Agent Flame Wave

The Council on Olympus

The Olympians piled around the throne room in their mortal bodies, finding it "convenient to discuss the present topic that way".

'Oh shut up,' Hera sighed over their argument. 'We have more important matters.'

'Of course! Blaming an innocent is not important enough for you, is it?' Hermes asked sarcastically before turning his gaze back on Poseidon, who was being held back by his arms by Hestia and Hades. Not that they needed to. He was not making any move on Zeus physically, just verbal threats. For once in a long time, one among the big three was taking things without completely losing control. Which was nice, for a change.

Not that Poseidon's threats seemed blank. So far he has threatened to roast Ares and feed him to the prisoner sharks, stake Aphrodite for standing up for Ares, set some very mad Cyclops loose on Zeus, flood Athena's library and Hephaestus's forges which were in the middle of his domain, and... some more obviously not meant for kids to hear. What was most noticeable was that all of his threats had a calm promise in them. Like the calm before the storm; leading to thoughts that he will absolutely, un-regretfully follow through his words.

Hera made her way across the room, around the argument, to Dionysus who drooling on his throne. She carefully detached his sleeping head from the magazine under it and picked it. And smacked him in the face with it, hard.

He woke up with a start. 'What?!'

'Stay awake,' Hera commanded before nodding towards Hestia.

Hestia nodded back and glanced at the hearth. The fire roared and blazed up, snapping the attention towards it, before subsiding.

'Glad you finished with your brawling –' Hera started.

'Who said we are finished yet?'

'Poseidon,' Hestia warned.

'But sure, it can be continued later,' he replied.

'Anyways, there have been some disappearances among the demigods,' Athena stated.

'And hunters,' Artemis reminded.

'Oh seriously? That's why you woke me up? Well, I am not interested,' Dionysus said, opening a new magazine.

'Pollux is among missing, too,' Hestia said.

He threw back the magazine. 'I'm interested.'

'Wait. How come I never knew about this when, seemingly, all the other girls here did?' Aphrodite asked. She looked just like a typical high-school gossip girl while saying it.

'You would've known if you took interest in anything other than your makeup box and your boyfriends,' Hades snapped.

'Do you mean missing like in "kidnapped", or missing like in "ran-away-in-the-middle-of-night-without-any-farewell-letters"?' Apollo wondered.

They ignored him.

'By the way, how many demigods are we talking about?' Poseidon asked.

'Um..., 29 demigods and 7 hunters,' Hermes confirmed.

'And for your information, some of them did turn up alright,' Hera said.

'"Alright?",' Hermes echoed. 'Sure, if you ignore the fact that they are all comatose – '

'Yes, I am ignoring it, Hermes.'

'Comatose?' Apollo asked and at the same Hephaestus asked, 'And where is this place they turned up?'

'Rather weirdly, at a mortal organisation known as Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,' Hestia said.

They gaped at her.

'Say again?' Zeus said.

Athena rolled her eyes. 'It's known in short, as SHIELD.'

'Better.' Zeus nodded. 'So, it's a mortal thing?'

'You could say that.'

'Mortal,' Ares said, with a hint of disgust.

'You got a problem with that, dear?' Hestia asked.

'Yes. Very much so.'

She nodded as if considering it. 'Well, do us a favor. Keep it to yourself.'

Ares glared at her only for her to brush it away with a smug smile. She winked at Poseidon, who gave her a sincere smile in return.

'So this shield is keeping our demigods locked up?' Apollo asked. 'And please don't ignore me.'

'Not locked up,' Hermes said. 'They're in coma. Or maybe they are locked up. I don't know really.'

'Does Athena know?' Hades asked.

'Not everything about it. Most of it is highly classified, and I mean highly – and I also think they are having godly help of sorts. I am about 65 per cent sure about it.'

'A mortal organisation being able to conceal things from you, Athena?' Ares mocked. 'And you call yourself the goddess of knowledge? Does this mean it's time to start having lower expectations from you?'

Athena glared at him.

'How about we talk about this later, Ares?' Artemis asked with fake sweetness. 'Poseidon dropped his argument, didn't he? Now it's time for you to drop yours.'

'I... inquired about SHIELD to some, uh, trusted sources of mine,' Poseidon stared intently at his phone. ' And one of them did know something about it.'

'What?' Hera asked.

'It's director. His name is Nicholas Fury.'

'Well, we already knew that, Poseidon,' Athena said.

'But I bet you didn't know that he is having some, as my source said and I quote, "time off-duty because some particular people are going to somewhere and he finds peace when they are not around".'

'So?'

'So... I say we go and meet him. A small group, about three of us?'

'Are you implying, that now gods will have to go and meet mortals instead the other way round?'

'Drop your ego, Zeus,' Hades said. 'There is sense in Poseidon's words. Diplomatic way is often the best way.'

'Me, Hades and Hestia', Poseidon suggested.

'You, me and Hermes. No questions asked,' Athena deflected. 'Those who agree with me,' Athena raised her hand. So did Zeus, Hera, Artemis, Hestia, Aphrodite, Apollo, Hephaestus, and Dionysus. 'Majority wins!'

Poseidon looked at Artemis and Hestia in shock.

Hermes turned to Apollo with a regretting look. 'How did I get involved in this?'

Apollo patted him on the back.