"Is he still dead? Are you sure this worked?"
"AH!" I cried out in terror, as my eyes shot open and I rose from my lying position.
I had to shut my eyes as the lights around me seemed to be too bright for my eyes to handle. It was probably going to take a moment for them to adjust...
I opened my eyes again and realized that I could see again. I looked around and much to my surprise, I was no longer in the hallway of Jupiter High. I found myself in a peaceful lush garden maze. Several beautiful fruit trees surrounded the perimeter of the maze. The sun seemed to be hidden behind a gloomy overcast. I was sitting in the grass at the foot of this strange garden maze.
I couldn't help but stare at the fresh fruit that hung from the tree directly in front of me. I couldn't tell what kind of fruit it was. It was too thin to be an apple. Too green and dark to be a banana. It seemed to have a strange fuzzy coating on it.
I plucked one of the fruits from the tree and examined it for a moment. It felt like a furry kiwi. I slipped the fruit into my pocket.
I reached out to pluck another from the tree when a large and powerful dark hand grabbed hold of my wrist.
I yelped and leaped back in fear, turning to see a large dark man with black and curly hair. He wore battle armor that seemed to be made of living human bone fragments. The bones encasing the armor would occasionally rattle and resemble themselves around him every few seconds, making subtle alterations to the armor. He had a thin black cloak that flowed around him like liquid midnight. But the most unsettling thing about this man was his soft brown eyes. There was no maliciousness that I could see in him. He seemed almost sad as he stared at me.
I jerked my hand free from the man's grip, who raised his hand up to show he was releasing me.
The man simply raised both hands jokingly and smiled, "I would avoid eating that, lad."
I heard someone behind me bitterly laugh. I turned to see a young woman with light green skin, glowing green eyes, with long curly hair that seemed to be made of grape vines. There were patches of ripe grapes that hung from her wild and loose hair. She wore a sour look that seemed strangely fitting for her. I would have been surprised if this woman had smiled once in her entire life.
The woman nodded and said, "Yes. That tree produces some sour fruit. And all the food here is cursed. You eat any of it, and you'll be trapped down here forever."
The woman began twisting some of her vine-like hair with her pointer finger. She smirked and nodded at the man, "It'd be a shame if someone didn't warn you before you started stuffing your face."
The man let out an unnecessarily loud sigh as he directed his attention to me. He smiled at me and gave a slight nod, "I am Hades, Lord of the Underworld. You are in my domain. Welcome child."
"Am I dead? Did I die?!" I quickly said, not realizing how high my voice shot up.
Hades gave an understanding smile and waved his hand at the woman, "This is my lovely wife, Persephone. This is her lovely garden. Her handiwork is quite the marvel, is it not?"
I couldn't do anything but silently nod, still trying to process everything happening to me. Had I died back at Jupiter High? If that's true, then Hermes was real. Hades was real. The Underworld was also read. Am I in Hell?
And how come none of these guys seem to answer any of my questions?
Persephone ignored Hades' compliment, simply saying, "Don't drink the water here, either. That's cursed too."
I glanced over at Persephone, who caught me staring at her. A mischievous smile grew on her face as she innocently said, "And I'm sure, you've got enough curses to worry about, John Doe."
"What do you mean by that?" I immediately asked, not able to hold back my annoyance at this point.
I felt Hades' powerful hand rest on my shoulder, and I glanced over to him. The god of the Underworld wore his soft smile and nodded, "Sit down, John. Your benefactor will be here soon."
I had a benefactor? How come they didn't show up on my rainbow selection back at the high school? And who were they? And why did my eyes explode?
Hades must have been able to read the confusion on my face because he slapped my back and chuckled, "All in due time, my boy. Sit!"
Persephone waved her hand and a table emerged from the ground in front of her, made of beautiful live oak. Four wooden chairs emerged from the ground around the table next. Persephone plumped into her seat, plucking grapes out of her hair and tossing them into her mouth.
I tried to direct my eyes to anything but the sight of Persephone. My knowledge of Greek mythology was very limited, but I never would have imagined a goddess to be so…crude and uncaring.
Hade took a seat next to his wife, and he waved for me to take a seat next to him.
Before I could move an inch towards the chair Hades had directed me towards, Hermes appeared in the chair, with his uninterested look again. The chrome speedster god ignored my presence completely, focusing on Hades.
"Hello, Uncle. How's the life?"
Hades chuckled and shook his head, "That one never gets old, does it?"
Persephone simply made a 'Mhm' noise.
Hermes directed his eyes at Persephone and grumbled, "Persephone."
Persephone ignored Hermes entirely this time.
I couldn't help but feel out of place. I was in the presence of literal gods, and they seemed to be completely ignoring me.
"Why am I here? None of you have answered a single one of my questions. I need some answers." I said, trying to put some bass in my voice.
The trio of gods glanced over at me as if I were less than nothing. Figures. I don't know why I expected that to go any differently.
Hermes immediately stood to his feet, catching me off guard again, and I once again let out an embarrassingly high yelp.
Hades and Persephone rose as well, and I realized that they weren't rising to focus on me. Their eyes were directed upward toward the sky.
I looked up and my jaw dropped. The overcast and gloomy weather of the Underworld seemed to melt away completely as a regal woman covered in golden light seemed to breach the clouds and float towards the ground. Her ascension was slow and controlled, and it allowed me to get a better look at her. She was not covered in golden light, but she was made of this golden light. The closest thing my brain could register her to was a living star. She wore royal robes that were made of pure white dust that resembled clouds.
Hermes said proudly behind me, "BEHOLD! HERA! QUEEN OF THE GODS!"
"Long live the Queen!" Hades, Persephone, and Hermes shouted out in unison. I swear, Hades' shout had a hint of sarcasm in it. Hermes seemed 100% genuine and respectful. Persephone's shout seemed the less genuine out of the three. Persephone felt over the whole experience of worshipping the god queen made of literal light and clouds.
Hera gracefully landed in front of me.
Crap, was I supposed to say that long live the queen stuff too?
Hera's gaze was fixed on me, and a small smile came across her face.
"Hello J-"
"God save the Queen!" I shouted in Hera's face, interrupting the queen of the gods.
I looked at Hera, who had her head slightly tilted towards me. It reminded me of how my mom would look at me when I would do or say something strange or unusual.
"Dang it. Sorry, your lady. Your Highness." I said, stumbling over my words, trying to put my thoughts together. I quickly said, "I've never met a queen before."
"It's quite alright," Hera said with a soft motherly smile. She directed her hand towards the table Persephone had made and said, "Come and sit down. We haven't much time."
I quickly took a sit at the table, and Hades, Hermes, and Persephone got back into their seats as Hera took a seat at the head of the table.
Hera smiled at me and nodded, "How was your journey here, John?"
"It was…unpleasant to say the least," I said, trying to be respectful in front of the queen of gods.
Hera nodded and said, "Yes, the Curse of Argus is not a pleasant ritual to have forced onto you. I apologize for any pain and suffering you have gone through because of that. But it was necessary."
Hera leaned forward and nodded to me, "I have chosen you, John. You see-"
"I'm sorry, did you say curse? And you're my sponsor? Really? How come your name didn't appear on my rainbow-"
I felt a sudden strike to the side of my face. The strike did not hurt. It felt like a mild tap. I directed my attention towards the origin of the strike and of course, it came from Hermes. The messenger god had slapped me in the face.
Hermes had an annoyed look on his face. It quickly faded back into disinterest.
"Don't interrupt, mortal. Just shut up, and listen."
Anger began to boil up inside of me. At least I thought it was anger. Maybe I was getting used to the fact that Greek gods and monsters were real. But I was getting tired of being pushed around.
Hera cleared her throat to gain my attention again.
"I am not your sponsor, John. I have been...barred from sponsoring any heroes. My strength and gifts are solely for the preservation of Olympus. However, I have chosen you. You see, the children of Jupiter will be forced to face many heroic trials in the future. These trials have been given to them as gifts to grow stronger. There is an approaching threat that will raze your world if it is not challenged. The gods of Olympus must prepare for this war on our end. We have given both the chosen and the unchosen many gifts to prepare, but we do not wish to leave the realm unsupervised."
I was still very confused at this point. Hera continued.
"John, I have given you the Curse of Argus. Your eyes were taken and replaced with the magically enchanted eyes of a god. You will be the Watchman of Olympus. Everything you now see will be projected into the minds of the Olympians who have entrusted you with this task."
"You will be able to have a nearly limitless range of view with this curse, John. This level of awareness will allow you to focus on and zero in on heroes that need to be monitored or checked in on. The Curse of Argus was able to spy on Zeus' private doings. It will be enough to keep an eye on the heroes of your realm."
"Are you insane?" I asked the queen of the gods, as I stood in my seat. "What about my privacy? Have you considered the ethics of just giving me an ability like this? You can see what I see? How does that even work? Can you see into my mind?"
Hermes scoffed and said, "Is there anything floating around in that empty void you all a mind, pup?"
Hera kept her attention on me, but she seemed to ignore the barrage of questions that I had asked. The goddess simply continued, "Of course, the Curse of Argus will be granting your enhanced awareness. You will still need to travel from place to place to keep track of our heroes. So I have also given you the Cursed Talaria."
Hermes chuckled and he appeared in front of me again, tapping me on the nose.
Hera nodded to Hermes and said, "With this curse and Hermes' blessing, you have been giving a percentage of Hermes' speed."
I quickly glanced at Hermes, at the chrome god gave me an annoyed look. I then asked, "How fast are you, exactly?"
"I can travel so fast that I breach the barriers between life and death! I have traveled distances that transcend space-time itself! I am the MESSENGER OF THE GODS." Hermes said proudly, although his face remained locked in a look of disinterest while speaking with me.
"So pretty fast?" I nervously chuckled.
Hades let out a chuckle, and I glanced over and I saw that I had gotten a smirk out of Persephone, who continued to eat her hair grapes. I looked at Hera, who wore a disapproving frown.
I gulped and then directed my attention back at Hermes and simply asked, "So, I can do that stuff too?"
Hermes looked at me as if I were an idiot.
"You think you could do that with just a faction of my speed, junior?" Hermes then gave me a small bow and whispered, "Well then, champ. Show me what you got."
I let out a deep sigh, before looking to Hera. The queen of the gods had already taken a step back as if to give me some space. She even gave me an encouraging nod.
This was insane. What a day.
I tried to do some mild stretches to limber up. If I could actually run fast enough to 'breach space-time' then I didn't want to pull a hamstring doing so.
I had not down any long-distance running before, so I was hoping that this Cursed Talaria would also give me some enhanced stamina so I didn't burn out too fast.
Am I actually cursed? When is she going to explain that part?
"Get moving, guppy!" Hermes shouted in my ear, causing me to jump in fear and I took off running.
Now I've read many manga and comics that have depicted superhumans running at super speed. I've even seen a few goofy superhero movies that would show space bending and folding to depict how fast someone is moving.
The real thing was much more disconcerting.
I felt like I was running in place, but everywhere in the Underworld was rotating around me, changing places in moments less than an instant. I was running in place in the garden with Hera, Hades, and Persephone one moment. The next moment I was in these blissful fields of paradise surrounded by resting souls that seemed to be enjoying their unlives. The next moment I was in an ancient courtroom surrounded by three stern judges.
I felt like anywhere was always just a step away.
"It's incredible isn't it," Hermes said beside me. As I was sprinting in place, Hermes was taking slow and short steps, as if he were on an evening stroll through a park.
"Being everywhere and anywhere in less than an instant," Hermes said. I couldn't help but notice a small smile on Hermes' face as the multiple locations around us continued to change.
"Yeah! This is incredible!" I laughed to Hermes.
Hermes glanced at me and then he nodded, "You've got linear speed down. But you'll need to breach the Conceptual Wall to travel through the barriers between life and death. It will require you to overcome infinite speed."
"How do I do that exactly?" I asked, hoping not to sound like an idiot.
Hermes rolled his eyes and said, "Oh brother. Nevermind."
Hermes tapped me on my shoulder, and I…well I can't really describe what happened to me in that moment. It wasn't really even a moment. A 'moment' is a length of time, and Hermes had just launched me outside the concepts of space-time. So there I was outside of space and time. But 'there' would imply that I was actually somewhere, which would have to be in space.
SO I GUESS I TECHNICALLY DIDN'T EXIST ANYMORE. Did Hermes just kill me? Did I just die again?
My thoughts and existence reformed as I reconstituted in the teacher parking lot of Jupiter High. Had Hermes launched me from the Underworld back to the world of the living? I guess so.
I slid to a stop, trying to keep myself from tripping a landing on my face.
I had not noticed it before, but the perimeter of our campus had been engulfed by a magic dome that was letting out small bursts of black flames.
In the sky, there was a large timer counting down. It currently read 1:09:34. I had been gone for less than an hour.
I was still trying to get my bearings, when I heard a monstrous roar at the end of the parking lot. I glanced over to try and find the source of the roar, and it was a Minotaur.
Of course, it was a Minotaur. This man-like bull…or was it a bull-like man, stood over 11 feet tall and was covered in muscle. The Minotaur had a blazing Omega symbol floating over its head. The marker for one of the Legendary Beasts.
The Minotaur let out a mighty roar, but I quickly realized that its attention was not on me. There was a group of students that were trying to surround the creature and kill it.
At the front of the group, leading the students was Jacob! Mr. Class Prez himself was bravely staring down the monstrous beast. Jacob was wielding a Caduceus, and he was waving it around, directing students to follow his instructions.
The Minotaur swung its massive fist down, and several students scrambled out of the way to dodge the devastating blow.
I needed to get over there and help. I took a step forward but stopped when Hera gracefully landed in front of me in a similar fashion as her first appearance to me. However, her glowy body was more transparent and fading away.
Hera nodded at me and said, "Finally, John. I you have been given the Curse of Achilles. With this curse-"
Hera's words were drowned out by the screams of my peers as they were struggling to contain the Minotaur's might.
"This curse grants you invulnerability that rivals that of Achilles. Your corpse was plunged into the River Styx by Hades in order to grant you with curse's full potential. Because curses do not negatively impact corpses, we used this method to try and circumvent any dangerous side eff-"
A car that had been tossed by the Minotaur soared right over my head, causing me to instinctively duck. The car crashed behind me and came skidding to a stop.
I looked past Hera's shoulder and much to my surprise, Shelia Tojo, the losing candidate of the Junior Class President race was facing off against the Minotaur. Shelia was clearly trying to direct its attention away from injured students. Shelia had won second place in the New York State Fencing tournament last year, and I had heard her older sister had been a kendo champion before their family moved to New York. So it wasn't too surprising to see Shelia dual-wielding a fencing sword and what appeared to be a mystical bronze ancient Greek sword.
Jacob was using his Caduceus, letting off a healing aura around his injured classmates and giving them minor healing for their injuries.
"Your physical endurance has been greatly enhanced. However, magical attacks may still pose a danger to you. Achilles could withstand powerful magic as long as it was directed away from his heel."
"Hera!" I shouted at Hera, trying to get her attention. I shook my head and said, "I need to go and help those guys! They're getting slaughtered!"
I tried to move around Hera, who simply sighed.
"You are the Watchman of Olympus, John. You are meant to be an observer. You observe the heroes. You will watch them face their trials. Some will triumph. Some will die. Some will barely make it through. These trials will process the greatest heroes to face the threat approaching." Hera said with a sympathetic tone.
I shook my head and said, "Nope! I'm not going to just sit by and watch as those people die!"
Hera frowned at me and she sternly said, "You will not interfere, John Doe. If the heroes of these trials are not forged through fire and strength, they will not survive the coming calamity."
The Minotaur let out another roar, as it slammed its fist down at Shelia. I rushed past Hera to try and help Shelia to the best of my ability.
Much to my surprise, Shelia had anticipated the attack from the monster and used her fencing sword to parry the blow. The Minotaur's arm slammed into the ground next to Shelia, and Shelia swung her mystical bronze sword down and severed the Minotaur's right arm clean off!
The Minotaur let out a roar of pain, grabbing at its stump. Shelia did not give it a moment to recover, pressing the attack and driving her sword into the Minotaur's chest for a killing blow. The Minotaur let out what was seemingly a death rattle and fell on its back!
"YEEEAAH!" I let out a victorious cheer, and I wasn't the only student also doing so. The group of students that had been fighting the Minotaur were all cheering in excitement. The entire parking lot exploded with cheers and excitement.
I felt Hera's hand rest on my shoulder. I looked back at the queen of the gods, who wore a stern motherly gaze.
Hera leaned down in an attempt to get at my eye level, "They will have to get stronger on their own. You mustn't interfere with their trials."
I felt a slap on the back of my head, and I quickly glanced back and of course, it was Hermes.
"Oh, and if it wasn't clear, moron. Don't tell anyone about this. Your job is to watch the progress of the heroes. You just sit back, shut up, and show us who sinks and who swims." Hermes harshly said, dashing all hopes that the moment we had together had humanized him. Hermes disappeared as quickly as he had reappeared.
Hera gave me a small nod and said, "John. You are MY eyes and ears. If you need to focus in on someone, use the Command Words: "Close Shot". Then say the individual's name. Your Curse of Argus and Cursed Talaria will do most of the work and get your sight and physical body to that person in an instant."
Hera faded away completely now, leaving me back alone at my high school, which was being attacked by monsters from Greek mythology. And honestly, I was still pretty in the dark about everything going on.
Where was Abigail? Well, I guess it was time to use this new trick Hera just told me about.
"Close Shot:" I started when I heard the screams coming from the end of the parking lot again!
The Minotaur was back up and on its feet! Apparently, a sword impaling it in the chest wasn't enough to kill it.
The Minotaur swiped its remaining arm at Shelia, but Jacob heroically pushed her out of the way. Jacob was hit by the attack and sent flying in the air! Jacob flew away from the parking lot and further from my position!
"Jacob!" I screamed out in shock, as the Minotaur let out a roar at Shelia and my other peers who were cowering in fear.
My vision changed for a moment. IT WAS SUDDEN AND JARRING. One moment I was watching a mythology monster about to kill the teenage swordswoman who lost our Junior Class President race. The next moment, my eyes were focused and zeroed in on the face of the winner of our Junior Class President race, who had just taken a hit from a mythology monster trying to kill him.
What a crazy day.
My vision almost seemed like a close-up camera shot, tight on Jacob. Jacob's eyes began to flutter, and as his eyes focused on me he let out a horrified blood-curdling scream.
Hermes' voice rang in the air, "The Legendary Beast, Minotaur, has been defeated! Two beasts remain! You have 01:02:23. Opps, 22. 21. You get the point."
Jacob continued to scream out in terror, as he tried to use his broken arm to pull himself away from me.
That's when I felt the stickiness. And then the moistness.
"What?" I asked aloud, but it came out muffled because blood came pouring out of my mouth.
I looked down at myself, I saw I was covered in blood and guts. From head to toe.
I glanced back at my handiwork. Using the Close Shot had pushed my body from Point A, the entrance of the teacher parking lot, to Point B the end of the teacher lot where Jacob had been hit to. Unfortunately, the Minotaur had been in that direct path from Point A to Point B.
When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, they both create an impossibility. A paradox that cannot exist.
When an unstoppable force meets a movable object, that movable object's insides just become its outsides. And then the unstoppable force becomes covered in the movable object's insides.
I almost gagged when I saw what was left of the Minotaur lying in the parking lot. There was nothing but a large lump of blood, bones, and meat. There was a spare Minotaur horn that was lying in front of Shelia. The young lady's knees were trembling as she looked down at what was left of the Minotaur, and then directed her eyes at me.
"Oh crap." I tried to say again, but more of the Minotaur's blood simply poured out of my mouth.