New York City
The fight finally ends, after what feels like an eternity. Times Square is flooded with hundreds of unconscious Centurions, most of which have already decomposed into blue goo.
The street has been devastated by the multiple explosions: there are holes in the ground, and shattered glass is everywhere.
Most of the Kari duplicates disappear. She’s wearing her Legion mask, which completely covers her head and especially her purple hair. While she looks utterly exhausted, the battle doesn’t seem to have bothered Torn in the slightest.
<We’re done> is Torn’s laconic comment.
<You didn’t even break a sweat> Kari notes. In fact, Torn’s detachment during a brutal fight with hundreds of genetically engineered soldiers was quite disturbing.
<I had other thinks to break.>
<Check if the others need help. I’m going to have my hands full here> Kari says, creating a few dozens of new duplicates. She’ll need all of them to deal with civilians injured, or buried, of worse. The Centurions did detonate several human-sized explosives after all.
If Torn is concerned in any way by the loss of life around him, he sure doesn’t show it.
“Torn here. Is anybody on this frequency?” he thinks through the Neural Transmitter.
Plasma reactor plant construction site, Ukraine
Vesta has never given much thought about being invulnerable. She’s avoided trouble for most of her life, so it’s not one of the advantages of being a goddess that she values the most.
When a twenty-story monster slams her into the ground and stomps on her, she understands how lucky she is. Relatively speaking, because there’s still a giant foot trying to crush her, but she’s a half-full glass kind of goddess.
“This makes no sense. How did it get so big so fast?” she thinks.
“Torn here. Is anybody on this frequency?” she hears.
“Torn! Care to give me a hand? I’m fighting some kind of giant here”
“Where are you now?”
“Ukraine”
“I don’t know where that is”
“Eastern Europe”
“I don’t know where that is”
“Seriously!? This is getting ridiculous!!!”
“Like asking for help to fight one giant? I just fought an army by myself” Torn Boasts.
“Hey! I was here too!!!” Kari adds on the same frequency.
“Kari says hi”
The giant steps off Vesta, who left a cartoonish silhouette in the ground. The giant tries to stop on her again, but now she’s free to fly towards him and throw an uppercut right on the giant’s chin.
No effect except disorienting the giant. Another punch, and another one, and another still.
“Vesta, we have a problem. Can you fly to Washington? Nori’s not answering” Kari asks.
“I’m kind of busy” Vesta answers, looking up at the giant. He’s now 400 feet tall, positively dwarfing the entire power plant.
She doesn’t even see the punch arriving. Despite her best effort to resist the impact, Vesta’s thrown far beyond the horizon.
Washington, D.C.
Quantum and Blue Star make short work of the Centurions; they fight back to back, shooting lasers at multiple targets at the same time. The nameless leader of the Centurions quickly realizes that the battle is lost, and is sneaking away when he feels the barrel of a gun touching the back of his head.
<Give me one reason not to shoot> Noriko warns him, cocking the Genius Gun.
<Killing me won’t defeat the Empire of Shadows> he answers, raising his hands in defeat.
<Who are you people? What do you want!?>
<Being in the dark must be killing you. You’re not so smart after all, isn’t it, kid?>
<Are you trying to intimidate me? I fought gods. You are barely an annoyance to me.>
<Really? Then answer me this, kid> the man says, turning to face Noriko. As he does it, his body begins to melt into pitch black goo.
She steps back, careful not to touch the strange substance and keeping the Genius Gun pointed at it.
<How do you fight a shadow?> are the last words coming from what was a man seconds earlier.
One after the other, the Centurions follow his disappearing act, melting into vast quantities of the same gelatinous blob.
<What the hell!?> Blue Star exclaims, her fists glowing with unreleased energy.
<It looks like we won or something> Quantum says, scratching his head.
The only person who doesn’t seem affected by the anticlimactic resolution is Null herself.
<Just as I thought: the Centurions are remote controlled. I wonder if this was just a big distraction.>
Project Silver, below the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker
This is supposed to be the most secure facility on the planet, and officially there’s nothing below the NORAD headquarters. An elevator that isn’t shown on any blueprint reaches sub-level 28, very deep underground.
The doors open, revealing a woman in uniform called Major Juliana Vazquez. Her body is currently possessed by a strange entity that calls itself Beautiful Cancer, which might explain why she’s smiling and waving at the guards that are pointing assault rifles at her.
<Don’t move or we will shoot> one of them warns her.
<How nice of you> she replies cheerfully, taking her first step out of the elevator.
The first bullet hits her leg, but it doesn’t slow her down. At the second step she’s already been shot a dozen times, but she keeps going until she’s less than ten feet away from the guns. The guards hold their fire when she comes to a dead stop.
She calmly puts her hands on her hips, posing to let the guards admire their work. Her body has been riddled with bullets, but she’s not bleeding. Black smoke is pouring out of her wounds, giving a glimpse of Beautiful Cancer’s real form.
<Madre de Dios> one of the guards whispers.
<Not quite, but nice try> Beautiful Cancer comments, opening her mouth.
Black tendrils of gas leave Major Vasquez’s body, that collapses lifelessly to the ground. The guards open fire, but the bullets pass harmlessly through the black cloud.
Beautiful Cancer transfers from one man to the other, but she’s not kind enough to use their guns to kill them. She twists their bodies from the inside before leaving them: squeezing the heart, poking holes in the lungs, bursting their eyes, scratching their brains.
The black smoke rises from the pile of mutilated corpses, coalescing into the silhouette of a woman.
<I’d like to stay here and have fun, boys, but business is business> the cloud adds in a creepy voice.
Cyllene, 76.000 light-years away
Despite its location at the edge of the Olympian Galaxy, Cyllene is the heart of galactic commerce.
Most of the galaxy’s god-states are perfectly self-sufficient, but sometimes interstellar distances are a serious nuisance. Ares needs to send his troops into war, Athena needs her explorers to reach the limits of known space, Dionysus needs to ship his drugs to the slums of the universe, Hera needs to receive her tributes, and of course everybody wants to meet Aphrodite at least once.
The fastest ships in the galaxy travel two million times faster than light; even if they could keep the pace for more than a few hours, it would take weeks to cross the Olympian Galaxy.
When gods need something to cross vast distances instantaneously, they come to Hermes.
Surrounded by a complex network of artificial wormholes, Cyllene does most of the work.
Talas Khanos had heard of Cyllene before, but he couldn’t imagine its beauty. During his years of service as an Oracle of Demeter he’d seen a wide variety of societies… from planets where humans had reverted to savage cavemen to advanced asteroid mining.
He knew the Hermes Hegemony was one of the wealthiest god-states, but only now he fully understands how many centuries they are ahead of anything he’d ever seen.
He’s admiring the sprawling city, beneath one of the many skyscrapers floating above his head, when two people teleport in front of him.
The male looks vaguely Arabian and the bald woman seems Scandinavian, though they’re removed from their Earth ancestors by so many hundreds of generations that it doesn’t really matter. They’re both wearing a white jumpsuit with a golden Caduceus, the symbol of Hermes.
<I’m Koroban Zyras and this is Echda Damar. You must be Talas Khanos.>
<You’re both Oracles> Khanos understands.
<We’re here to talk to you about a Lampyrian named Elytra Elater. You used to work together before Hermes recruited you> Damar says.
<She works for Hephaestus now> Zyras reveals.
<So what? She’s a twenty months old Lampyrian, she’ll die by the year. Why do you care?>
<Follow us> Zyras says, teleporting away.
The three Oracles reappear in a secure location on the other side of the continent. The teleportation power granted by Hermes is new to Talas Khanos, but he’s learned to use it with alarming speed.
<This still on need-to-know basis; Hermes himself doesn’t want this to go public> Zytas explains, pointing at the holographic map of the Olympian Galaxy in front of him.
Many planets surrounding the borders of the Hephestus Collective are highlighted in bright red, while sections of the borders themselves are shown on fire.
<Hephaestus has started a new war. Initial reports indicate that he mobilized the entire Talos army.>
<He’s been doing this for thousands of years> Khanos shrugs.
<This is bigger. We’re calling this the Vulcan War> Damar explains, pointing at the largest concentrations of planets under attack.
<Artemis, Dionysus and Persephone have already lost several sectors; none of them are equipped to withstand the Talos. They’re unwilling to pay for our protection and they’re too far away to call for the help of Athena, Apollo or Ares.>
<What about Zeus?> Khanos asks. The Talos are known for being invincible in battle…but when Zeus shows up, “battle” suddenly becomes a severe exaggeration.
<Our intelligence shows he won’t interfere for fear of Hera’s wrath. Hephaestus is her son and so far he’s only attacked illegitimate sons and daughters of Zeus. But they’re not his main target: we believe Hephaestus is looking for something.>
<Earth> Zyras explains.
<Null’s world. Hermes knows where it is, but he’s bound from revealing its location by divine law. And when Hephaestus discovers that, he’ll send his entire army against us> Khanos understands.
<Exactly. We don’t have the military strength to survive a full scale attack from Hephaestus, but we can use his pawns against him. He’s turned Elytra Elater into some sort of advanced cyborg and unleashed her against Artemis.>
<You’re hoping our past alliance and my unparalleled knowledge of Lampyrian physiology gives me a chance to control her and the Drylon technology she’s using. Interesting plan…but I do wonder why Hermes isn’t asking me to do this in person.>
<Hermes doesn’t care how many people die during this war> Damar says.
<And what makes you think I do?> Khanos asks, crossing his arms defiantly.
<Everything Hermes owns can be bought. Including your soul. What is your price, Talas Khanos?>
The Oracle thinks about it for a full second, before naming his reward:
<All the research done on the device I recovered from Null should be enough.>
<You want the God Eraser> Koroban Zyras realizes.
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