Ateo took to looking at the mouth of the cave, seeing Philip in his snake form, "Ah, one of Apep's children wishes to keep me company for the night. Come over." Ateo beckoned, "And even if you were hiding from me, little snake, my years of living in the darkness forced me to adapt." Ateo's eyes flashed violet glowing in the shadows of the night. Philip cautiously slithered over to Ateo.

He couldn't help but think though, 'Modern money isn't papyrus. It's a mix of cloth and paper fibers. If you're going to steal stuff, might as well do the research.'

Ateo sighed, "Child of Apep, do you, by your natural instict, feel the remaining bits of darkness that still pervade the land? It was my fault that Darkness came to Earth." Ateo bit into more of his apple, his lavender eyes staring at the snake, "And what's more-" An explosion was heard, surprising Ateo and getting him to stand on his feet immediately, "What in Ammit was that?!" He ran to the mouth of the cave, to see flames shooting out from above the forest.

Philip changed into a rat and followed Ateo to the mouth of the cave, basically thinking the same thing Ateo has just said.

"Hm..." Ateo broke into a run, hurrying his way through the forest, until he came across a church that was on fire. A person with white hair wearing what appeared to be a black trench coat was walking away from the fire. "Hey! What happened?!" Ateo yelled to the person.

The figure turned around, revealing it to be Makoto, but his eyes were a deep, blood red, his expression appeared angry, "And what do you want? Oh... It's you..."

Philip looked up and saw Makoto, thinking, 'What the hell? That looks like Makoto...but he looks...different. Disturbed.'

"You're Makoto, the boy from those many nights before." Ateo stated, "While I don't mind senseless destruction, why out here?"

Makoto laughed, "Boy, do you not look into one's eyes when you speak to them?!"

Ateo took a step back, "W-what?"

Makoto walked over, "It's been so long Ateo, a little bit past 5000 years... After those stunts you pulled off, and with the recent ones now... Well, I was able to cross over to Earth once more..."

"N-No! Get back!!"

Makoto smirked, raising an arm, flicking a finger and blasted Ateo back into a tree, "Not anywhere near the power you used to have in Egypt." Philip sprinted behind a tree, dissolved into a puddle and secretly tried to slither closer to Makoto, in case something bad happened.

Ateo stood up, "You must have suffered quite a destructive end once I was sent away... Look at you now, having to possess a kid's body." Ateo laughed at Makoto, who seethed in anger.

"All would have gone right, had you followed every direction I gave you; but you didn't... And look at you now, alone and weak..."

"You mean like how I was after everyone died, nothing's changed... I'm still alone..."

Makoto gave a wicked grin, "Of course. And I came back... To help you..."

"Help me?"