The Great Eight (Temporary Hiatus)

Chaos 101 III

"Step on it, Herry! We're runnin' out of time!" Odie implored from his seat in the back. Without any ado, Herry hit the pedal to the metal and began another round of dangerous driving. Especially since they were now swerving around bends along a cliff-side road with a deep amount of boundary river just waiting for them to drown below. However, Herry just couldn't shake the devil from his shoulder. Something was not quite right.

"Something weird ... coming up fast behind us!" Herry announced in the truck, glancing at his sideview mirror with a furrowed brow. His eyes gradually widening once he began to realize how big the 'weird' thing was. But any question on how big the creature was, was put to rest once it took one last giant leap and landed in front of the truck. Also revealing the manic God smiling atop its back.

It turned around as the truck was squealing to avoid it. Impressively, no one was screaming. Must have been from the earlier antics Herry put them through. In either case, Herry managed to channel his inner stunt's man and drove beneath the beast and dodged in between its many legs and safely made it past. Though, anyone could tell from Herry's face that this outcome was completely unexpected.

"Herry, stop the truck!" And speaking of the unexpected, Jay just loved to play hero.

"Are you nuts?" Herry exclaimed as he continued to squeal around the winding road's bends with no hint of slowing down.

"Just long enough for some of us to jump out and keep Cronus busy." Jay amended. "You take Odie to the array. Everybody else out, including Neil-."

"Neil?!" Archie interrupted. "What do want Neil for?"

"Yeah! What do you want Neil for?" Unsurprisingly the model agreed with Archie. Even going so far as to lean forward and squish Odie, who was beside him, to push his face closer to Jay's.

"Because you're lucky! And right now, we need all the luck we can get."

A moment after Jay explained, Herry brought the truck to a harsh halt and allowed time for six of the heroes to eject themselves. Archie caught Theresa and Mel by surprise when he grabbed their hips and helped them out their side of the truck. And he had just enough time before Herry gunned it, to swat his hand at the door and close it.

Though, Cronus was not content to sit back and watch two of the heroes get away. No matter how tempting the rest were as easy meals for his ginormous anteater-spider. So once again he urged the creature to leap out towards the truck.

"Herry!" Archie warned with a bellowing voice.

Unfortunately, the creature's landing was so great and near that it sent the truck bouncing to the mountain side and ultimately shocked the engine enough to shut itself off. Herry and Odie were frantically shouting and trying to rev the truck back into gear all the while Cronus directed his monstrosity closer.

A metallic whizzing sound caroled through the air and snagged one of the creature's front legs. Successfully distracting it from crushing and devouring the newly renovated vehicle alongside its inhabitants. And who else but Archie, would be so determined to piss off the timely God.

"He's got six legs but he's unsteady! Let's use that!" Jay called out as he kept a hand on Archie's shoulder in case of him being flung around in the air since Cronus's monsters seem to like doing that to the teen. Nonetheless, Jay invigorated everyone around him with his pseudo-speech as well as his dramatic unveiling of his gravitational blade. Archie matching his gritted teeth, determined face that seemed more like the grimace of a child told to smile for the camera.

Atlanta took next move, coming up beside the two boys and flinging her bola out. It wrapped around two adjacent legs to the one Archie still had. So with three frontal legs out of commission, the creature had no choice but to let out an unholy screech as it landed on its side. Though it quickly forced itself used to only working with five legs and hastily got back up with its remaining balance and gave the teens an heated glare.

Meanwhile, now that the creature's and Cronus's attention was now on the other teens, Herry finally had the space he needed to get his truck up and going again. And typical Herry, he used the momentum of his truck backing up from the side of the road to slam into the head of the anteater-spider that was just a bit too close to Jay for his liking. And if that wasn't enough, Herry continued to force the truck backwards into the monster's belly and, with an extra bout of power, managed to shove the unbalanced creature and its Godly rider off the street and down the cliffside. All they could hear coming from down below was Cronus's frustrated holler of defeat as well as his mutated Giant's death call as it landed on some jagged rocks below. Cronus, though, fell unseen into the boundary waters. The teens, minus Neil and Mel, braved venturing to the edge to see if Cronus and the monster were going to miraculously climb back up. But nothing of the sort happened. Instead, they looked on as the body of the creature, with its spine snapped in two, slowly rag-dolled into the water where Cronus disappeared. A smear of toxically colored fluid the only evidence it was there. And they would have continued to watch the river if a certain doomsday device wasn't arcing overhead in the sky, ready to bring the planet to an unnatural halt. Oh, and I suppose Odie shouting at them from the truck with a nasty glare also got them moving again.

"Hurry up, you guys!"