Aegis... or a Sham?

"Aggh." Throwing a stone towards the cave, I sighed. "This sucks."

War destroys a lot of natural and artificial beauty. The beautiful scenery that many painters would die to witness… turned into a wasteland. Structures telling stories of ancient kings laying on the ground, lakes filled with freshwater —turned poisonous, animals of various beauty turned to corpses. 

*Sigh*

But who cares?

I am here for Aegis not to mourn. Throwing the unnecessary thoughts at the back of my mind, I went down the cave with a small torchlight. The crevice was small which disappointed me. Being unable to take the minions with me was an inconvenience and quite dangerous. Inside the cave, I was on my own with no meat shield in case some booby traps got activated. 

Going through the cave, I noticed the signs of battle marked throughout the way. People fought and killed each other in order to obtain the Aegis. But it is understandable. After all, it is a mythical piece. 

Following the trail, I managed to come across an old rustic door, which I knew for a fact that I didn't have the strength to push open. But it was not possible for such a door to exist without some button mechanism. And so I search for it. 

Getting close to the door, I searched throughout the wall… for any noticeable difference in the patterns. It was difficult, the patterns were symmetrical and didn't seem to have anything that stood out.

With no difference visible, I moved on to the second method. I dragged my hand over the walls, trying to feel any difference in the texture and this took longer than before. 

However…

"There it is."

A single brick that felt looser than the rest, one that felt pressable. 

Taking a deep breath, I decided to press it. It might be a trap but I had to risk it. 

*Creaaak*

The moment I pressed the button, the door shook and started to slowly part, moving inside the crevices. 

Countless dead bodies lay inside the room with near dissipating skeletons, proving that the Aegis was beyond ancient. 

There were no traps inside the room, all the dead bodies were the result of a fight that broke out to obtain the legendary item.

Moving swiftly towards the podium at the centre of the room, I noticed a glowing piece. 

The light from that piece was what kept the room lit, there were no other light sources. As I reached near it, I felt a smile forming on my face.

"There you are…"

The greatest defence in Greek, Aegis. The shield turned breastplate stood in front of me with a proud shine. 

This was still dangerous. Touching it might get me killed… 

But somehow the face of Medusa on the item wasn't working. Not a single dead body in this room was turned into stone and as I stood before it, I was without any harm.

It is not a sham, right? I hope I didn't come all the way for a cheap replica.

But thinking of worrying about that later, I moved my hand to grab the item. 

However—

"Stop!"

…

…

Morbius stood horrified at the sight. A man had managed to sneak into the cave to Aegis' location. 

"Stop—"

His warning was useless as the youngster had already touched the Aegis.

The boy, confused and vigilant, started at Morbius. "Who are—"

But before he could speak, Aegis woke up. The relic of gods turned to a semi-liquid and crawled up the boy's arm towards his chest.

"What the hell!"

"*Tsk* It linked with that boy." Morbius said and used his vampiric ability to release a supersonic screech at the boy.

But it was useless as the screech didn't work. He hoped that the relic was some sort of symbiote that might weaken its grip upon coming in contact with a high pitch noise —but it didn't.

"Damn you!" The boy sneered. "Who are you!?"

"You don't need to know, boy." Morbius said. "Just give me that artefact back."

"Heh, you expect me to follow your command after you attack me?" He chuckled in annoyance. "And the name's Adam."

Morbius was confused by the boy's demeanour. He didn't seem too worried about the situation but unknown to him, Adam was worried. 

'Darn these pheromones.' He cursed his ability just as much as he praised it. Being unable to properly show his emotions was becoming more than an inconvenience and he wanted to fix the issue as fast as he could.

"Do you even know anything about this artefact?" Morbius asked, slowly moving towards Adam. 

Adam noticed the man's movement but didn't react. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. But I do know that it doesn't have anything to do with you."

Adam was worried about the man's abilities. He didn't know what the man was but he hoped he wasn't an X-Gene bearer. 

Slowly releasing his pheromones, he tried to take control over Morbius—

—But failed.

"What were you trying?" Morbius asked, his eyes going wide in confusion as his advanced senses picked on the pheromones being released by the boy. "You are not some ordinary kid, are you?" 

'Shit.' Adam cursed in his mind before shaking his head in denial. "I am not." He knew that he was anything but ordinary.

Morbius was not a bad guy, he was just a curious man that made poor choices. And this time he didn't want to risk making another mistake. 

Calming himself, he retracted his vampire features —revealing a calm man that seemed to be in his early thirties. 

"My name is Michael Morbius, a biochemist." He introduced himself, aware that the boy was ignorant of his status. "And as you have seen… I am kind of a vampire." 

His voice was a little sad. Whenever he talked about his vampirism, it reminded him of his poor choices and the people he lost because of it. 

Adam started at Morbius for a while, before calming himself. "I am Adam… Adam Galler."

Morbius nodded before releasing a sigh. "I see… But tell me, Adam. What do you know about Aegis?"

Morbius knew that the boy didn't know all the important details about Aegis.

Adam, confused by his question, told him about the origin of Aegis. However, that made Morbius laugh.

"Unfortunately, I cannot confirm that tale." Morbius said. "But I can say that the breastplate is now permanently attached to you and it won't come out unless you die."

Those words came like thunder to Adam.

"What?!" With that, Adam realised that he had made a big mistake. 

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[[A/N: I have changed the origin of Aegis and its abilities quite a bit. So, it is not the same Aegis breastplate from the comics.]]