No More Olympus

Chapter 14

Athena and Ares were led to the front of the camp and forced to stand with their backs to a storage container.
After a few moments, both Aphrodite and Hermes joined them in a very similar predicament.
Athena took the moment of silence to do a quick headcount of their numbers. There were at least thirty-two guns pointed at them, ready to fire at even the slightest suspicious-looking twitch from any one of them.
Of course, it wasn't the bullets she was worried about. Being mortal weapons, they would bounce off of their skin as if they were specks of sand. She was worried about what would happen after they fired, watching bullets have no effect on four people outside of Olympus would be all the proof they needed of what they were looking for.
"General Anzo," said one of the men holding a gun at Hermes, "We found these two trespassing as well."
"Oh, a foursome interesting," General Anzo joked, tucking his pistol into his belt. The first thing one would notice about the general was his hair, namely that he didn't have any. He was completely bald missing even his eyebrows. Every movement the man made seemed similar to that of a stalking predator. Needless to say, he caused uneasiness in every person he met. Anzo paused for a moment as he approached the front of the mass of soldiers to take a better look at his trespassers.
"Well, this is quite the ragtag bunch we found," Anzo remarked. His voice was hollow and high-pitched, and he also seemed to have some sort of faint lisp.
He leaned over to the soldier next to him.
"Am I using that word correctly?" Anzo asked.
"Which word, sir?" The soldier responded.
"Ragtag," Anzo clarified.
"I believe so, sir," the soldier nodded.
"Goody," Anzo grinned, clapping his hands together and approaching the group.
He stopped in front of Aphrodite, looking closely at her face,
"Enchante," he greeted, grabbing her hand and kissing it,
Now there are very few people on this earth whom Aphrodite could not find attractive qualities. But this seemed to be an exception as she pulled away her hand and contorted her face in disgust.
Ares looked furious.
Anzo chuckled and moved down the line stopping in front of Athena.
"Your eyes are miraculous," he commented, "Perfectly gray, not a single speck of colour to be found."
Athena said nothing in response.
He once again moved down the line, this time stopping in front of Ares, who stood nearly a foot and a half taller than him.
Anzo said nothing. He simply patted his bicep and nodded approvingly.
Finally, he stopped in front of Hermes.
"Don't I recognize you?" He asked, "You're a basketball player, are you not? James... something."
"You don't talk to him," Athena finally responded, quick to distract him before he finished his thought, "You only talk to me."
"Finally," Anzo remarked, extending his hands out toward Athena, "Finally we speak to the man in charge, metaphorically speaking of course."
He once again approached Athena and the two locked eyes.
"Hi there," he began, "What's your name?"
She hesitated for a moment.
"Sadie," she lied, "Sadie Marcus."
"You look Greek," Anzo observed, "Yet your accent is American."
"We're tourists," Athena explained, "Thought it was about time we visited our ancestral home. Saw the sights."
"And that brought you to a military camp in the middle of nowhere?" He questioned.
"Well, if you come to Greece, you have to see the famous Mount Olympus," Athena smiled, "Then we saw your camp, and curiosity got the better of us, I'm afraid. We found the spare clothes and thought we could sneak in."
"Be careful with curiosity," Anzo joked, "It's been known to kill cats."
"That's true," Athena chuckled, "We're so sorry to bother you. We didn't mean any harm. If you could just let us go, we won't come back, and we won't say anything."
Anzo paused to consider the offer for a moment.
"That's not an unreasonable request," He commented, pacing back and forth. "Quick, easy, painless, certainly would save me a lot of paperwork."
"So it's settled?" Athena asked cautiously, "We leave, and nobody says anything."
"It would be," Anzo nodded, "If I believed a word coming out of your mouth 'Miss Marcus'."
The group fell silent.
"You see, I know you're lying to me," Anzo explained, "Because I know why you're really here."
He pointed to the mountain that stretched high above the camp.
"You're here for this," he continued, "For Olympus, you know what secrets it hides, and you're trying to keep them from us."
"I swear to god we have no clue what's in there," Athena insisted, hoping she could salvage the situation.
Anzo burst out laughing.
"You swear to god," He repeated, "That is a truly remarkable sentence coming from your mouth. We both know that the word god has a different meaning to people like you."
Athena looked at him with confusion.
"I'm hurt, I really am," He said, placing his heart over his chest, "That you don't remember me, Lady Athena."
Her eyes narrowed.
"And I suppose the Barbie girl over there is Aphrodite," Anzo figured, "And the name James Hermes isn't exactly hiding much. And just as a wild guess, I think the big guy must be Ares,"
The four all stood at the ready as Anzo backed away.
"We've been made," Ares hissed.
"I can see that, thank you," Athena hissed back.
"We should attack," he insisted.
"Not yet," she rejected, "Wait for my signal."
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls," Anzo announced while still facing the four of them, "I present to you... the Olympians."
He paused for a moment, seemingly for dramatic effect.
"Kill them," he ordered, finally turning his back.
"Now!" Athena shouted, launching herself forward, materializing her aegis shield on her arm and using it to slam into the General, sending him flying into several of the other men before him.
The men recoiled at the image of Medusa's severed head emblazoned on the shield.
The soldiers then opened fire, sending bullet after bullet into the Olympians with each one simply bouncing off of their skin like it was nothing. The only evidence that they were fired upon were the multiple holes in their clothes that were soon each magically replaced with their Olympian attire. That is except for Athena, who remained in her normal clothes and was able to block most of the shots with her shield except for a few shots that harmlessly nipped at her ankles.
Ares materialized his massive sword, Hound's Jaw and charged forward, roaring like a wild animal.
Hermes zoomed into the deepest depths of the camp, seemingly determined to set off every alarm he could find while sending guard after guard flying through the air and into tents at super speed.
Aphrodite chose a much different approach, slowly waltzing up to a group of soldiers and easily putting them under her spell, forcing them to drop their weapons and have an all-out brawl for her affection.
Ares quickly caught the attention of Athena as he walked down the pathway, knocking down soldier after soldier as if they were simply mannequins at a department store. She saw one guard sneak up behind the god of war and hit him in the head with the butt of his rifle. Of course, Ares barely flinched, he turned to face the man who looked pale with terror, He raised his sword in preparation to strike the man down.
Athena quickly leapt into action, summoning a short sword into her free hand and quickly getting in between Ares and the guards and blocking his blow.
"What in Zeus's name are you doing?" He shouted,
"What did I say?" Athena demanded, quickly taking a moment to knock the man out with her shield, "No killing, do not give them a reason to come after us!"
"This is war," Ares argued, "Killing is inevitable."
"You're literally invincible to these people," Athena argued, "Figure something out!"
Ares grunted rudely before turning to re-enter the battle.
Out of the corner of her eye, Athena saw another soldier preparing to fire at her. In response, she casually raised her shield at such an angle the bullets deflected off and caught the man in the ankle, forcing him to the ground in pain.
"Hermes!" Athena shouted.
A second later, Hermes appeared in front of her, his boots and gauntlets covered in dust from all the action.
"What's up?" He asked.
"We need to do damage control," she explained, "I need to find and destroy every single camera you can manage. I'm going to the security tent to see if I can't destroy the hard drives and wipe any record of our faces."
"You got it," Hermes nodded before disappearing the next second into a cloud of smoke and a golden trail of light.
Athena sprinted through the fight toward the security tent, taking out all guards in her path by knocking them out with her shield or disabling their limbs or weapons with her sword.
As much as she would hate to admit it, she missed times like this. The moment when she was so in tune with herself and her environment that she would be completely untouchable even if she weren't a god. It was a trance she hadn't felt in years, almost a higher state of being. It was moments like this when she felt like she was back on Olympus, where everything made sense, back when she was a foolish young girl who truly had no clue about her or her family's true impact on the world. Back when her life was simply glory, purpose and battle.
But this was not her life anymore, and she could no longer remain ignorant.
She finally approached the security tent and quickly entered, finding that hiding within the canvas was a computer desk with dual monitors, a large advanced-looking server and a very frightened man in a plaid shirt and glasses.
"Stay calm," she said, pointing her sword away from him, "I'm not here to hurt you. I just need to destroy your servers."
He cautiously extended his hand as if saying, 'By all means.'
"Thank you," Athena nodded in appreciation.
Athena raised her sword and thrust it into the server, creating two long cuts and destroying all digital evidence that they were there.
"Do you know if there's one of those cloud thingies?" She asked.
"It wouldn't have uploaded until later tonight," the man explained.
"Great," Athena sighed in relief, "Thank you, now stay here, stay down, and we'll leave you alone."
Athena turned to leave.
"Oh my god," the man said in amazement, "It's you."
Athena turned and looked at the man suspiciously.
"Your gray eyes, your divine beauty," he remarked.
"Coming on a little strong there, pal," Athena remarked.
"The Aegis Shield," he continued.
Athena looked down at her shield and saw the image of Medusa's head staring back.
"You're Athena, goddess of wisdom, patron of heroes, first daughter of Zeus, my lady... it's an honour."
The man bowed at her.
"Um... alright," she replied awkwardly, "Thank you for being a fan... you have a nice day."
"Wait, you're just going to leave?" He asked.
"Well, I'm busy so..." she excused.
"You're here for the box, right?" He asked, "Pandora's box?"
Athena paused.
"What do you know about Pandora's box?" She asked.
"I know it's filled with knowledge," the man smiled, "Knowledge of the gods, magic and potentially the meaning of the universe itself."
Athena, upon getting a closer look at the man, recognized who she was speaking to.
"You're Wallace King, right?" She questioned.
"You know my name?" He asked. Clearly a little star-struck.
"I read it in the Times," Athena explained, "You're the guy sending monsters after us."
"They were only supposed to be messengers," King explained, "I wished to speak with you."
"Okay, a little piece of advice," Athena sighed, "Gorgons are not exactly the best at delivering a message other than 'die'."
"I apologize," King said, hanging his head low, "I believed I had control over them."
"Back to the box," She requested, "Where is it?"
"It's in my research tent," King explained, "I can take you there,"
"Okay," Athena accepted, "But stick close to me. It's chaos out there."
"Yes, my goddess," King bowed before exiting the tent.
"Don't call me that, please," Athena demanded.