"But look at these footprints, hundreds of people have already come through here. It's a tourist area." Barry pointed to the ground at the canyon's entrance, addressing the two walking ahead: "And the shop where I just bought stuff is really not far."
"So?" Su Ming turned his head to look at him. He had, of course, also seen the footprints on the ground, densely packed like ants moving house. These footprints won't last long in the sandy ground, probably only from half an hour ago.
Barry appeared beside him in a flash of lightning: "So I figured, if someone was having a strange party in the temple, would it not be discovered?"
Briss covered the lower half of her face with the Bat Cloak, the wind and sand relentlessly trying to get into her nose and mouth: "I can tell you a Bat fact, Egyptians are very skilled at underground construction."
Su Ming also patted Barry's shoulder, walking arm in arm with him as they continued forward: "The aboveground part of Egyptian pyramids is actually only two-thirds, for example, the Pyramid of Khufu, the Pharaoh's burial chamber is 200 feet underground, completely surrounded by giant stones, not buried by wind and sand."
"Mayan pyramids are formed by piling stones on the ground, but Ancient Egyptians are different. They also excavated and built underground, a technique applied to temples." Briss continued toward that direction, speaking without turning her head: "I thought after we've visited so many pyramids before, you would know when we reached the burial chamber."
"Uh, it's all dark and chilly around, so....."
Barry spoke as he shoved another sandwich into his mouth, and Su Ming thought he must have swallowed a lot of sand.
Briss ignored him and asked Su Ming: "The entrance to the underground should be inside the temple, what do you think?"
"There might be multiple entrances, Dark Energy isn't edible, they need supplies underground." Su Ming speculated, this wasn't knowledge found in comics: "Look, there's security at the temple entrance; the Hawk Priests can't bring large quantities of food and water and enter every day along with hundreds of tourists."
"But the entrance inside the temple is easier to locate, at least you don't have to search like a needle in a haystack." Briss squinted her eyes.
"Yeah, unless you don't want me to kill the security at the entrance, then it's up to you."
Su Ming watched as the security ran over, one hand on her baton—anyone upon seeing three uniformed people approaching artifacts would react this way.
"Hey! Visiting hours are over; it's best you three freaks leave."
"Oh, the tone of voice wasn't quite what I imagined; I thought this was a scenic area." Su Ming turned to Barry as he prepared to reach for his gun.
Barry immediately held down Su Ming's hand; Su Ming was drawing his gun too quickly, so Barry had to use Divine Speed.
"Though being called a freak is a bit over the top, this is clearly an ordinary person, not enough of a reason to kill."
Briss flicked her cloak and backhanded the security unconscious. She was quite restrained; she'd been called a freak not just for a day or two, and her heart was unfazed at the moment.
The security here might be under magical influence, but she wouldn't be from the Owl Court—how couldn't they recognize Batwoman? The Bird Tribe has been watching the successors of the Bat Tribe for thousands of years.
From her expression, Briss could tell, this person knew absolutely nothing, just a rude security guard.
Su Ming released his grip on the gun, well, just to give Barry some face. As long as she's not blocking their way, it was fine; hopefully she'd learn some polite language upon waking.
Stepping over the unconscious security to enter the temple, Barry kindly dragged her near the temple entrance, letting her rest against the pillar, saving her from being buried by sand.
Set's temple didn't have anything impressive, maybe once had Gold or Gemstones, but a lot was lost during wartime, now only severely weathered statues remained and some replicas encased in glass cabinets.
"Hmm, Pharaoh's Golden Staff, pity it's fake." Su Ming tapped the glass beside him, under the spotlight of the display case, a shiny curved Long Staff lay inside, resembling a Christmas candy cane, except that would be red and white, with a peppermint flavor, whereas this was gold and blue, not edible.
"How should we find the entrance?" Barry finished his sandwich and tossed the cling wrap into a trash bin.
Briss took out a metal bead from her belt, it was her Bat Smoke Bomb, and placed it on the floor casually.
"If there's a channel or hollow underground, under Earth's Gravity, the floor above will always sink a bit; we just need to find the lowest point."
The bead began rolling, sliding away towards a certain direction, she motioned for them to follow, weaving around statues and display cabinets, passing various slogans and information boards until finally it stopped at a location.
Briss checked repeatedly, the bead was set on this spot.
She pulled out a canister resembling hair gel from her belt, spraying a Bat shape on the ground, explaining to Su Ming and Barry: "This is Bat directional explosive, it can break open the floor here; just cover your face, no need to hide too far away."
Barry glanced at Su Ming, covered the lower half of his face with his hand, muffled: "I've actually seen this thing in our world, but I've always wanted to ask, why spray it like toothpaste? You draw a bat symbol, don't you think it's a waste of time?"
"..."
Briss didn't answer him, acting as if she hadn't heard.
The stuff dries quickly, and as soon as the two finished speaking, a strong directional Blast occurred, but the sound wasn't loud. The ground broke open with a bang in front of them, and they fell along with the debris, down into a pitch-black passage.
The alarms overhead blared, powder and dust settled upon them.
Su Ming wiped the dirt off his eyepiece: "Doesn't that answer come naturally? Because he's Batman."
"Let's move, save the chit-chat for later." Briss swung two Bat Darts down both sides of the corridor, they quickly returned, and she pointed to the left: "That way, the automatic sonar has detected activity."
Barry lifted the two of them, in the dark corridor, there was a flash of Electric Light.
The next second, they found themselves in a place resembling a theater box seat, looking down to see a group of bizarre figures in Black Robes surrounded by numerous Torches.
They wore masks resembling giant bird skulls on their heads, completely concealed in hoods, stooped over as if mimicking ostriches.
This is the typical attire of Hawk Priests; that cat from before was an exception. Unsurprisingly, there were over ten Hawk Priests below, posing quite a problem, for they were over ten Mages, not just chickens, defeating them would take effort.
Briss, having no metal and refraining from killing, could only restrain them, whereas Su Ming needed to punch them to death one by one, which would consume a lot of time.
The priests were continually chanting around a black well below, strange smoke rising from within, the language was completely unrecognizable, not resembling any known human tongue, more like birdsong.
The three of them were in Bullet Time; here they could discuss freely, without fear of being detected by the outside world.
"There are quite a few, what should we do?" Barry asked, needing to keep running around to maintain their current state.
Su Ming answered him rather than Briss: "Use Divine Speed and Lightning to restrain them, each time toss one out for me to solve, don't let them raise their hands or speak, and avoid touching any beams or objects they emit."
Briss remained silent, tacitly approving this arrangement.
Su Ming then turned to her: "While we're battling them, look for Bat Gold, it should be here somewhere, if it exists."
"What does it look like?" Briss asked for more description.
Su Ming recalled: "It looks like copper but emits a red glow, a kind of Magic Metal, the Hawks won't have much, but if they do, it won't be less than a brick's size."
"Alright, let's do it your way. Barry, take us into the crowd."