The day Setep was born, his mother knew there was something up with him. Instead of playing with the other kids, he would take pieces of leaves, rip them up and make pictures with them. He was an oddball, but his family expected him to grow out of it. He never did. Instead he grew up yearning for more artistic creativity, though in this world AI is the only art form that was accepted. Anything else was considered crimes against humanity, so Setep was forced to hide his true talents because of the big government shifts that happened back in 2093. After Egyptian emperor Travis made every branch of the government function with AI, non-AI projects are now illegal

“What are we going to do with him?” pleaded Isadore, his mother.

“There isn't much we can do.” replied her father, he loved his son, but he also knew how obdurate he was.  

“He’s our son, Sobek! We have to do something.”

“He's nearly a man now, he can choose his own destiny. If he wants to go against the law of AI then that's his own journey, it no longer involves us.” 

His father was nearly as stubborn as his own son, but deep down he was hiding his emotions, because every night he would pray to ai that his son would see the error of his ways before he would get hurt or possibly be arrested. 

“ Hey guys, what's going on?” Setep entered his family home after a long day of school. 

He looked around his robotic looking home with AI maids whirring around cleaning AI generated portraits of the Great Pharaoh Ahmose. It sickened him that even the man who was the Supreme Ruler allowed himself to be enslaved by AI.

“Where have you been, boy? Do you realize how late it is?” He knew what Setep was up to that made him so late, he just hoped for a different answer.

“ I was out with Thutmose” What was the issue in being out with a friend? At least he wasn't cooped up with these dumb robots taking over his own home, not to mention his own parents were becoming bots themselves in a way.

“ I told you boy, no more going out after the sunset, do you want me to take away your little coloring toothbrushes?”

“They’re paint brushes and I don’t see the big deal, the EAPD (Egyptian Artificial Police Department) scours the entire streets. No one could commit a crime if they wanted to!” 

“There are still people out there who find their way around the law! Or have you forgotten your brother?” Setep went silent. He knew his dad was right, and he hated him for it.

“Well, maybe he had the right idea. I’d rather be a criminal than have to be here all day!”

“Son, please, we only want what’s best for you. How about you sit down and Ill-” 

“No thanks, you guys have done enough” Setep ran to his room and shut the door. He felt held back by his family. The one person he felt connected to was his brother Basa Basa, and he was gone, no one knows where, no one knows why, but he's gone. But what if someone could find him? Setep pondered whether it was possible or not on the daily. He entered his brother's long abandoned room to search for clues. Everything seemed regular to him, until he looked under the dusty red and blue carpet.

“What's this? Some sort of hatch? But where could it lead?” there was only one way to find out. He crawled down into the dusty divot filled to the brim with spider webs and… colors?  He kept going down until he hit the ground. Then he realised it was dark and went back up and got a flash light. Once he had the necessary equipment, he looked around the man cave and was flabbergasted by what he saw. Tons of empty spray paint cans, paint brushes, canvases, it was something he had never seen before. He  picked up a bobby pin filled with colors.  The closest thing to a paint brush he owned was a tooth brush covered in motor oil. How had his own brother managed to hide all of this from his family, let alone the police. Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind and incapacitated.

“What should we do with him? Should we kill him?

“No! If he managed to get down there he must be Basa’s family or something”

“So what? Basa is probably too dead to care about his family right now, we could be risking the entire sanctuary just by having this kid be here right now! Who knows who he could've told about this place.”

“Where… where am I?!” Setep was chained up to a pole made of muddy brick. Setep attempted to break out, but he barely chipped the structure.

“Who are you people? Where am I? Are you guys gonna take my organs?!” Setep was in shock from his situation. How long have these people been under his house? Do they have something to do with what happened to his brother? Was he next? Everything felt like it was spinning. What if he didn't get out of here? 

“Who are you? Are you with the police? How’d you find this place?

“Calm down Nefertari, he won’t tell us anything if he thinks we’re gonna hurt him.”

Setep remember the bobby pin from earlier. He managed to pick pocket the lock of the handcuffs that locked him in place and proceeded to run away from his captives. They ran all around the underground palace until Setep had finally lost them.  Even though he managed to escape, Setep was lost deep into the man cave. He started to wonder around to see if  he could find his way out. He had so many questions but no one to ask, unless he built up the courage to interact with his captors. And even so, he would have to find them first, so he started to look for them. Surprisingly they hadn't taken his lantern so he was able to see through the dark cave.  He wandered into an office room with a canvas labeled “artwork by BB, phoenix.” The canvas had a depiction of a red burning bird in a massive cage. A tiny key was lodged in it and Setep took it and looked around for a key hole to match. He tried a couple of the drawers but they wouldn’t open. He noticed a safe across the room from him and decided to try the key. It opened up and inside was a baby picture of him. But how could that be? It was his first time in this place ever, but somehow it seems connected to his life. Inside the safe was also a pocket knife, he decided to take it just in case. Setep entered a section of the cave that seemed to be a city, with no lights and the citizens moving quietly. Setep began to look around to find clues of what this place was. He asked around but it seemed no one could help him, until he saw one of his captives. Initially, Setep was going to run away, but he realised that they couldn’t just grab him up in the middle of the street, and he also needed answers, so he decided to talk to them.

“Hey, what is this place? And where's the way out?”

“How did you get here? You need to come with me now. We have questions.”

“How do I know you won’t tie me up again?”

“We probably will, but that's for our own safety, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Im not going if I’m gonna get kidnapped again, just show me the way out!”
Setep was getting irritated, everything seemed backwards in this underground city. It was dark, there were no police bots, everyone was running around covered in colors, it didn’t make sense.  All of a sudden, a siren blares out, and everyone starts running for cover. Setep’s capture scoops him up and takes him to  an abandoned apartment complex.

“We should be safe here. Now, how’d you find this place?”

“I don’t know, the last thing I remember was being in my brother's room, and then going down this hatch, and then you guys took me! Can you at least help me out of here?”

Setep just wanted to forget about this place, but it seemed he poked around a little too much and now he has to deal with it as fast as he can before his parents realise he's gone.

“Alright kid, but be careful around here. After the AI police force took over, all us artists had to cower underground, your brother was probably one of his, and had his own hatchet.” This was a lot for Setep to take in. 

“Ok, so if my brother is a part of you guys, maybe he’s still here!”

“Yea, or he got captured and arrested or died. What's your name kid?” With this news, Setep realised he had to get back to his family and get back his brother.

“Setep, what's yours?” 

“Isis. Let's get you out of here” Step and Isis began to make their way through the city, they had to move very quietly so as to not disturb the people from above. They hid behind buildings to avoid the AI illegal artist droids that were sent underground to hunt them. Eventually, there was a message on the intercom.

“Dear Underground citizens, I call this announcement because I believe there are two fugitives hiding within your city walls. Now, under my understanding this entire city should be taken down and its citizens arrested, but if you retrieve these two fugitives, we will leave this operation alone.” 

“What did you do?” said Isis

“I didn’t do anything, who was that?” Setep felt his heart racing after the announcement on the intercom and the wanted photos that depicted him and Isis.

“That was Emperor Gut Genug, and it looks like we’re in trouble.” Just then, a barrage of robot police troops began chasing them. They ran away as fast as they could. Setep started throwing some of the items at the robots and they began to lose them. Setep realised he took the phoenix painting . could that be what they were after? As they kept running, Setep thought to himself about why the president wanted to hunt him and why he would want the painting.
“God I wonder where my sister is,” Isis exclaimed.

“Was that the other girl? Maybe she's looking for us.” As Setep and Isis made it further through their journey, they realised how sad the citizens of the underground felt after being cast away and having to hide. The former enemies formed a plan to lure a bunch of AI police drones, and use them to blow a hole into the outside allowing the underground city to overthrow the new government and destroy AI. Once they began to figure out the weak points of the underground, they drilled into them to create less structure.  With the plan setup, all they had to do was alert them, but it seemed they were too late. A massive helicopter came down, and out came the Emperor Gut Genug, and Neferati.

“Isis, you need to come with me so we can arrest this criminal.”

“Neferati, you can’t be hanging with the feds. I was just trying to help the kid home. How could you do this to me?” Isis felt betrayed because of her and her sister's oath to stick together no matter what. Setep began arming the trap to trigger the AI bots to explode, but there weren’t any. Then he looked at the president. He realised that his face was AI generated, but there was a real face beneath, so he used the AI trap to cause the helicopter to spark and trigger the explosions. The president's real face was revealed to be Basa Basa the entire time.

“Well brother, it was good to see you again. But now we die, and so does that painting.” The very foundation they stood on began to crumble, but Basa Wouldnt let Setep leave.

“Isis lets go, look he left us an escape pod we can leave.”

“But… fine, lets just go”

“But I thought I could trust you Isis.” They flew away and Basa was ready to kill Setep.

“Why are you doing this, We were family, is this what you’ve been doing your entire life?”

“Sometimes are deeper than you can understand brother, which is why I must get rid of you.”

“Why do you even care about this painting?”

“Because it was the last gift my daughter gave to me, before she was killed at an art gallery.” As they fought on the crumbling surface, Basa became wedged in some debris. 

“Ill help you brother”

  “To be honest, you never really meant much to me” Basa pushed Setep full force into a wall. He started beating him up until something stopped him. It was the real Basa and it turns out he was frozen in the clone's helicopter. He put Setep in his escape pod and let the underground city fall unto his clone and himself. Setep, still wielding the painting, brought it back to the surface and created the egyptian flag which was edited to today's egyptian flag. Setep got home and his family saw everything on the news. His brother was really gone this time, but at least he helped bring back creativity into art and destroyed the AI government