<div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/1w6Sw.jpg)</div><hr/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>  Name:</strong>Abigail Brand<br/>  <strong>Title:</strong>Agent Brand or Ma'am or Miss. Not 'Hydra-Hair.'<br/>  <strong>Affiliation:</strong>  Resistance<br/>  <strong>Location:</strong>   Northern Egypt, Near Port Said<br/>  <strong>Tags:</strong>Open<br/></span></span><hr/><br/><strong>SWORD Headquarters<br/>Al-Abassi Mosque<br/>   Port Said, Egypt<br/></strong><br/>Agent Tokoro had a bit of a slight limp as she resumed taking up her post in the command and control center they had set up in the Mosque. With most of the support personnel relegated to transporting as much stuff out of the city and to Alexandria in anticipation of the expected attack, she was almost left alone and yet, with very little to do as the preparations were already extensive. As a communications officer, she was naturally… in charge of overlooking communications but with a large blackout on anything but short wave radio due to Apocalypse’s penetration of long range comms, it meant she had little to do except sift through incoming transmissions which were being broadcasted in the clear, or otherwise often heavily corrupted. What she heard, outside of the impressive Stark broadcast earlier, wasn’t very good.<br/><br/>Then it struck.<br/><br/>For little over a fraction of a second, one of SWORDs deep space satellites, meant to relay interplanetary communication from SWORD agents working light years away, suddenly blipped and immediately Agent Tokoro was wary. As far as anyone knew, communications with the SWORD satellites had been cut off early in the assaults and so, cautiously, she scanned the split second transmission only to realize it wasn’t a traditional signal, but a packet of data.<br/><br/>Worried it was another virus or Trojan style program, she immediately shunted it off in the network, downloading the data packet into an external hard drive and then physically pulling the hard drive off of the computer. Wary that deleting the transmission might trigger something, she left it isolated and grabbing the hard drive, looked around for an available workstation that was not connected to the rest of the network. Last thing she needed was some super computer bug somehow corrupting their radio network somehow and leaving them incapable of even receiving communications or talking to the ships offshore.<br/><br/>After plugging in the external hard drive to a random laptop, her eyes suddenly lit up as she got on her walkie. “Director Brand to command center immediately. I have something you’ll want to see immediately,” she then said.<br/>---<br/><br/><strong>Ten Minutes Later...</strong><br/><br/>“It’s an MS Paint map,” Agent Marquez finally said as he and Agent Tokoro finally finished de-crypting the gigabyte sized data packet, only to realize almost all of the memory had been used in an elaborate encryption based in a Badoon computer programming code. That was one code that Apocalypse’ almost certainly didn’t have access to, but SWORD did. Nevertheless, whoever the sender was, still encrypted it heavily.<br/><br/>Director Brand gawked at it. It was a map of Egypt, simply but accurately drawn in MS Paint by an extremely steady hand, or more likely, a computer program. She looked at it and shook her head. “I don’t get it? Are you sure it’s not some sort of elaborate threat?” she asked.<br/><br/>“Unless the MS Paint program has some sort of… mythical subliminal message, I doubt it,” Agent Marquez stated. “There’s no reason for it to be a virus, if it was, it’d of done something by now. Or else the entire attack is pointless. It’s isolated from the network, a network we’re abandoning soon.”<br/><br/>“Maybe it’s just meant as a waste of time,” Director Brand stated, already frustrated as she glanced at Tokoro warily. She seemed to shrink away a bit, when Marquez waved away the possibility. “Is there a way to… I don’t know… examine the art. Maybe if we deconstruct the stages it was drawn… there’s something.”<br/><br/>“Already did that,” Marquez replied. “Nothing hidden was revealed, as least to me.”<br/><br/>“We should print it off. It could be like a treasure map in the movies.”  Agent Tokoro then suggested. “Like we lay something over the map and suddenly, it points to where we’re supposed to go.”<br/><br/>Marquez shrugged. “It could be but what will we lay over it? No hints or anything,” he then said before glancing at Director Brand for permission to print it out. Abigail shrugged and nodded, figuring that would be harmless.<br/><br/>With a push of a button, the nearby color printer started to spit out the MS paint image of Egypt when Abigail suddenly chuckled. The other two Agents turned and both of them literally blinked, as if unable to trust their eyes as to what they were seeing.<br/><br/>“The code didn’t indicate there was a watermark embedded in the image,” Agent Marquez stated, apparently hurt that he missed it.<br/><br/>“Don’t tear yourself up about it too much Agent Marquez,” Abigail Brand said, holding up the printed MS paint map of Egypt and looking at the elaborate watermark. “Tony Stark is just way, way, way, way more smart then all of us combined when it comes to things like this.”<br/><br/>“What does it say?” Agent Tokoro asked.<br/><br/>“Not sure. It’s in wingdings… we’ll need a scanner and a copy of Microsoft Word to translate,” Director Brand said with a bemused face.<br/><br/>“I’ll get right on that,” Agent Marquez said, letting out a chuckle, the first he had uttered in a long while.<br/>---<br/><em></em><div align="center"><br/>   <strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">To the Medusa it may concern. There is a Golden Fleece in Egypt but you can only find it by going directly to its source. Good luck Argonauts!</span> </strong></div>[/i]<br/><br/>“Medusa?” Agent Tokoro asked.<br/><br/>“Hydra-hair,” Director Brand replied, knowing the unflattering euphemism she had amongst the superhero community for her green hair.<br/><br/>“Golden fleece means a weapon or something we want I’m assuming. But that’s a Greek myth right?” Agent Marquez stated. “How does that translate to Egypt? As far as I know there is no Egyptian equivalent to Jason and the Argonauts. They didn’t even visit Egypt did they?”<br/><br/>Director Brand confidently shook her head. “No I don’t believe so. Which makes going to the source all the more baffling,” she added when, glancing up from the computer, she noticed one of the Mosque’s imams walking past the doorway. “Excuse me… sir?” she asked politely, calling out to the Muslim priest equivalent.<br/><br/>The Imam turned, curiously cocking his head towards the young man and two women crowded around a computer, clearly puzzled by what they wanted. “Yes?” he asked in a raspy, heavily accented English voice.<br/><br/>“You speak English? Great. We need your help… if you could be so kind,” Director Brand then said when Agent Marquez cleared his throat.<br/><br/>“Ummm how can he help us? Last I checked Islam isn’t big on pagan mythology,” he whispered under breath, only to have Director Brand ignore him.<br/><br/>“How can I be of assistance?” the Imam asked, already glancing at the computer when Abigail asked him to read the riddle put on the screen. “I must apologize. I cannot read English.” Before anyone could even respond, Marquez had it translated onscreen to Arabic and blinking, the Imam pulled out his glasses and carefully read, then re-read it. “Ah yes… it means nothing I think?”<br/><br/>“It’s a riddle,” Abigail explained. “I think it’s a metaphor pertaining to Egyptian mythology. I know that… it’s different but none of us are exactly experts on it, and Wikipedia seems to be down at the moment. We’re hoping your education might shed some light for us.”<br/><br/>The Imam smiled and glanced at it again, taking in the concept of it being a possible metaphor or symbolizing something parallel. “I am sorry, I still do not understand. I am not familiar with Golden Fleeces or Argonauts.”<br/><br/>Agent Marquez shrugged when Tokoro suddenly spoke up. “The origin of the fleece!” she then blurted out, causing all three heads to turn to her.  “The fleece. It must’ve been made of of something. Cotton or wool right?”<br/><br/>“A golden ram,” Agent Marquez answered<br/><br/>The Imam’s eyes suddenly lit up. “A ram is… like a bull yes?”<br/><br/>Marquez unhelpfully shrugged as Director Brand spoke. “It could be. What are you thinking?” she asked, rather preferring to hear out the Imam, regardless of whether his idea might be a dead end or not, since they were essentially grasping for straws at this moment.<br/><br/>“Apis was a God of Ancient Egypt. He was… how would you say… symbolized by a Bull. A symbol of virility,” the Imam stated when Director Brand and Agent Tokoro exchanged knowing glances. That sounded like Tony. Clearly not getting the subtext, the Imam continued. “Apis was also the herald of Ptah, the Egyptian God of Craftsmen and Architects.”<br/><br/>This time Agent Marquez joined in the knowing glances with the other two. “Thank you. You’ve been a great help. I have only one more question,” Director Brand then asked respectfully. “This riddle is meant to identify a location. Any ideas?”<br/><br/>The Imam paused. “Ptah, like many of the Ancient Deities, was focused around Memphis, south of Cairo. The Ancient Capital of Egypt,” he stated, eliciting frowns from everyone involved. “However… there are two towns named Apis in Egypt as well. Both are on this coast and to our West.”<br/><br/>“Really?” Director Brand asked, as Tokoro, not needed any motivation, pulled up a map of Northern Egypt on another computer. “Where at?”<br/><br/>“Well, one is the ancient city of Yamu, but Greeks called it Apis. It lies on the coast halfway between us and Alexandria. It is all farmland now,” the Imam stated. Immediately the eyes of everyone lit up. That meant they might already have control of the town, if only for time being.<br/><br/>“And the other?” Director Brand asked.<br/><br/>“It is an ancient seaport farther to the West. It is no longer a city but is located near the city of Mersa Matruh which is a resort town with beaches and hotel-,” he started to explain when a flurry of talking and activity cut him off.<br/><br/>“That’s where Tony’s Golden Fleece is!” Director Abigail Brand stated with complete confidence. Digging up tombs wasn’t Tony’s style, and neither was visiting farmland on a vacation. If Tony had stashed one of his hidden armories in the Middle East, it would be far more damn likely he did it in a place not too far away from some sort of resort, if only to maintain his billionaire playboy image… and the fact that he was a billionaire playboy.”<br/><br/>She turned to the Imam, a big smile on her face. “Thank you so much!” the Director said. “You have no idea what kind of help you have been to us,” she then said, before quickly beelining towards the exit, beckoning for Agent Tokoro to follow her out.<br/><br/>“Should I get helicopter ready?” Agent Tokoro asked.<br/><br/>“No,” Director Brand stated. “I need this to be low key but I’m pretty sure I have to go. But I’m not going to put us all on a helicopter. We need every vehicle we have here, and furthermore, if Apocalypse attacks, that helicopter is a deathtrap. Agent Hariri will be in charge while I’m gone. You, me and Agent Kang are going to Apis another way,” she then said as they headed up the stairs and towards the exit of the mosque.<br/><br/>“How?” Agent Tokoro asked as they walked out of the mosque and inexplicably, Director Brand walked across the street to an abandoned tour office. Rifling through the travel brochures, she pulled one out for Mersa Matruh and pulled it open, noticing plenty of pictures and a map was inside.<br/><br/>“Find Nightcrawler,” Director Brand said. “He can get there faster and safer than any of us, and if he can bring one of us along, all the better,” she explained. “Then us other two will follow him in one of the Italian Navies Harrier jets. They’re two seaters and in case we meet any trouble that’s too tough for a sword or gun to handle, an autocannon and a couple missiles should help,” she added before realizing Agent Tokoro was still standing there. “What are you waiting for Agent. Go find him!”<br/><br/>“Umm… yes… ma’am!” Agent Tokoro then said, running off in a random direction, still unsure of how she’d find Nightcrawler but knowing she’d have to and soon. She hoped he picked up a radio or someone gave him one.