Chapter Text
“Are you fucking sure that something’s out in the godforsaken wasteland?” A haughty blonde was beginning to question the red-haired man beside him that was more focused on some dusty tomes in his lap. He was surrounded by scrolls and parchment like a delicate, musty nest. He was tired of this desert already, so tired of the sand, so tired of these fucking sandstorms. He couldn’t go ten minutes without feeling the grit of sand between his teeth or finding it stuck to his sweat soaked clothes clinging to him. Somehow it even fucking found its way under his clothes and made some places itch like hell.
A deep groan came from him as he felt another itch on his back where his bag rubbed his black tank top. He squinted at the red-head again, “Yo, Kirishima? Shitty-hair I’m talking to you. Earth to fucking Eijiro Kirishima!”
The red-head finally snapped from his trance and gave the blonde an annoyed stare, “Just chill Bakuboss, I’m rereading our leads. They keep talking about something that ‘sees well and has sharp claws’, something about night time and a trial of death.” He returned to looking at some of the rock samples they had collected, matching certain phrases on them to the texts in his lap.
“Well why don’t we fucking come out at night then?” The blonde was aggravated enough that they had to waste precious sunlight waiting for this stupid sandstorm to blow over. He was just going to scream if they wasted three weeks on searching for something that can only be found in the dark. The screeching sand outside was beginning to drive him batshit, and if Mina doesn’t fix that stupid flapping soon where the stitches were loose, he may just explode. He glared at the small hole until some of the hot sand flew into his face. “Motherfucking…I hate this job and the fucking sand.” He wiped at the scratchy sand and sweat that formed on his brow then glowered at the silent red-head, aggravated even more that he wasn’t paying attention again.
He kicked Kiri’s sandy shoe to get his attention back, earning a sour look from his best friend. “Look Bakugou, I already explained four times about the star alignment and geography settings. Not my fault if you space out, besides you know we can’t search at night. Between the cold wind and the near pitch darkness, we’d just get even more lost. But since I know the star stuff, Kaminari and I can pinpoint spots in the daylight.”
Another blonde with a headset popped up from his corner of the tent, screwdriver and something metal in his hands, “Huh? You guys need me?” He had three computer set ups with sand guards covering every inch of them and several rows of mechanical pieces strewn about on the soft tent floor. A bucket next to him was holding several metal rings of various designs and a few scattered microchips that mostly held his A.I. buddy systems. A black streak crossed his blonde hair as he gasped at something on the floor, swooping to get it for inspection. “I was wondering where you went…,” he quietly murmured to himself before looking back at his computers.
Kiri shook his head at the ditzy blonde as he started inspecting a map with one of the techie’s star simulators. A few dots of light hit along the dunes in the current valley they were in. Several colored lines appeared with bold letters attached to them, routes that they would be traveling for maximum exposure to the areas. Well…if this stupid sandstorm would ever give up and die.
“Bakugou, I know it just looks like a lot of sand, but trust us on this one!” A pink-haired chick patted him on the back, earning a grumble from the irritated blonde as he shook more sand out of his pale cargo pants. Curious, the pinkette jumped behind Kiri and went limp on the red-head’s back, looking over his shoulder. “Oh, have we tried this quadrant yet, Kiri?” She only got back a hum for a response until he shook his head, marking a new piece of the map.
The red-head turned towards her with a grin and kissed her on the cheek, “Thanks, Mina. I totally overlooked that spot.” She gave a giggle and rubbed her face against his cheek.
Mina glanced towards Bakugou again as she remembered something, “I’m assuming it will be mostly underground, so I packed plenty of rope, water, glow sticks and headlamps. Also, don’t forget to wear your facemask, we don’t know what mold and crap is down there.” She gave him a lazy thumbs up from behind Kiri before turning back towards the map that the red head was marking, every once in a while pointing at another area.
According to some of the lore in the region, a small temple was built sometime around the Middle Kingdom era, but lost in a giant sandstorm brought down by the gods. It was said that inside this temple rested one of the gods’ treasures. There weren’t any definite texts about what it was, though some speculated it was the heart of a god encased in a fallen star, others debated that it was a power source of some kind, lost from the ages. Most were sure that the place was cursed. Why else would the gods’ wrath swallow it under the sea of sand?
This job came up about three months ago from someone in Giza that put them in the scorching deserts of Egypt just north of El Qasr and west of Abu Minqar among the dunes. Bakugou led the team to the unforgiving area in hopes of recovering the treasure. The team itself decided a while back that splitting up over small areas would benefit them the most, looking for any sign of old architecture or sink holes that could pinpoint this temple. Luckily, it was only a few hours drive over the sands to get more supplies and rest at a hotel, but still taking a toll out on the team. Bakugou really only wanted another week of searching before they returned home and moved on to something else.
The howling outside the tent finally died down after an hour of impatient waiting and restlessness. They still had the sun for another seven hours and that meant the day wasn’t completely wasted. The whipping of the loose stitching finally quietened down to a gentle sway, much to the relief of Bakugou, who was tired of spitting sand out of his mouth. He cracked his knuckles before undoing the side of the tent and rolling it up, catch sight of blinding sand and a blue sky.
Perfect. Just perfect for a treasure hunt.
Behind him, Kaminari handed out the watches he tinkered with as Kirishima and Mina gathered the bags and supplies to resume the day’s hunt. They passed by the blonde out to the half-buried jeep that they thankfully put a tarp over this time. It was a hard lesson on their part one day when they became stranded due to sand clogging most of the engine. It took a good three hours to get someone to drag it out and another hour of tinkering to get it stable enough to run to a repair shop.
That wasn’t the only mishap of the trip, but probably the worst. Once Mina forgot to put sunscreen on and turned pink for a couple days, much to the amusement of the crew who dearly paid for it in their next supply run. Another time Kaminari was testing out some new fans in his part of the tent and accidently scattered all of Kirishima’s notes among the sands. There were still sore spots on that subject anytime Kaminari even mentioned a fan.
The two dug out enough of the sand off the poor jeep to reach under the tarp for what they needed. Pulling out three snowboard-looking things, they dumped them onto the ground one after the other. A black one with red stripes going down the sides, a blue and purple leopard print one, and another black one with flames exploding from the center. Once done, they put the tarp back and readjusted the boards in front of the worn tent.
The techie came up beside Bakugou and handed him one of the metal rings as well as a watch. “I resynced them and updated some new H.U.D. components that should make tracking a lot easier. I also installed the facemask into your helms, button for that one is at one o’ clock on the watch, just keep in mind what Mina said.”
The blonde smirked as he wrapped the watch on his wrist, ready to start the show. The metal ring didn’t look like too much, and Bakugou felt that way when Kaminari first showed it to him a year ago, but he knew better now. It fit over his head easily, resting easily on his collarbone like some sort of odd necklace with studs decorating the outer surface. He pressed one of them that was slightly larger and sighed as he felt the elastic metal begin to climb up his neck and cradling his head.
Once the head gear finished wrapping itself around his skull, a thin sheet of translucent material created a shield across his face. He pressed the face and the one o’ clock buttons on his watch, twitching his nose as something flitted over his mouth and nose. In front of his eyes, the A.I. in charge of his helm booted up, quickly scanning and updating as necessary before giving him a welcome screen with his stats and vitals. Soon, a map loaded with several routes before minimizing itself to the bottom corner of the screen.
Bakugou looked up to check on the others, who were also equipped and ready to set out. He pressed another button on the ring to bring up the com system, hearing a familiar ding when it was ready. Kaminari checked their stats on his computer, pushing a few buttons on their helmets or watches when needed until he gave the all clear. He decided to stay with the tech in the tent so he could monitor feeds and tell them if he had any abnormal readings in the area.
The blonde pressed the notch near his ear, “Testing, one, two, fuck,” everyone gave him thumbs up. “I’ll take route B. Let’s check in about two hours from now,” he said with a half-ass salute as he sauntered out into the desert. He walked towards his board in the sand and climbed aboard. He pressed the six o’ clock button on his watch, initiating a whirr and hum beneath him. The board began to lift into air effortlessly and wobbled slightly as Bakugou found his balance. Kirishima and Mina did the same. Then they shot off in different directions on their hover boards, leaving untouched trails of sand behind them.
Bakugou followed the B trail marked on his visor as he sped through the sandy dunes to the west, detouring if anything looked out of the ordinary. Lately, the group has found a few rocks with hieroglyphs but most of it was gibberish and they all were disconnected as they dug around it. Kiri suggested that it might have been from a structure in the area and moved around in the sand tides, like what may have happened to the temple.
Only half an hour passed flying through the desert before his communicator pinged. “Yo, I found another loose rock on Route A. This time there is half a lion on it, which is weird since we are pretty far from the Nile, like the other side of the country.” Kiri came in loud and clear in the speaker near his ear, and he clicked a button on his watch to reply. Kiri’s right, all the lioness goddesses were found along the banks of the Nile, not out here in the middle of fucking nowhere.
“You can analyze that shit when we get back, just snap a few pictures and keep going. Let us know if you find bigger clusters of the same rock,” he ordered as he spotted something hard coming out of the surface a few meters away.
“Roger that, Bakubro!” Silence met him as the coms shut down and he maneuvered to his quarry. He stopped just a bit from it and jumped onto the soft sand below. The sandstone looked similar to the sample ones, but it could be another false flag. He scooped the sand around the rock and grunted as the rock was also loose like so many before.
“Damnit…,” he growled as he marked it with a permanent marker for any future returns and snapped a photo of the half-faded markings on one side. Then he dug around the sand once more before chucking the rock back and hopping on his board. “Augh… just my luck.” He dusted off the sand from his pants, gloves and jacket before silently thanking he wasn’t breathing that gritty shit in. With a whirr the board was off again onto the path laid out on his visor.
As he kept going, there were some areas that his gear would glitch out, but would correct themselves as he kept following the path. He heard another ping that broke the gentle humming of his board. “Bakugou, be careful on your route, some interference is in the area, most likely some ferrous rocks.” He grumbled at Kaminari in his head.
Pushing the notch, “Okay, in English buzz-brain.” He didn’t need stupid scientific names and shit.
The static hit again as his system glitched, “Iron rocks, Baku. They -- magnetic and mess—system.”
He sighed before replying, “Roger that, Numbskull.” He clicked off the coms and went about his way, until he saw a small boulder poking out of the sand to his left. Normally rocks they found were only about as big as your hand or forearm, this one was easily as big as his board.
He hovered around it, looking for any markings but found none. Bummed he landed and tried digging around the rock, finding that it was bigger than it looked! He quickly snapped a few pictures and discovered some worn glyphs that also had a picture of a sitting lion. That’s fucking odd, two lions on the same day. There were definitely no mentions of Bastet or Sekhmet in this part of the fucking desert. He scanned around the rock and didn’t see any more poking out turning his attention back towards the small pillar in front of him.
A button pressed, he buzzed the crew, “Hey, I found something over here, it’s about 2 meters tall and about as wide as my board. Has a fucking lion on it too. You sure there isn’t some sort of lion deity around here we missed?” He waited for a response but got nothing but static, noticing that his helm interface was glitching again. “Damnit, I probably can’t even leave a tracer here. Fuuuuuuccck…” His only option was to head back towards the trail, mark it and then buzz them again.
He jumped up on his board and was about to turn it back on when he heard a hissing sound underneath him. Then he felt the shift in sand. Hissing turned into a skittering crinkled sound as his board began sinking. “Fuck!” He hit the start-up on his watch, but all he heard was the muffled hum as his board just sank further into the sand. “FUCK! FUCK!” He jumped off the useless board and landed a bit away, but not far enough as sand immediately gave way under him. A whirlpool seemed to form where his board used to be, sucking everything in nearby, including himself.
Bakugou thrashed about, trying everything to escape the sandy vortex, but to no avail as he sank further and further. At one point, he thought he felt something solid under his foot, but as soon as he hit it, it too gave way and the sand started pulling in faster. He could feel the sand scrape against his skin, traveling through the tiny crevasses between him and his clothes. This made him sink faster as the sand made its way down his pants and up his shirt. Soon only his torso was above the golden grains, his legs unable to move the deeper he was.
Still he sank. Every move just pulling him down farther. Panic gripped him as the hot sand ground against his exposed chest, getting closer to his face. His helm had a rebreather, but that didn’t make this terrifying situation any better if he couldn’t’ move or dig himself out. He kept pressing the button on his com, and only got static, every signal lost into the wide blue sky.
The quicksand finally hit the eye level of his visor and he froze. This was it. This was how it ends. His heart clenched in his chest and his arm waved uselessly above head, grabbing anything that would help. It was useless. Soon even his fingertips were covered in the warm sands that ground against him. The only thing he could see was the steady worsening glitches of his visor as the sands compressed around him.
It almost felt as if he were free floating in the grainy sea, one that was suffocating and compressing his torso. Then after moments that felt like eons, he felt his heart lurch as if he were dropping from a cliff. He hit something hard. Pain flowered in his head and back as the screen in front of him blurred and spun until two bright blue dots came into his field of vision. They were haunting and ethereal as they seemed to get closer and closer… Then there was nothing.