The Great Eight (Temporary Hiatus)

Chaos 101 III

Meanwhile, Mel and Odie were speeding into Odie's hometown on his mo-ped. Specifically in search of his original nerd cave where he would be able to effectively find out what's happening to our beloved planet. Conveniently enough, Odie actually lived near the outskirts of New Olympia and was only a short trip away. If you looked closely enough you could still see some remnant damage from the Caledonian boar sent to wipe out Odie before Hermes recruited him. Nevertheless, Odie soon stopped the tricked-up scooter once they pulled into a storage alleyway. And before the two heroes could even take a breath after removing their helmets the Earth began a sort of horrific shaking.

"What's happening now?!" Mel yelped as she and Odie were forced to leap off their ride since the Earth spasms made it impossible to balance their weight on it.

"It's starting! The planet's coming apart!" Odie explained as he made a dash to a nearby wooden beam to help him not fall flat on his face. Which, unfortunately, was the fate that his female companion was met with a couple feet from him. "Sooner than I thought!"

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Up above the city scape, as with the rest of the world, the heroes and Cronus also began to feel the effects of the asteroid ring. Neil, in particular, found himself wiggling hysterically on the edge of the pool. You know how people do that odd bird dance with their arms as they try to keep themselves upright? Yeah well Neil isn't particularly good at doing that and quickly found himself splashing head first into the sloshing pool.

Across the pool, Herry was thrown across the ground from the fight with Cronus. It seemed like the other boys were trying to go hand-to-hand but only Archie was able to keep up the momentum as Cronus elbowed Jay to the floor with a harsh jab. In retaliation, Theresa made her way into the combat circle and attempted to give Cronus a leaping kick to the face. But Cronus easily countered her movement by slapping her away with a scythe as though he were batting away a fly. Earning herself similar bruising to Herry as well as a nasty cut from Cronus on her side.

A positive though, was that as Neil was coming up from the pool he got an eyeful of Theresa skidding on the ground in front of him. It seemed now that Neil was no longer under Cronus's enchantment, more than likely due to his impromptu frolicking in the pool. And his jaw dropped to the bloodied tiles beneath him since he could now take in the current fight that had been going down right next to him.

In a desperate move, Archie arched his metal whip out at Cronus and surprisingly got a hit. More than a hit really, since the action managed to glide past Cronus's cheek and slice off an entire ear. Cronus yowled in agony, dropping his shortened scythes as he staggered around whilst cradling the side of his face. Theresa, who had been recovering on the floor near him, scampered out of his way and back to the group.

"It seems our little pool party has gotten out of hand " Cronus spat out. Contempt seething from his lips as he glared at his enemies across the balcony. Before their very eyes, the ear that Cronus lost wavered back into existence on his head. Startling the youngsters, who had thought for a single moment that they may have had some edgeway on their fight. Which was clearly a false hope.

"Hey man, what the heck is going on?" Neil, ever the chooser of awkward moments, decided to tap the God's shoulder like a wayward toddler. Cronus's eyes widened perhaps thinking one of the heroes had snuck up on him but was tempered when his eyes landed on the model, who up until this point, had been insignificant in the fight.

But in his moment of distraction, Atlanta launched her bola at the suit-clad God. And luckily, the Earth decided to unleash another series of shakes that had the God slipping on a nearby puddle that Neil created from his playing in the pool. And subsequently, with his torso constricted by the bola, Cronus found himself soon falling off the edge of his balcony screeching all the while. Neil, seeming to be the only sympathetic person on the entire balcony for Cronus, leaned precariously over the balcony wall with yet another dropped jaw moment as he witnessed the immortal falling to his doom.

"Aaahh!"

"Nice job, Neil!" Jay called out to their newest hero. Distracting the narcissistic teenager from the God's fall and back to his same-generational peers all too quickly. So much for being sympathetic for Cronus.

"Yeah, to be honest, we had our doubts about you!" Herry tacked on with a friendly pat to the model's back.

"Are you guys crazy?!" Neil suddenly shouted, the other teens recoiling from his disbelieving tone. "You just killed my agent!" At that, they all looked over the balcony wall expecting to see Cronus's body laying on the sidewalk far below. But, like every other time they expected something, they got the opposite. Cronus was using his golden scythes to scale the side of the apartment tower with a terrifying sneer on his lips.

"Let's get outta here. Quick!" Jay announced, the others falling in line behind him as they dashed back to the penthouse elevator. Herry, rather than asking Neil to follow them, took up one of the blonde's arms and dragged the wayward teen with them.