The Great Eight (Temporary Hiatus)

Chaos 101 III

"The meso-what?" Hephaestus asked Odie as they sat in his forge.

"The mesosphere? It's the layer above the stratosphere. Very cold." Odie remarked, more than a little frustrated with his supposed "brainstorm buddies" who were, for lack of a better term, outdated. So Odie did, as he always does. Figure things out on his own. "So the debris fragments from the asteroid have formed noctilucent clouds through heterogeneous nucleation and... are you guys getting any other this?" Hermes, who was lounging next to Hephaestus ( who by the way was working on something at his forge) started to attention at the sudden question.

"We caught the "very cold" part." Hermes chuckled nervously, glancing at his fellow God for moral support. Not even being this mortal's assigned mentor was enough to keep the God afloat in the thinking cap session.

"The rings are made of ice particles in the sky!" Odie continued, pointing towards the ceiling. And it was like 'monkey see, monkey do.'

"Oh, the sky!" Hephaestus also pointed at the ceiling, though only with one hand. The other was holding oil-slicked forging tongs.

"Right! Right. Got it " It appears that even Gods were horrid at physics. So Odie went back to pacing on his own. Which allowed the gods to relax their postures as they stood utterly confused at the things this mortal was spitting out.

"Except that the ice is on the edge of space, held in orbit by vertically propagating gravity waves..." In the background we see Hephaestus use his tongs to reach in the forge and grab a leg of goat. Yes, a whole leg of goat. Roasted to perfection.

"This look done to you?" Hephaestus swung it over to the speedier God, though Hermes was quick to change the subject once he spotted three new faces.

"Herry! Mel! Jay!" Hermes raced over to swing his arms around their necks. "Good to see you! Any exciting developments on your end?"

"We found Neil, and then promptly lost him again. What about you?" Jay morosely announced, smothering everyone's moods further. Mel, meanwhile, went over to her fellow midget friend both sent a smile before Odie announced what they found on their end. Or, the lack thereof.

"The three of us were just brainstorming-" Odie supplied.

"-But we haven't even had a drizzle yet." Hermes groaned, making every effort to stay the upbeat one.

"And to top it off I lost my truck. When I find out who took it-" Herry was cut off by a munching Hephaestus.

"-Oh! That was me!" The God gave a cheery, nonchalant chuckle. Mel and Odie leaned away from the God, waiting to see the pummeling about to go down.

"You?!" Herry exclaimed, his only saving grace from his highly aggressive tone was the adorably confused look on his face.

"I made a few modifications for ya' " Hephaestus continued to chuckle as he made his way to a nearby hanging switch before pressing the green button, "Enjoy." And up a garage door went to reveal a spiffy looking, four wheel drive monster of a truck. Complete with a fresh coat of red-orange paint as well as sun roof access located behind the giant, roof-mounted, high beam lights. One could almost see the sparkles and twinkles coming off the wax.

"You" Herry spluttered. Hermes, who stood beside him, watched his reaction with a cautious look on his face. "You customized it? All right!" To this Herry began to whoop and holler in glee, Hermes even did a little spritz in the air to accompany his excitement, even if only because his feathered boots are trigger-happy and with or without the God's consent they will send him into the air at the first sign of movement. Herry went even so far as to dash over and grab his two smallest teammates in his arms in a massive hug. But, as it seems the trend will be, Jay loves to deflate everyone's optimism with his pessimism. Though, let's be nice and say he's just a realist and not a pessimist.

"Yeah, enjoy it while you can Herry. We haven't got much time, unless Heph has Neil behind one of those doors."

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Upstate Olympia, in a luxury penthouse made to look like Olympus itself, Cronus and Neil have finally arrived. I mean, it's not like the glitz and glam was meant for anyone else quite as narcissistic as a power-hungry God. And Neil seemed to fit right in among his over-the-top, theatric décor.

"Nice digs!" If nothing else, at least Neil could keep himself alive with compliments. Even if his compliments always did end up boosting his own ego as well. " 'Bout time I got noticed by one of the top agents."

"I assure you, you won't find anyone more powerful than I am."

"Great...Wow! Fab view! Oh, I would look great with a background like that!" Neil, already tired of talking about things other than himself, found himself admiring the penthouse view. But of course, only if he was in it. "Not that I need a background to look great."

"Hm" Cronus cleared his throat, even if he was a maniac the God did have some politeness in him. Though, like with Neil, it always seemed somehow backhanded. "Are you concerned with anything else other than your looks?" Neil temporarily stopped fluffing his hair to answer.

"I wouldn't concern I mean, what have I got to be concerned about?"

"Very odd you don't strike me as the hero type." Cronus took another long look at Neil who couldn't stop gazing at his reflection in the pristine glass. A bit taken aback that a prophesized hero would be so civil with him, albeit a bit unpolite in his self-absorption. "I haven't seen anyone this self-absorbed since " Cronus muttered to himself before raising his voice to get the young mortal's attention back on him. "Tell me, do you have any connection to Narcissus?" Though Neil still didn't look back at all.

"Nope, I'm not signed with anybody called," Neil took some time to enunciate the Greek figures name of which he mistook for some agency, "Narcissus. Strictly freelance." He now upgraded to performing poses in front of the mirror-like window. Ignoring, incredibly enough, the leering form just behind his shoulder.