The Great Eight (Temporary Hiatus)

Chaos 101 II

"Herry, Atlanta, and you two I get. But Odie? And Mel?" Archie, after some time staring at his PMR, decided to question some of the rag-tag members of their fellow heroes. And seeing as Mel was a bit further up ahead, he decided this was a good opportunity to question her presence as well.

"Ever hear of Odysseus?" Jay, at the front of Theresa and Archie, called back with a prideful tone. "He was one of the greatest heroes."

"You mean he's a-" Archie began but Jay cut him off.

"-A direct descendant. A real wolf in sheep's clothing." Jay informed, shoving any doubt about Odie's presence away.

"You mean a wolf in nerd's clothing!" Archie guffawed, making Theresa giggle.

"Odysseus was a good friend of Achilles." Jay informed with a speculative tone.

"I know." Archie, who toned down his sarcasm, affirmed Jay's knowledge in a serious manner.

"How do you guys know all this stuff? You're not Greek are you?" Theresa decided to jump in and ask Archie a question, a bit insecure with her lack of fore-knowledge on these Greek heroes of old.

"No but I uh " Archie sighed gustily before admitting," read a lot of classical poetry."

" Huh, really?" Theresa's eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise, not expecting the warrior that was Archie to be a literate of such lengths.

"And what about Mel?" Archie quickly interjected, not wanting to further elaborate on something so embarrassing for him.

"She's descended from Melampus. Weren't you there when she said so?" Jay, deciding to humor Archie's abrupt change in conversation, interjected before Theresa could. Though he couldn't really look back at him as she answered as the three of them, minus Mel who was still some yards ahead looking at something below the cliff edge, were treading on a narrower pass.

"Oh right, I must've forgotten . . . What did-" Archie wanted to question Melampus's story but was cut off by Mel's screech as she dashed to hug a nearby tree though one of her hands was firmly pointed at the cliff's edge she had just run from.

"What's wrong?" Jay, the first to speak, hollered his words as Mel's own fear seemed to seep into the nearby trio's bones. Whooshing his gravitational blade out alongside the two others who took out their own weapons as their eyes scoured the nearby area, though nothing seemed out of the ordinary. At least not yet, anyways. And as they searched, they made haste to their tree-hugging teammate. Checking her over and looking around.

"Old man! Old man!" Was all the blonde girl was able to cry out, near hysterics, as she kept vehemently pointing to the cliff edge. Archie, the Achillean bad-boy that he was, had been the first to look over the edge and nearly toppled over it in his stupor. Squawking as he caught his balance and landed butt first on the ground, looking a quite a bit pale.

"What? What is it?" Theresa implored, horrified to see two of her teammates reduced to such quivering states. And in her own way, decided to see what all the hub bub was about.

"Don't!" Archie interrupted her, and by extension Jay, as he held her elbow and kept her away from the edge. "It's a body. An uh, eaten old man." Though that didn't stop them for long, as their own morbid curiosity ate at Theresa and Jay until they finally chanced a peek. Seeing the visage of a poor old man with only half his body left. Waterlogged and alone with a familiar looking, orange, worker shirt. Though that detail only became apparent to them once they got over their nausea.

"Tried to stop you." Archie shrugged, none too impressed with their complete disregard of his warning. Though he was kind of busy giving and taking comfort from Mel, having moved at some point, as he sat beside her to really raise a fuss about it.

"Looked like a worker from the dam!" Jay observed aloud, his voice cracking a little at the end. His hands slightly muffling his words too as they kept themselves near his mouth and chin nervously. But soon he had something else to be nervous over, as a progressively louder sizzling noise started up near them.

"What the-!" Archie yelled out, cut off as he and Mel dove for cover like the others as a great ball of lava-hot fire arced over the treetops and burst upon the ground where they had just been. And then through the smoke the fireball created, great wings carried the Typhus into their line of sight. Its glowing, toxic green eyes narrowed on them. It roared its challenge with an almighty pose, it was time to fight.

"Jay?!" Odie's voice came over their PMR's. Though he wouldn't get the response he wanted.

"Are you alright?" Jay asked Theresa, who had suffered a blow to her head in the rush to evade the fireball. Theresa nodded and thanked him, which led to Jay looking over at Mel and Archie who were looked to him. Standing up, Jay once again summoned his blade as he glared at the beast before them. And he may or may not have assumed a protective stance in front of Theresa in the heat of the moment, but we will let that slide for now. Typhus to take down and all that. So that left the others, as once they got their weapons, took up positions at his back and sides creating a unified front against their adversary. The Typhus, having had his fill of isolation under that mountain for so long, was eager for another fight and swooped down lower so his snake legs were on par with the teenagers.

"Okay. Now I'm a believer!" Archie decided to announce out of the blue as Jay and one of the snake heads took the first move and hissed its way at Jay. It was met with a blade rather than a snack and was also given a decent gash. The Typhus retracted that leg and roared as one with it in anger. Giving Archie enough time to get over his shock and unleash his Hephaestus whip to get ready for the last snake head-leg left, which coincidentally was after him too. The hero performed an impressive aerial back flip to get away from the snake's strike. And when he stuck the landing, his blue eyes met the devil's red for a pregnant pause before cracking his whip forward. Expecting it to meet the snake's face, Archie was accosted by the Typhus's hand instead.

"Uh-oh" Was all Archie was able to say until the Typhus yanked him into the air, eliciting a very manly and not at all toddler-like squeals as Archie was flung around. In the distance, Mel might've called out his name anxiously. In any case, somehow Archie managed to press a button on his whip which caused a catastrophic amount of electricity to assault the Typhus's hand which held the whip's other end. Causing the Typhus, to once again, roar but then drop the poor teenage boy into the river with the dead man's body. Frustrated, the monster snarled at the three other teenagers who shielded themselves beside some boulders before taking off for the dam where the rest of their gang were situated.

"Odie!" Jay hollered over his PMR.

"Let me guess, a butt-ugly monster straight outta the bowels of history is headed our way." Odie, sarcastic as ever, sassed back.

"Good guess!" Jay replied back with a breathy, scared witless tone.