You cursed my soul, my mind is dead. Eyes like a weapon, snakes on my head, priestess I was, the pride of Athena. Now I'm banned to live the life of a beast
A smirk slithered it's way across Cornelia's face as she heard an epithet of cursing issue out of Hades' mouth as they ran for the bridge through the noxious blaring of the alarm, some things never change. He disappeared inside the bridge, but Apollo lingered.
"You know I would steal a world-ending fiery crystal vase for you, Cornelia," Apollo gave her a playful nudge and wink. "I just would be smart enough to not open it."
"Really?" Artemis groaned, "do you ever learn anything, ever? Every day you give me a reason to loathe the fact that we share genetic code and birthday. Its a blessing that we look nothing alike."
"That still throws me," Cornelia interjected, "how is it you two are related? You are quite possibly the most disparate looking siblings I have ever seen."
Apollo shrugged, "I am grateful every day that I do not look like you."
"Do you want me to hit him, or do you want the honors?" Cornelia asked Artemis with a smirk. Part of her was really opening Artemis would let her.
Artemis laughed, and lashed out narrowly missing Apollo's face, "Oh I will hit him, but he will not know when or how its coming. Watch out little brother, my fist will haunt your dreams."
"You are two minutes older!"
"That's right," She smirked at him, "first at everything." She made another feigned attack and he winced.
Cornelia laughed, the first one in a long time. "You are right, this is way better."
Artemis and Cornelia linked arms and waltzed into the bridge leaving Apollo to pick up the pieces of his pride.
They entered the bridge giggling conspiratorially "Are you 'ladies' about done? We have work to do, and in this particular case we do not have time for the idle prattle." Zeus spoke with a perfunctory roll of his eyes and typed a code into his console with more brute force than necessary, "I need warriors, not courtesans."
"Yes, father." Artemis' gleeful expression wiped clear of her face. Her typical stoicsim took its place.
Cornelia's shoulders slumped and she took a deep breath. The last one of these 'adventures' will haunt me for the rest of my days and I can never look at my friends the same way. what will this one do to me? Then an inquisitive internal voice broke through her self deprecating thoughts, wait, did she just call him father? The question dissipated before it found its way to her lips, because of what appeared before her.
A glowing green hologram of a pulchritudinous woman appeared in the center of the room. The maiden's eyes were closed and heavy white lashes sprawled like small fangs across her high-boned cheeks. long thick coils of multi-patterned hair acted as her only clothing as it constricted around the curves of her voluptuous chest. Her hands clasped before the bottom of her spade-shaped hips, coyly concealing the center. Like that helps, Cornelia rolled her eyes and turned to face Apollo expectantly.
His face reminded her of the stark reality they faced. Even this curvy nymph of shimmering speckled Blackstone and emerald skin. Apollo, as if he had been struck by venomous cobra his sun-kissed skin had shed all of its natural color, and he shook like the end of a rattler's tail.
"She's pretty," Cornelia offered reluctantly. "What is so scary about her?" Cornelia's personal latent sexism shocked even her, but she continued. "There's nothing too terribly hard about capturing a pretty girl." Hades scoffed and changed the direction of his attention to anywhere but at Cornelia.
"Have you learned nothing?" Zeus' condescending tone stung her more than she anticipated. His eyes encased an all-knowing look and he hit another button. "I thought this one was supposed to be smart?" He said to no one in particular but the jab hurt all the same. "Watch carefully, Cornelia." He pressed one more button and watched her with an expectant expression.
The woman's eyes shot open and went from demure angel to demon. Dark serpentine slits cut through lizard green eyes. The succubus' hair had come alive and it was a twisting viper pit. Her mouth was open baring venom dripping fangs and a serpentine tongue that tasted the air.
Zeus shot her a smug and satisfied smile, "Hebe, define species: Gorgon."
Hebe's voice cut through Cornelia's horror. "Gorgon: one of three left in the universe. This highly valuable creature is known for its hypnotic and serpentine beauty. They use vibration and sound to hunt, mate, and defend. When threatened or angry they use these vibrations to paralyze their victims. "
"Hebe, describe what happens when their victim is attacked."
"Gorgon paralysis is the deadliest in the world. Their victim's skin turns grey and hard; often described as stone. The victims experience sudden and instant organ failure and brain death."
"Hebe," Zeus continued his tone softer now that Cornelia's trembling matched Apollo's, "is there any known cure for this condition."
"There is no known cure."
Zeus turned back to them, "Hades, Apollo, and Cornelia. Your mission is to retrieve the Gorgon alive!" Cornelia's heart sunk. Not only could she not avoid those two she was going to be isolated with them for Jupiter knows how long.
"Zeus there's is no way! We have to behead her. It took a whole platoon of people with fully functioning space-age weaponry to take her alive!" Apollo protested, "We lost so many of them."
Cornelia could hear the pain in his voice, a healer that could not heal his people.
"Absolutely not, when we get off this petaqing rock that creature will be the most valuable thing we have!"
"Zeus, there are two more in the galaxy can't we just grab one of them when we are more equipped?" Apollo insisted. A poignant silence followed Apollo's plea, broken only by Zeus.
"She is far more valuable alive to me than you are," his tone was as cold as the blood that ran through the gorgon's veins.
Some father he is, Cornelia seethed but held her tongue.
"No!" Artemis stepped forward with defiance, "I am going with them." Her hand brandished a small dagger as if she could use it to cut through the restraints he kept putting on her.
Before Zeus could respond Hades' somber voice cut through the tension. "If you want the gorgon alive we are going to need all the help we can get, and Hercules still needs repairs, he needs to stay here."
Zeus sighed, "Put that down Artemis, you can go." He bit his lip as he gave his Artemis a pleading glance, "please be careful."
"It's about damn time!" Artemis groaned. "I have been stuck on this blasted ship, no pun intended, with you and Hera, and your endless petty drama for far too long!" She pulled out her luminescent crossbow and proceeded to polish it like she was grooming a beloved pet. Her eyes were bright with enthusiasm as she placed the weapon back in her holster and slung her arm around Cornelia "let's pack!"
"Hades, I trust you will create the appropriate tools to capture the gorgon, alive," Zeus said his eyes narrowing on Hades.
Hades glared back at Zeus, "I already had something in development and you know that" Hades mumbled curses under his breath before he stalked off into his lab.
"That would have been good to know before we went through all this rigamarole!" Apollo grunted in relief.
A short time later they had gathered into the transportation room. Their arms heavy with supplies, as they waited for Hera to teleport them to the assigned location. Cornelia chose to position herself at a safe distance away from Hades. She could not bear to be within his reach. It was hard enough to be in the same room.