By Pharaoh ID: 34761
The Crooked Man, sometimes known as Hem-Netjar, Priest of the Seed of Anubis: Pharaoh Ankh Nakhti Meri Nesu, stood by an empty operating table. The old Egyptian priest remembered the stone tables they used to work on to create the mummies of old, delicately removing organs from deceased loved ones to prepare them for the afterlife.
He even recalled doing the very procedure for his beloved God-King. That was so many years ago. So many eons had passed, waiting on the Seed of Anubis to finally rise again. And he had done so. But not at his full potential. Pharaoh should have had the powers of time and space to bring forth the Black Pyramid, heralding a new empire for the God-King to rule over.
Instead, the pharaohs powers were a small slice of what he should be capable of.
Hem-Netjar considered the problem. He had watched the world grown and change since the death of Ankh Nakhti Meri Nesu. The priest had tapped into the Nth Dimension and used its powers to alter and change his own form, allowing him to wait for the God-Kings return. Perhaps he had grown a bit mad over the millennia of waiting, preparing, plotting. He had just managed to complete the ritual when one of those costumed freaks managed to catch him. But it was too late. Pharaoh, the Seed of Anubis, had indeed risen.
Granted, he had risen where his body was laid, on display in the British Museum in London. The Mummified corpse of Pharaoh was listed as an unknown king, discovered in an unknown tomb found in some unknown location. That was how Hem-Netjar had planned it. Grave robbers could not steal what was not there. In time, the priest had allowed the tomb to be found by archeologists, bringing the body of his God-King to London.
The Morphons had infused Pharaohs body when Legion seeded the earth. But until Hem-Netjar had performed the ritual to raise him, Pharaoh was still dead. Now, the God-King worked to regain his powers of time and space in order to return the Black Pyramid from which he had ruled on high so long ago.
Which brought us back to Hem-Netjar's current dilemma: how to restore the power to raise the Black Pyramid without the power of the Black Pyramid to begin with. A Catch-22.
Pharaoh walked into the sterile operating room and considered the priest across from him. The man still wore his "Crooked Man" outfit, as it seemed to be his persona for so long it suited him. His body continued to phase in and out of existence as he accessed the Nth Dimension, whether he did it purposefully or subconsciously, Pharaoh could not tell. Behind Pharaoh, he was followed by Lady Jynx, come to offer opinions and stay in the loop.
"What do you have for me, Hem-Netjar?", Pharaoh asked. "You had hinted that you may have a solution to the issue".
"Yes, my God-King", Hem-Netjar replied, ignoring the roll of Jynx's eyes behind Pharaoh. "I have possibly devised a solution that will boost your already considerable power and draw out the latent abilities that we know you have but refuse to manifest."
Both Hem-Netjar and Pharaoh hated mentioning the issue out loud, as they both felt it betrayed the God-King with mortality and weakness. There was nothing to be done about it though, it had to be solved. Pharaoh fought back anger and motioned for Hem-Netjar to continue.
"I will tap into my connection to the Nth Dimension and augment that with spells and prayer, and the new sciences that have developed over the recent centuries." Again, Hem-Netjar ignored the smirk on Lady Jynx's face. She had no trust of his spells and prayers that were mystical mumbo-jumbo, as she called it.
"And you believe this will bring forth the hidden potential?" Pharaoh inquired.
"I do, my lord. But there is a catch."
"Here we go", Jynx muttered, stepping up to the table. "And what catch will that be, priest?"
Hem-Netjar ignored her, but Pharaoh stared at him and commanded him to continue with his piercing eyes.
"In order to accelerate your powers to their maximum potential, we must first de-construct your powers to their most dormant state, to a human level"
"Whoa Whoa Whoa!", Jynx exploded. "Are you trying to nicely say that you need to strip our boss, our leader of ALL of his powers and make him totally normal? And what if this plan doesn't work? What if you strip him down and can't jump start his powers? Do we sell him for parts..." Jynx was cut off as Pharaoh raised his hand for silence.
"What are the chances this will work?" Pharaoh's voice was low but had the commanding presence of a man who was used to being in charge, obeyed without question.
Hem-Netjar stood a few minutes and considered how best to answer. His form phased out of its "Crooked Man" persona and was instead replaced with the original Hem-Netjar persona in ancient Egyptian jewelry around his neck and arms, a purple shendit around his waist. He was exactly as Pharaoh remembered him and trusted from the old empire he had ruled.
"My Pharaoh, My God-King, Meri Nesu... I cannot promise that this will be 100% successful. It is possible I have made mistakes. I am only human. But I have been gathering data and knowledge for the past 10,000+ years since your former life. In that time, I have learned mroe than anyone on the planet. I see the connections between the Science and the Mystical, and how to bind them to my will." Hem-Netjar looked down from the Pharaohs eyes and closed them. "All I can promise, is that I will do my best and do everything I can to ensure your rebirth. Once you have done so, The Black Pyramid can rise, and you will take your place as supreme being and lord of the planet."
Pharaoh continued staring at his most loyal subject, the one man he had entrusted his initial resurrection with. Lady Jynx just stared dumbfounded at the man across the table. Hem-Netjar knew better than to speak further. It was now time for the Pharaoh to make his decision.
"Do it."
******
Jynx had raged for over an hour at the stupidity of this attempt. All this was going to do was strip the powers from their leader, leaving them with no protection, no guidance, and no home. Pharaoh heard none of these outbursts as he had stayed in his prayer chamber, contemplating the decision, embracing his destiny, and preparing his body and mind.
Dressed in only his shendit and a robe, Pharaoh returned to the operating theatre, his loyal subjects had gathered in the observation areas, with Hem-Netjar standing below, assisted by Lady Jynx. The room had the same table as before, cold and lifeless steel shining in the harsh glare of the lights that shone down on it. Pharaoh could not help but notice the restraints that had been added to hold him still during the procedures.
The room also now had large containers of different liquids around the edge. Tubes came out of them that brought the liquids to the operating table, connected to syringes hovering up above it. The liquids were visible through the glass of their large containers, swirling colors of blues, oranges, purples, greens, and all the colors of the morphons. Also swirling among them was a black mist that could only be Nth Dimensional influences. Hem-Netjar gestured for Pharaoh to lay on the table, a pillow placed for his royal head to rest upon.
"The first part of the procedure replies on mysticism to strip you down to your most base form: pure human. Once the ritual is performed, I will begin the transference of the solutions to your body and begin rebuilding your power."
As Pharaoh lay upon the table, Jynx began attaching several diodes leads to his body, not only to monitor his body functions, but several designed to measure power levels of "super" individuals.
The three major power levels labeled "Attack, Defense, and Move" jumped up considerably, but not to levels needed to defeat every superhero that would challenge him during his revolution. Certainly not enough to go against the combined efforts of B.A.D.G.E.
After attaching the leads, Jynx retreated to a spot out of the way. Hem-Netjar stepped forward placed his hands hovering above Pharaohs Chest. He chanted quietly, barely mumbling the words at first. Pharaoh lay perfectly still and eyes closed.
Slowly, subtly, the mumbling of Hem-Netjar began to get louder, more distinct. The words were still unintelligible, but as the words grew in volume, a yellow glow began to form around the priests’ hands. Vapors of the yellow began to drop down like mist, rolling across the pharaohs chest and slowly covered his body in the fine vaporous mist.
Up in the viewing stands, the loyalist known as Antman leaned over to Zeus sitting beside him and whispered, "So if we can steal powers from people with this spell thingy, why don’t we just steal powers from all the other heroes so we are the only ones left with power?"
“Because” Zeus replied. "The target must be a willing recipient. It won’t work if the target is physically and mentally fighting the process. It requires complete trust in the one casting the spells. Note the restraints aren't used yet".
As Antman looked again, he realized the restraints still sat unattached to the God-King. He sat back and continued watching the progress in silence, as a beep on the monitors began to emit softly. All eyes were drawn to the display as the Attack, Defense, and Move power levels began to drop rapidly. When finished, the levels settled at the point a normal human would have, if they worked out and exercised daily. Pharaoh himself lay perfectly still on the table.
Jynx again stepped forward and with shaking hands at first, began to attach the restraints to her boss. His wrists and forearms were restricted against the table, as well as his shins and thighs. A larger restraint was placed across his chest and tightened down. Finally, a restraint was brought across the pharaoh’s forehead restricting his movements completely. Hem-Netjar followed behind her checking each restraint to double check they were all as tight as possible without restricting blood flow.
Once he was happy with the restraints, he reached up and began lowering the contraption above that held the syringes. Jynx assisted by holding each one while Hem-Netjar prepared the injection sights across Pharaohs body. One by one they were placed under his skin in the vessels.
Now Hem-Netjar paused and took a deep breath. The entire chamber was dead quite except the slow steady beep of Pharaohs heart rate. The priest turned and flipped a switch on the panels next to him. a Pump began drawing liquid from the various containers and slowly made its way across the tubes above them to finally come down to the syringes. With another flip of a switch the syringes filled and began to inject the fluids into the God-Kings body.
The first indication of change was in the heart rhythm. It immediately began to pick up speed, increasing from 60 beats a minute to 90 in one jump. Sweat began to form on Pharaohs body, which Hem-Netjar wiped away gently with a cold cloth he had already prepared.
Pharaoh's body temperature increased to over 101 degrees while his heart rate continued to increase to over 100 beats per minute. His blood pressure raised considerably and alarmingly. With a terrified look, Jynx stepped forward, but Hem-Netjar held his hand up, much like Pharaoh would do to her when he wanted her to be quiet. Surprising even herself she fell silent.
A new beeping drew everyone’s attention back to the monitor that listed his power levels. Slowly, achingly slow, the levels began to increase. Hem-Netjar smiled as he saw the progress, as Jynx found her voice again.
"They aren't raising very quickly. Is that expected?"
"Nothing is expected at this point", Hem-Netjar replied. "We are in uncharted water and navigating by our wits and intuition now."
"At this rate", she indicated the monitors, "He won’t have powers levels of even newbie heroes for days."
"I see that. However, I expect the rate to grow exponentially as time progresses." Hem-Netjar watched the slowly growing monitor and nodded. "The God-King will remain in this near comatose state for quite some time. There is nothing more for you all to do from there", as he gestured to the loyalists gathered in the viewing area. They stood and slowly started filing out of the room, leaving Hem-Netjar, Jynx, and Pharaoh alone.
"How long in a coma?" she asked.
"As long as it takes", was his only answer. She shook her head and left the priest to watch over his once and future king.
