"Acheron-sama?" Rose called,
"Acheron-sama?"
Acheron opened his eyes and looked at his hand as he flexed it, he then turned to look at Rose,
"Apologize for disturbing your meditation but your phone is going off," Rose said,
Acheron noticed that his inside jacket pocket was vibrating with a beeping sound going off every 10 seconds.
Acheron pulled his phone out and laid it on the table. He tapped the screen and mini hologram of Freya popped up from the screen.
"Hello, Freya," Acheron said as he smiled at her,
"How can I help you?"
"Hi daddy, Mom wanted me to pass some messages to you since she can't do it herself," Freya said as she cutely tilted her head side to side.
"What did she say, sweetheart?" Acheron said as he patted her head with his finger.
"Mom said that your monthly report is ready to be reviewed and also, she wanted to remind you that Halloween is 4 days away, on Thursday, and the family has decided to ban from using any insta-kill 'costumes' during your time in school," Freya said, though she couldn't feel Acheron's head pats, a contented smile was plastered all over her cute, chubby little face nonetheless.
"Oh?" Acheron turned to look at Rose who was guiltily hiding her face behind a small pillow.
"I was going to tell you when we landed Acheron-sama," Rose said,
Acheron turned to look back at Freya,
"That just means I can still make them shit their pants right?" Acheron asked,
Freya put a finger over her mouth, thinking,
"It only says that they can't die"
"Wonderful!" said Acheron, a big smile on his face.
"Anything else, my cute Freya?"
"No that was it… oh, wait, daddy! There's something more!" Freya said,
"What is it?" Acheron asked,
"It's not from Mom, it's from Hela. She wanted me to ask you when she will get to be of use? She says that she was born to kill but hasn't killed anyone since she was born" Freya said,
Acheron chuckled,
"Tell your sister that daddy will let her kill all the people she wants when there's a need for it"
"Ok!" Freya said,
"Oh, wait! There's more! Mom said to not forget to switch back to Japanese before landing, so you won't make a fool of yourself like your first day of school"
"Hoh~ and where did she hear about that?" Acheron said, he now switched from English to Japanese.
"Uhh… Nowhere! Bye Daddy!"
And with a cute smile, Freya disappeared in purple motes of light.
Acheron shook his head as he chuckled.
"How long till we land Rose?"
"One more hour Acheron-sama," Rose said, she had already switched to Japanese the moment she got on the plane.
The reason why Acheron didn't notice that is because he doesn't pay attention to these kinds of things since he can understand everyone no matter where he goes.
But just because he can understand anyone, it doesn't mean the opposite is true, Acheron can respond to you in any random language depending on which one he was thinking at that moment.
An hour later, Acheron and Rose disembarked from the plane and got in one of Acheron's cars that were waiting for him. They rode as they hummed songs from the radio station.
Rose looked disappointed in finding their house empty as if no one was ever there.
"If you are looking for the Ferrymen, they have already left. The moment I landed; Artemis stopped her security protocols. The Ferrymen are back to being in the shadows"
"Aw man~," Rose said,
Rose was without a doubt a big fan of Acheron's Ferrymen, she thought they were the coolest. The times that Rose has seen all 100 of them together could be counted in one hand.
"I'll on the 5th floor with Athena for the rest of the night, I'll see you in the morning before school," Acheron said as he got into the elevator.
"Yes, Acheron-sama" Rose vowed as she saw Acheron off.
…
The doors to the 5th sublevel opened revealing the 'Command Center' and home of Athena's Cortex. 14 chairs circled a big round table made out of black glass and marble.
Behind the table, on the wall, 5 giant screens were seen each with a news channel on from a different country. To the left of the table, behind a wall of specially made glass, were countless servers each one of them essential to Acheron's operations. While on the right, was Acheron's greatest technological masterpiece.
Inside a 5-meter-wide cylinder glass, sat a red metallic orb hovering in some sort of liquid as wires connected to it from the ceiling. This was 'The Cortex', or in other words, this was Athena's true body. Acheron had accomplished this orb a mere decade ago, but Athena has been around for almost 100 years.
While the rest of the world struggled with the creation of the radio, Acheron was creating Athena, the first true A.I. It wasn't until the rest of the world had invented the internet that Athena was able to move from place to place.
Acheron walked and sat at the head of the table, at the same time Athena appeared to his right, gently smiling at Acheron.
From the corner of his eye, he could see the red orb start to glow a brighter red.
"Welcome home, Darling," said Athena,
"Its good to be home, Athena" replied Acheron.
"Let's get started then… is everything on schedule?" Acheron asked.
"Yes, Darling" Athena waved her hand and a hologram appeared in the middle of the table.
A hologram appeared of a white ball with red trees hovering in the center.
Athena began to explain,
"The virus is ready to be released, Darling, I estimate over 200,000 people infected all over the world by April of 2020."
Acheron leaned forward and smiled evilly,
"I'm sure this will cause deaths and mass panic around the globe….hahaha"
Athena's eyes began to glow red, the same color as the orb behind her.
"When and where shall we release it, Darling?"
Acheron tapped the desk slowly while thinking,
"You know what? Pull up the Earth"
"Yes, my love," Athena waved her hand and a holographic Earth took the virus's place.
"Let's leave it to chance then" Acheron waved his hand and manipulated the globe to begin spinning around really fast.
Acheron waited 22 seconds before tapping the hologram with his finger.
Acheron smiled at where his finger landed.
"Wuhan, China it is! As for the when… let's pick December, a time of giving…"
"Got it, Darling, setting time and place… now" Athena said.
"OK, what's next?" Acheron asked.
Athena waved her hand once again, this time she showed live images of a wildfire.
"Australia's fires have been going on for quite some time now but it's about to get worse… Your pet will soon be released."
The images then changed to live video of a horse, but when I say 'horse' I mean it loosely. Inside a cage stood a horse, except this horse was on fire and it had a horn on its forehead. A fire burned instead of a mane of hair, even its tail was made of flames.
10 out of 10 nerds will say it looked like a Pokémon named Rapidash, but instead of being made of hopes and dreams, it was made of carnage and despair.
Its big eyes glowed an infernal red as its piranha-like teeth tore into the flesh of an animal already burnt to a crisp. When it huffed and puffed flames were spit out from its nose like flamethrowers. Hoof-like imprints of flame were left after each step it took.
"The plan is to release Inferno into the Australian wilds and let it burn the country into the ground for a couple of months," Athena said,
Acheron smiled once again,
"Fantastic!"
Acheron's eyes began to glow purple as his laughter turned maniacal and crazed filled with evil.
"It feels so good to be bad…"
______
Announcements:
1) before you all ask... No, I'm not under quarantine or lockdown because apparently, what I do is "essential" (FML!)