David's galleon eased into the Cairo port, its sails drawn tight, steam hissing as the engine slowed. As he stepped off onto the bustling dock, he glanced around, making a mental note of the bustling market and throngs of merchants, fishermen, and traders. He pulled his hood lower and made his way to the edge of the market.
Soon, he spotted Yusuf, the rugged man leading his family's trading network in Egypt. Yusuf gave a quick nod, his voice low and to the point.
"Trouble's been stirring lately," Yusuf murmured as they walked toward a quieter corner. "Heard the Akkaba clan's been active, they've been sneaking in and out of the city. They're restless, speaking of… some ancient God or something." He spoke with hushed words.
David's eyes narrowed. "Is it about the one I've been looking for?"
Yusuf nodded, eyes shifting around before he replied. "That's the name on everyone's tongue, but no one's talking openly. Whatever's going on, they're hiding it well."
"Point me to them," David said.
Yusuf gestured toward a winding alley at the market's edge. "They've been spotted near the old district. Cloaked, silent. You'll know them when you see them. I had this drawn for you, this is their supposed leader. He is called Ozymandias, a very ruthless fellow. Be very careful." Yusuf whispered while handing out a folded piece of parchment over to David.
With a firm nod, David thanked him and moved swiftly through the winding paths. Every shadowed corner seemed to watch him as he passed, his senses and telepathy picking up faint trails of tense, guarded minds. He reached a small square and paused, scanning the surroundings. A whisper caught his attention, a faint thought just barely slipping past the mental walls of a passerby: 'Akkaba meeting...the great one returns.'
'Isn't he supposed to be hibernating or something? In any case, I'm just here to meet and greet the 'great' En Sabah Nur. Who knows, maybe we'll fight for a bit as well. Hehe that would be pretty interesting.'
David shook his head and kept moving, following the thought's trail into a narrow passageway where two silent figures, cloaked and alert, stood on guard. He didn't stop or slow down but vanished in thin air like a ghost, with a subtle mental nudge, he probed their minds, carefully pulling memories to the surface. He got glimpses of conversations, a figure shrouded in shadows, and the hushed name of En Sabah Nur. But another detail hit him, the image of this figure leaving Egypt on a ship to England. 'Why is he awake? Why would he leave?' David thought, letting the vision dissolve as he drifted into the shadow of an archway.
The alley led to a small courtyard where he finally encountered the mysterious figure he'd sensed before: an old man wrapped in dark robes, with eyes that seemed to pierce time itself. David approached cautiously, assessing him. This was no common Akkaba follower.
"Stranger," the man rasped, his voice hollow, "your search brings danger."
'He can see me in ghost form?' David wondered before deactivating his ability. He kept his voice even. "The Akkaba clan's Ozymandias? You are more than meets the eye. Anyway, I've already got what I came for, so it's time to leave."
A ghost of a smile filled with arrogance played on the man's lips. "You may find him, but what you find may not be what you seek."
He was about to turn away, but David's patience snapped. He reached into the man's mind, tearing down his defenses with a focused surge of telepathy. Flashes of memories hit him; dusty desert roads, En Sabah Nur's awakening, a procession of mercenaries, and then a foggy vision of London, cold and gray. En Sabah Nur was no longer in Egypt; he had journeyed to England, and there was a name, someone he wanted to meet...
'Nathaniel Essex.'
The old man gasped, shaking from the force of David's mental intrusion.
"You…" he stammered. "You seek something you can't understand."
David met his gaze, eyes steely. "I understand enough." He let the man's warning hang in the air as he stepped back and vanished like a ghost, already calculating his next move as he flew back to port. 'London', he thought, feeling a pulse of determination. As he reached the docks, he called out to his crew, his tone decisive.
"Prepare the ship. We're heading for London."
The ship was restocked and the crew are recalled before the ship's engine roared back to life, David watched the lights of Cairo fade into the night.
The journey to London was long, and the sea stretched endlessly beneath a sky washed with grays and muted blues. As the galleon carved through the waves, David kept mostly to himself, going over what he'd learned and preparing for what he'd face in England. His thoughts were restless, shifting between the fragmented memories he had pulled from the Akkaba and the implications of En Sabah Nur's presence in London.
'It seems like there's a gap in my understanding of the movie. I can't rely solely on what I watched. I should have read the comics, maybe the answer is there." He wondered, sipping coffee on the deck on a cold, misty morning.
He'd heard about Essex before, as a subject for his talent recruitment program, Nathaniel Essex is a brilliant but ruthless scientist with an obsession for genetic mutation. Drawing from Charle's Darwin's theory of evolution he discovered that humans are also continuously evolving. In his research, he published something called the 'Essex factor' which he deems responsible for these changes.
'It seemed that whatever drew En Sabah Nur's attention is related to mutation. This could be tricky.'
As they neared the British coast, David's telepathy sharpened, probing the minds of his crew and scanning for any hints of distraction or nerves. He couldn't afford anything slipping through the cracks now. The port of London was thick with ships and bustling with soldiers, merchants, and an endless tide of dockworkers. He'd need to act quickly here.
After disembarking, David headed to one of the Howlett's tradehouses in the heart of the city. It was a modest building, hidden among the narrow, busy streets, but his family had kept it well-staffed. There, he found Harrison, a wiry man with a knack for gathering information. To other's he is a businessman but secretly, he is the current head of the Howlett's talent recruitment program in London.
"Here's Essex information," Harrison said without preamble, handing over a folder and leading David to a city map on the table. "He works out of a large manor just outside the city proper. It's well-guarded, more of a fortress than a residence if you ask me. Something shady must be going on."
David scanned the map, committing it to memory. "Anyone's been inside?"
"Not without invitation," Harrison replied. "But he has been seen with… unusual companions lately. Foreign mercenaries. Men who carry themselves differently, as if they're more than ordinary muscle. Recently, there's a report where these mercenaries are traveling with a two meter tall man. It was quite the spectacle."
David's mind flicked back to the Akkaba mercenaries he'd glimpsed in Cairo. "They're with him... En Sabah Nur is here."
Harrison nodded. "Is that what he's called. There are whispers that these mercenaries are the ones responsible for the missing-persons cases here in London these past few years, but everyone's hushed about it keeping away from trouble. Whatever he's doing in there, it's no doubt something that has long abandoned human morality."
David paused, letting Harrison's words sink in. He had an idea of what Essex might be trying to achieve, and the thought unsettled him. En Sabah Nur voluntarily came to Essex must mean that he wanted something in exchange for another. 'But what' He wondered.
'Apocalypse must want to take over the world again, Essex... I don't know... evolve humanity!? Holy crap... That's it! En Sabah Nur is all about survival of the fittest while the mad doctor wants everyone to be strong. They're a match made in limbo.'
"Are there any of your contact that can get me in a meeting with Essex, anyone we can call on?" David asked, scanning the faces of the traders who had gathered. He didn't expect much, but a network was a network, and the Howletts had their own reach.
Harrison hesitated. "There's one, maybe. A professor who's been sniffing around Essex's theories. His name's Fitzwilliam. He's cautious, but if you can convince him, he might be of help."
David nodded, then adjusted his cloak. He needed to investigate Essex's manor, and Fitzwilliam could be the key to slipping past any suspicion. He considered what he might say, what might compel the professor to take a risk on him.