Max looked at the four. He crossed his arms and pretended to squint in suspicion, acting as though he didn't know who they were.
"So… who are you people?"
They exchanged a quick glance before Reed stepped forward.
"I'm Reed Richards," he said. "This is Susan Storm."
Susan gave a polite nod.
"Ben Grimm," Reed continued, gesturing to the large, rock-skinned man.
Ben grunted, folding his arms.
"And I'm Johnny Storm," Johnny added with a confident grin. "And we are the Fantastic Four."
I smiled. "What makes you all so fantastic?"
Johnny grinned. "Thought you'd never ask." He snapped his fingers.
"Flame on!"
With a roar of fire, his entire body ignited in a blaze of golden-red flame. Johnny spun once in mid-air before landing with a flourish.
"That's why they call me the Human Torch. Susan here the Invisible Girl can turn invisible and project force fields. Reed is Mister Fantastic; he stretches like, really stretches. And Ben, well…"
Johnny patted the stone shoulder of Ben. "He's the Thing."
"Fantastic, indeed," Max said, feigning surprise.
Reed stepped forward, his tone more serious. "You're the only one we've been able to speak with, aside from the priestess." He glanced toward Khenmet, who stood silently watching. "We're not from this time. We were pulled here from by our estimate over 5,400 years in the future."
"Time travelers?"
Reed nodded. "We were investigating an archaeological anomaly. One moment we were studying it, and the next, we wound up here."
Susan stepped in, hopeful. "Do you think your Corps can help us return?"
That caught Max off guard. "Corps?" he repeated slowly.
Johnny nodded. "Yeah. You're a Green Lantern, right? You guys are an intergalactic peacekeeping force or something. At least that's what the Green Lantern in our time said."
Max's mind raced. Corps? The Fantastic Four clearly recognized him as a Green Lantern not the Green Lantern. And that meant that in their time, there was a Green Lantern Corps as well, apparently.
Max turned inward. Jade? he asked mentally. Do you think we missed the Corps actually existing here?
No, she said firmly.
Max's thoughts spiraled.
So there will be a Corps. Someday…
It was a dizzying realization.
"Perhaps," Jade answered in his mind, her voice as level as ever. "Before the Fantastic Four mentioned the Corps, my leading hypothesis was that the ring had selected a new wielder after your passing…."
Let's put a pin in that, Max replied silently.
He turned back to the Fantastic Four, quickly cobbling together what he knew of the Marvel universe.
"I think I know how you ended up here," Max said aloud.
Reed's head tilted with interest. "You do?"
Even Khenmet looked up, her curiosity piqued. "You know?"
Max nodded slowly. "I believe Rama-Tut is a time traveler like you."
The room went still; the crackle of distant torches was the only sound.
"What?" Susan asked, eyes narrowing. "How do you know that?"
"It's the only thing that makes sense," Max replied. "Your arrival wasn't random. You triggered some kind of technology you found buried in your own time tech that doesn't belong in your era, let alone five thousand years in the past."
Reed stepped forward, a gleam of understanding lighting his eyes. "He's right. That chamber… before we were transported here, the system inside responded to my biometrics. And then right before the temporal displacement we heard a voice. It spoke in a strange language, but one thing was clear…"
"Nathaniel Richards," Ben rumbled, nodding. "Yeah, I remember that part."
Reed continued, slipping into his usual scientific rhythm. "The chamber was likely keyed to a genetic signature similar to my own, which would only be possible if its creator were a descendant of mine. Nathaniel Richards might be mine and if he's here in this time, it's entirely plausible he used that technology to assume power as Rama-Tut."
Khenmet stepped back in alarm. "You brought him here?"
"What? No!" Max said quickly. "They didn't bring him. Reed, you don't have time-travel tech in your own era, right?"
Reed shook his head. "Not yet. We've only just begun exploring quantum entanglement."
"Exactly," Max said. "So Nathaniel or Rama-Tut is from even further in the future than you maybe centuries."
Johnny slapped his fists together. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go knock over this wannabe pharaoh. He's got a time machine, right? We take it, we go home."
Max nodded. "That's the plan: defeat Rama-Tut and use his tech to send you back."
Khenmet's eyes narrowed. "You underestimate the power he possesses," she said, her voice taut with frustration. "He even frightens the gods."
Max folded his arms, calm but firm. " I think you might be underestimating us."
Khenmet shook her head, jaw clenched. "No. The gods have a plan, and I will follow it. I won't let you ruin—"
"I just beat one of your gods," Max cut in sharply. "Maybe they're not as powerful as you think."
Khenmet's gaze darkened with fury. She said nothing, turning on her heel and storming out of the chamber.
"Well… there she goes," Max muttered.
He turned back to the Fantastic Four. "So… uh, the future, huh? And this other Green Lantern you know…"
Johnny opened his mouth, ready to reply, but Reed held up a hand. "It's best we don't share too much temporal interference paradoxes and all that." He rattled off a string of terms that made even Max blink.
"Alright, alright," Max said with a smile. "Message received."
He headed toward the cave entrance. "I'm going to find the priestess."
As he walked away, he caught Susan whispering something to Johnny something about Ta-Khetu or… something like that but he let it slide for now. His mind was on Khenmet.
Max stopped a few of the cave dwellers near the entrance. "Where's Khenmet?"
"She left," one of them replied.
Max sighed and stepped outside. The desert night greeted him, cool wind brushing his face. He scanned the rocky terrain she was gone.
"I can't track her for some reason. I'll try again," Jade noted quietly.
Then, from behind him, a familiar voice echoed:
"She won't rest," Khonshu said, his tone deep and distant, "not until Hesi-Ra is dead."
Max turned to see the moon god still draped in white, crescent staff in hand, his bird-skull face glowing faintly under the moonlight.
Max exhaled slowly. "Feels like I got in the way of her revenge."
"You did," Khonshu replied without malice. "She has waited years for that confrontation."
Max looked toward the dunes. "Then why don't you help her? Why don't the Ennead step in and end Rama-Tut yourselves?"
Khonshu tilted his head slightly. "You know a lot"
Max shrugged.
Khonshu studied him for a moment, then spoke. "We tried once when the interloper first arrived."
"And?"
Khonshu's voice dropped lower. "He came well-prepared. We realized it would not be wise to face him openly. There is also the matter of the Celestial edict… that is unimportant now. We can do nothing against him except act through avatars and try to disrupt him."
"I think we're enough," Max said, meeting Khonshu's gaze. "The Fantastic Four and I we can take Rama-Tut down."
The moon god stood silent, his crescent staff planted firmly in the sand. "If he truly comes from the far future, as you claim," he asked coolly, "do you not think he has countermeasures prepared for you, as he had for us?"
Max opened his mouth, then closed it. His confidence faltered for a moment, but he offered no reply. Instead, he turned and walked back into the cave.
=====
Max spent the night in the cave, and at dawn the planning began.
He projected a full-scale holographic model of the city: shimmering structures of light with a towering recreation of the large Pyramid at the center. Beside him, Reed cross-referenced the projection with the scans he had taken when they first arrived.
"There's a power-relay node here," Reed said, pointing to a glowing spot near the pyramid's apex.
"Based on the EM readings, the internal geometry suggests a centralized living sector right here." His finger moved to the model's core. "But what really interests me is this chamber beneath the Sphinx. My scans are faint, yet something is definitely there potentially the temporal-displacement core. Possibly his time machine."
Max nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense. If I were a time travelling-tyrant with delusions of divinity, I'd hide my getaway ride somewhere dramatic too."
They huddled closer, refining the plan. When they finished, Ben smacked his rocky hands together. "So we knock some heads, smash the pharaoh and his pyramid, find his time machine, and poof back home."
"That's the basic idea," Max agreed. "Simple enough."
Because they would leave under cover of night, Max spent the rest of the day with the people inside the sanctuary. He created translator constructs so the Fantastic Four could speak with the locals. Susan took full advantage, cataloging cultural details and recording oral histories exactly how Max would have behaved back when he'd been an archaeologist in his old universe.
Johnny, of course, soon grew bored and approached Max.
"Hey, Lantern, the locals say the food caravan's late. Think we should check it out?"
"Sure why not?" Max replied; he was getting restless himself.
They soared across the desert in search of the missing caravan. It didn't take long to find it: broken wagons strewn near a narrow canyon pass and a camp of armed men. Bandits.
Max and Johnny incapacitated them quickly. Max refrained from killing anyone, instead frightening them with a construct-borne proclamation that he was a god of judgment. Terrified, the bandits swore to change their ways and fled.
The two heroes returned with the supplies and more. The bandits had been hoarding not only food but stolen trade goods and precious metals, enough to support the resistance for months.
When the cave dwellers saw the recovered wagons, cheers echoed through the cavern.
They were hailed as heroes, and the people even gave Max a new honorific.
"T-khā-tu!" they cried.
"The Shining one," Jade translated softly in his mind. "They're calling you the Shining one."
"Or the one who appears radiant," Max said with a translation of his own.
"I like it" he added.
=====
That evening, as the sun slipped behind jagged cliffs and the sky blushed orange, Max found himself flying alongside Johnny Storm. For the last half-hour they'd raced across the open desert sky purely for fun. Johnny wreathed in flame streaked through the twilight like a comet, laughing as he pushed his limits. Max, trailing his signature ribbon of emerald light, beat him every time.
Johnny finally dropped to the rocks, flames extinguishing as his boots hit the ground. He bent double, catching his breath.
"What the hell, man?" he gasped, grinning. "How are you so fast?"
Max descended gently, landing with a soft thud. "I thought you said you knew a Green Lantern in your time. Didn't you realize we can fly faster than light?"
Johnny raked a hand through his hair. "I figured that guy had, like, a spaceship or something!"
Max chuckled. A moment of silence followed before he asked casually, "So… what can you tell me about the Green Lantern from your era?"
Johnny stiffened. "Reed told us not to talk about it paradoxes and all."
Max shrugged. "Does it really matter? I'm not going to live long enough to change anything, right?"
Johnny hesitated, then sighed. "You know what? You're right. Screw it."
Max leaned in, intrigued.
"I don't know much," Johnny began. "He showed up two years ago right in the middle of the invasion, which led to the Avengers forming."
Invasion. Avengers. Max filed the clues away.
"He's super mysterious," Johnny continued. "Never sticks around long. Anyway, about six months ago, we teamed up aaand man, that was wild. This silver guy shows up on a surfboard you might not know what it is, but that doesn't matter. So, we called him the Silver Surfer."
Max's eyes widened. Galactus… so that's already happened in their time.
"Yeah," Johnny went on, oblivious to Max's thoughts. "He said he was the herald of Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, and that this planet eater was coming to eat Earth."
Max nodded, wondering how that Green Lantern had fit into the story.
Johnny nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah you must know him, right?"
Max gave a slow, measured nod.
Johnny pressed on, animated. "We tried everything to stop Galactus everything. It all failed. We were down to our last desperate idea sneak into his home and steal something called the Ultimate Nullifier when bam, the Green Lantern shows up."
Max leaned forward, tension humming beneath his calm exterior. "What happened?"
Johnny grinned. "Apparently the Lanterns have some kind of evacuation protocol for worlds Galactus targets like they've done this before countless times. We were all, 'Where the hell have you been? He's already eating the planet!' But the guy just goes, 'Relax, I've got a plan.'
"So he flies straight up to Galactus and talks to him."
"He talked to him?" Max echoed.
"Yeah!" Johnny laughed. "And then Galactus just… left."
Max's voice fell to a hushed whisper. "Galactus just left?"
"Yup. Poof. Gone. All that hype about him being unstoppable, and he just up and leaves."
Max rubbed his chin. "Why?"
Johnny shrugged. "The Lantern said his boss had a talk with Galactus. Wouldn't say more. Like I said, super-secretive, that guy."
Max was about to probe further when Johnny smirked. "Also… not gonna lie, he's got a better costume than yours."
Max arched an eyebrow. "Really? Better how?"
"Sleek black-and-green suit with glowing lines. And the mask...oh man, it's got these horns on it."
Horns? Wait… could the Green Lantern be…
His thought interrupted as a shimmer formed beside him. A tall, white-cloaked figure solidified from the air.
Khonshu.
Max instinctively stepped back, startled by the sudden presence.
Johnny, who couldn't see Khonshu, tensed. "What is it,?" he asked.
"It's just the moon god," Max replied, trying to sound casual.
Johnny blinked. "Moon god?" His voice leapt an octave. "You mean, like… an actual god? Where?"
"Khenmet is in danger," Khonshu said urgently.
Max's expression sharpened.
"I give you my blessing," the deity continued, "to enact whatever plan you and the others have devised against Rama-Tut. Do not fail."
Without another word, Khonshu vanished.
Max turned to Johnny, who was still looking around wildly. "Go get the others," he ordered. "It's go time."
Johnny's eyes lit up. "Finally!" he grinned. "FLAME ON!"
With a roar, he rocketed toward the caves below, a streak of fire against the darkening sky.
Max remained where he was, staring eastward toward Thebes. Maybe I should call Odin; he must be finished by now, he mused.
Above him, the sky deepened to indigo and the first stars appeared. One way or another, Rama-Tut's empire might not survive the night.
.
.
.
"We have captured the priestess, my Pharaoh," said Merutef, kneeling low before the golden dais. The leader of the Kheru-Sekhem the most feared and fanatically loyal of Rama-Tut's enforcers bowed with grim pride.
High above him, seated upon a golden throne inlaid with polished obsidian and shimmering blue lapis, sat Rama-Tut Pharaoh of the Eternal Dominion, tyrant of the Nile, and, in truth… a man out of time.
Clad in ornate armor that fused ancient Egyptian opulence with future tech, Rama-Tut wore a headdress shaped like a stylized pharaoh's mask. His cape, deep violet and trimmed in gold, draped from his shoulders and shimmered with nano-fiber threads. His face was hidden behind a solemn, impassive mask with glowing blue eyes.
Yet behind the mask, Nathaniel Richards was uneasy.
He stared at the holographic screen flickering before him: a man wreathed in green light, flying across the sky.
"A Green Lantern," he muttered, voice low and tight. "But… how?"
He had calculated this timeline meticulously. According to every record, the Green Lantern Corps should not exist for another six centuries. He was certain of it.
"Could it be… him?" The thought struck cold fear into his heart.
The Fantastic Four, he could handle. But this?
Him.
Rama-Tut rose abruptly, violet robes trailing behind him. "Imprison the priestess," he ordered Merutef with a dismissive wave. "I will judge her later."
Without another word, he swept from the throne room. Crossing the outer halls of his palace he reached a sacred arch guarded by mechanical jackal sentinels and passed into the inner sanctum of the Great Sphinx. None but Rama-Tut was permitted here.
This was his domain.
Deep beneath the stone façade of the lion-bodied guardian lay his ship. He moved through the chronal chamber, where temporal gates pulsed with power, and entered a vast vault only he could access one that was in a pocket dimension: a museum of plundered history.
On one wall hung the fractured remains of Captain America's shield; nearby lay the ruined torso of an Iron Man suit. Glass cases lined the room each containing relics, weapons, and secrets he had stolen from countless eras.
"Computer," he commanded, his voice echoing through the quiet sanctum.
"Yes?" replied a smooth male voice.
"Bring up the Dread Spear."
"Acknowledged."
A section of the wall hissed open, revealing a sleek display case rising from the floor. Golden light bathed the chamber, and within the case hovered the weapon: a long, polished shaft of alien gold alloy, its tip crowned by a jagged crystal that pulsed with sickly yellow energy.
Rama-Tut stepped forward and, with a swipe of his hand, deactivated the stasis field. The case slid open. Careful not to touch the yellow-imbued head, he lifted the spear with reverence. It thrummed in his grip hungry, eager.
"This will do," he murmured.
He studied the cursed relic, something he had acquired during his travels. It was rare, most of it destroyed by the Corps, a remnant of a great war that had not yet come to pass.
"This has to work."
"It will work" he spoke again more firmly as he raised the spear over his head.