Planet: The Underworld
"Hades, before you send us away-" Athena's undoubtedly compelling pitch was drowned out by the sound of the marble doors slamming in her face.
"Well he is just his typical warm and inviting self," Hermes huffed as he took a turn rapping on the doors of Hades' castle. "Look, open up man! We got some news for you! A little proposal you might be interested in!"
"...these sons of bitches can't take a hint," Hades muttered with annoyance as he peered out the window behind the curtains by the door. His intolerable family was still on the front porch squabbling amongst themselves while pointing angrily at the castle.
"What's with all this ruckus?" Persephon demanded as he hurried down the stairs. "It's ruining my fucking yoga session."
"Wait, don't open the door!" As usual, before Hades could stop him, Persephon went ahead and did what he wanted to do and opened the front door.
"Oh! Friends! What a lovely surprise!" He eagerly ushered Athena, Hermes, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus in. "Come in, come in! You came to check on me in person! Just like my mother would have wanted you to do! Finally! I'm so stoked! Did you bring me anything?"
"Oh uh, well..." Athena gulped then forced a small smile. "We are pleased to see you again, Persephon, and we hope you're alright..." She glanced at Hades imploringly. He scowled and crossed his arms, staying where he was by the window. "Might we have a word-"
"With me! Of course!" Persephon agreed energetically. "Oh, I wasn't expecting company today," he glanced at down at his oversized cashmere sweater and neon orange yoga pants. "Geesh, let me throw on something more suitable and be right with you!" He swiftly raced back up the stairs for his room.
The Olympians turned to face the lord of the Underworld brooding in the shadows. "So, you've heard of the God-Slayer, right?" Hermes asked.
Hades exhaled with frustration and slunk past the gods, his dragon winged cape hissing across the ground as he stood before the broad flight of stairs, refusing to look at the gods as he stared up at the red stained-glass window at the top. "I'm not joining your Gods Army," he told them coldly. "That's the real reason why you're here so don't try to tell me otherwise. I guess I always knew you would eventually come to my doorstep with your pleas and demands...But if you have made only one thing quite clear to me over the eons, it is that your affairs do not concern me."
"Hades, you cannot possibly be bitter enough to use past grievances as relevant excuses not to join your own family in a war that won't end with us if we fail," Athena pressed on. "If one god dies, it is only a matter of time before we all are an endangered species, that goes for you too and you know that."
He scoffed as he turned to face them finally. "I am actually amused that you've come all the way down from your lofty thrones to grace the darkened alleys of my kingdom with your presences. And the fact that you claim to need me suddenly to protect yourselves from your own mortal children? It's laughable, really," he managed a stoic laugh. The Olympians scowled. "Laughable. But," he shrugged indifferently. "You came begging for assistance at the wrong door, I have no loyalty to any of you."
"But we need you," Aphrodite insisted. "We already have demigods willing to approach the God-Slayer for us, we just need to demonstrate to the mortal-creatures that their gods have not forsaken or forgotten them-"
"As your parents have forsaken and have abandoned me to this prison so many eons before? Funny how I somehow knew that I would prove to be useful to the family again," he snarled. "And I told myself that when you come crawling back down here for help, I would tell you the same thing my precious brother told me before he left me down here; there's a lot of unpleasant things in this universe, and we all want to be the god that grants blessings, but some of us have to bare the curses," he was practically seething with disgust reciting the words Zeus had told him. He lifted his head to face the gods again. "Bare this curse well, Olympians," he said it like a vile insult.
Aphrodite flinched.
Hephaestus foolishly tried to reason with him once more, "But now is your chance to be reunited with the family -"
"Enough!" Hades ordered fiercely. Pillars made of ice abruptly shot up from the marble floor between them and continued to sprout up in front of the Olympians, forcing them to back to the door for retreat. "You've made it clear centuries ago that I am not a part of the family and now my lust for acceptance has shriveled up much like my patients for you imps, now be gone and do not return!"
They were forced out the front door one by one, but Athena managed to call out through the forest of ice pillars that was still forming between them. "Wait! Hades, at leastwise bring Andromeda back to life! She's a young girl on Argos turned to stone by a Gorgon! One of our demigod warriors has requested she be brought back to life and I know you can do it," she anxiously hurried on as she was forced over the threshold. "Don't do it for us if it disgusts you so much, but please do it for the demigod if you have any compassion at all in your heart!"
Hades scowled and shot her a look before a pillar rose and blocked her from view, the marble doors slammed shut on the Olympians' faces and then the pillars of ice rapidly shrunk back down and disappeared. He could still faintly hear the gods outside the door auguring back and forth, Aphrodite even had the nerve to declare; "That miserable beast will never help us grant Percy's wish! He knows nothing in his heart similar to love!"
He flinched but then couldn't hear them anymore as they stormed away. He sighed softly and dropped down to the stairs, his mind turning over the unpleasant events that had just transpired. Persephon suddenly reappeared, hurrying down the stairs dressed in a gorgeously gaudy suit he deemed 'suitable'. "Where'd everybody go?" He asked as he stopped on the stair Hades was on.
"Um, they...were suddenly called away," he muttered.
"Oh," Persephon scowled. "Left without so much as a good-bye, geesh. Talk about rude as fuck," he huffed as he dropped down beside Hades, they were so close, their shoulders touched.
Hades glanced at him in surprise, the demigod just shrugged as he met his eyes. He felt the beginning of a smile tug at the corners of his lips the longer he held his gaze.
***
Planet: Argos
Percy was biting her nails as she paced back and forth in the ally across the street from the warehouse Medusa was apparently keeping Meda. "I knew I should have been the one to go in," she kept repeating, her brow furrowed with anxiety. "Meda doesn't trust HeadShot!" She declared to the Ares dog, he was lying on top of a trash-engine, vibrating like a hula girl on a dashboard.
"Relax," he huffed. "HeadShot is a fuckin' Wiccan Warrior, aka a badass sharp-shootin' son of a bitch not to be fucked with," Ares woofed as he watched the traffic bustling across the street from them. "He can get in and out of anywhere without makin' a mess, he'll make sure Meeds gets out alright,"
"No one calls her Meeds," she made a face as she turned to resume walking the other way when she suddenly registered HeadShot right in front of her. Just behind him was a bulky mass perched on top of a dolly with a sheet covering it, Percy's heart lurched. "Where the Hades is Meda?" She demanded, shooting a glare at the Wiccan Warrior.
Ares sat up with interested and knitted his brow together as HeadShot swiftly pulled the sheet off the form behind him. It was Meda. Percy felt a stabbing bolt of pain seer through her heart at the sight of her beloved Meda still frozen in fear, sitting in a chair with her hands slightly raised as if to protect her face. Tears of guilt gathered in Percy's eyes as a fire of fury began to burn in her heart. "We had a deal!" She rounded on Ares. "You said that if I joined your stupid cause than you'd bring Meda back! But look at her!" She gestured at the girl turned to stone. "She's still a statue!"
"I'll be damned..." Ares muttered distractedly as he stared at Meda. "I'd have thought for sure ol' Hades would've helped..." He scratched his ear absently as he wondered what the hell his siblings said to Hades that made him not want to join their war campaign. Leave it to Athena not to make war sound like the best option, he thought with frustration.
Suddenly, within that very moment, Hades' powers did reach out through the universe and found Meda's presence locked within a body of stone. The fabric of his powers seeped into the cold collection of rocks that formed her body and awakened her spirit. Energy crackled to life inside of her veins, her mind sparked flares of consciousness throughout her body and her lunges suddenly expanded with a fresh breath of life. Percy and HeadShot startled when the statue of Meda suddenly moved. Cracks scattered all over her body like a network of spider webs and glowing red light shined from the tiny trenches that wove their way across her entire form.
Meda's eyes began to shimmer, as if they were rapidly being polished into glossy marble until they looked clear and alert and then her mouth fell open with a soft gasp. She looked around in confusion, her brow furrowed, her stone fingers clutching the arms of the chair anxiously, and then she registered Percy. "Oh my gods! Percy!" She flew out of the chair, her sudden burst of speed sent the chair flying down the alleyway backwards, and then she crashed into Percy. "I thought I lost you!" She crushed her in a fierce hug.
Percy managed to choke out, "Meda! You live!" Before squeaking with pain as Meda's stone arms tightened around her.
"Percy, my gods!" Meda swiftly released her and took a step back. "What's wrong-" then she broke off when she glimpsed her own hands. She shrieked with alarm and back-pedaled in horror, all the seams that were etched throughout her body seemed to give her full range of mobility as if she were still made of flesh, yet her skin and clothes were hardened into armor like stone. "What happened to me?!"
"Meda, it's okay!" Percy swiftly took her hands in hers, feeling a few tears of relief slide down her freckled face as she met Meda's wide eyes. "You're alive! I thought...I thought maybe you were..." She shook her head, unable to go on, and then quickly hugged the other girl again. "Ah, fuck it, I just love you so much!" She fiercely kissed her, her hard lips tasted a little salty from the stone, but Percy didn't care. Her heart was swooning with relief that she finally had her back in her arms.
"Hey, Perc!" Ares called as he jumped off the trash-engine. "We gotta be gettin' back to Crete, more of this fluffy stuff later."
"Excuse me?" She shot him a glare as she pulled away from Meda.
"Wow! I thought they only had talking dogs in the United Systems of America!" Meda exclaimed in amazement as she stared at the Rottweiler.
"Hey, I'm not just some random talking dog, okay?" He huffed. "But more of that later, let's kick this in the ass before Medusa figures out she's been shystered."
Percy looked around but -not much to her surprise- HeadShot was nowhere to be seen. She grimaced as she glanced across the street at Medusa's warehouse, then stepped closer to Ares with Meda's stony hand in hers. "What about him?" She asked with a nod towards the warehouse.
"Who?" Meda furrowed her brow.
Ares just gave a brief shake of his boxy head, "He's got reasons for stickin' around, let's go." He tilted his head back to bark loudly over the voice of traffic. "Hey, Iris! Take our asses back to Crete!"
"Crete?" Meda suddenly gasped with surprise and amazement as an intense ball of black clouds rumbling with thunder and flashing with lightning appeared in the air overhead, the congealed mass of storm clouds just as abruptly broke apart from radiant rays of sunlight just before a rainbow spotlight fell over them and whisked them away.
***
Planet: Thebes
"Spike!" Iolaus widened his eyes in surprise as the fellow android came slinking into the shop. "What are you doing in here?" He anxiously looked around for the boss before he glanced at the vile sign that hung on the front door: No Serves for Androids at Any Time! Then he smiled brightly at his friend, "So what's up?"
"Hmm? Up...?" Spike was flipping through a speeder magazine with stylish girls posing on the hoods. "Say, you got any of these with boys on them?" He winked with a smirk as he tossed the magazine on the counter.
Iolaus rolled his eyes as he swept it away. "Seriously. I didn't think your bike needed anything, so...whatcha doing here?" He nervously glanced around for his master; they'd be in so much trouble if he found them socializing. "I get off in a few minutes-"
"Yeah right," Spike snorted, leaning against the counter. "An android's work is never done. I mean, don't you do all the bitch work around here even after the shop's closed?"
"Well I mean, I do kinda check things over and prepare for tomorrow but-"
"Oh stop feeding me excuses, and quit selling them to yourself too. Look, man, I just swung by to invite you out. You remember my crew you met with the night before last?" Iolaus cautiously nodded, yeah, rough crew. "Well we didn't really get to hang out and chit chat before your hot hunky fleshy homie bowed out and got you all flustered."
Iolaus scowled, "Look, something happened to Heracles and I'm still trying to figure out what. I don't believe any of these news reports saying someone's illegal pet got loose and decided to attack and then just disappeared into thin air. Something else is going on and I wanna know how Herc got mixed up in it,"
"Yeah, that's sorta want we wanted to talk to you about...Look, man, we all know that there's always some sort of new, weird-ass shit hittin' the fan every other day left and right, but what if I could tell you that there's a way to get ahead of the curve. Y'know, like what if you were enlightened, huh?" He smiled as he pulled himself up on the counter.
"What do you mean enlightened? How? I mean...what?" He shook his head in confusion.
"Easy. What I'm asking you is do you wanna join the-"
"Hey! What is all of this?" Eurystheus exclaimed as he came hurrying up the stairs from the garage below. "Is this a fuckin' robo boy in my shop?" He glared at Spike on the counter, Spike scowled. "Oh no! We do not serve your filthy kind! Now get the fuck out of my shop! Out!"
"Sorry," Iolaus muttered to Spike as Spike slid off the counter like a scolded cat, not in any big hurry to leave but very obviously insulted.
"Out I said! And you!" Eurystheus rounded on Iolaus. "I've had all I can take of you! Coming up here where customers can see you in the middle of business hours! Talking with my human employees! You take liberties every day and I'm sick of it! Learn your godsdamn place!"
"I-I'm sorry," he bowed his head with shame. Spike bristled.
"Not as sorry as you're going to be! I'm going to put a restraining cable on you!" Eurystheus thundered and seized Iolaus. "No more attitude from you!"
Spike suddenly snatched Eurystheus' jacket and wrenched him closer to punch him in the face. Iolaus gasped in shock as Eurystheus went careening backwards and crashed into the rack behind the counter. "Don't ever talk to any one of my brothers or sisters like that again!" Spike warned, his eyes blazing with fury.
"Spike..." Iolaus breathed with disbelief. An android just committed an act of violence. That went against all programing! Iolaus couldn't even entertain a violent thought without his brain wiping it away. So how was Spike able to not only think violent thoughts, but act them out as well? It was mind-blowing, it was revolutionary, it was terrifying too of course, but at the same time...it was also pretty incredible.
"C'mon," Spike grabbed his arm and guided the stunned android around the counter. "Let's get the fuck out of here where we won't have to listen to the wheezing of assholes while we're trying to talk,"
Iolaus numbly let him lead him to the door, then glanced over his shoulder one more time in disbelief. He suddenly yelped in fright as he registered Eurystheus staggered back up to his feet, drawling a firestone gun from the drawer beneath the counter.
Spike swiftly shoved Iolaus out of the way with one hand while with the other he produced a horseshoe shaped sickle sharpened on both ends from the sleeve of his shirt. It zipped through the air with expert accuracy and found its latest resting place lodged snuggly within the warm flesh of Eurystheus' throat, the force of the blow was strong enough to send him flying backwards against the wall and the razor-sharp blades kept his bleeding body standing upright. "I always hate it when they try to get me in the back, mhm. Talk about a dick move," Spike rolled his eyes as he pushed a button on the wristlet devise primarily hidden by his striped sleeve. The lethal throwing star ejected itself from its prey and zipped back across the room to latch onto his pale wrist again. "Well, shit. Let's go," he shrugged and adjusted his sleeve around the weapon, the blood staining through the fabric was barely noticeable against the dark color.
He led a sputtering and trembling Iolaus outside into the night, neon signs lit up the otherwise grizzly dark night. Iolaus was typically terrified of the night harassers but something told him they weren't going to be an issue with Spike around. He shakily pulled away from the killer android though to stare at him with a look mixed with fear and amazement. "How...How can you do all of this?"
"Eh. It's easy," he shrugged and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie as he led the way down the sidewalk. "I've been enlightened, baby. I'm in what's dubbed the Android Army, but I like to call us the Forsaken Children. So...wanna join the rebellion, brother?" He flashed a gleaming smile.
End of Book One