No More Olympus

Chapter 25

The many hydra heads roared into the sky, shaking the city of Athens, which was dwarfed by the beast's mighty stature. It carefully began to test its new and unfamiliar surroundings by poking the nearby building with its many snouts, claws and the tip of its tail, casually causing whatever it touched to crumble into dust.
Satisfied that it was the mightiest giant in this new territory, the hydra began to scan the immediate area, locking all sixteen of its eyes on the massive body of water that was the Saronic Gulf. A harbour that had and still acted as a major trade route throughout history. Upon finding this ocean the hydra began marching its giant body through the city, pushing through cars, light fixtures and buildings on its way back to its natural habitat.
All things considered, the four Olympians on the ground handled it well.
"FUCK!" Hermes shouted into the air, clutching his face in pure terror.
"Not helping Hermes!" Athena said with great annoyance in her voice.
"How in great mother Gaia's name are we supposed to deal with that?" Hermes continued to panic, "Look at it, it's goddamn huge!"
"We are well aware of that!" Athena snapped, "Will you calm down?"
"Has anyone ever killed one that big before?" Hermes asked, not calming in the slightest.
"No," Athena admitted, "But..."
"I knew it!" Hermes squealed, "We're boned."
"Ares, would you shut him up?" Athena requested as Hermes kept aimlessly rambling to himself.
Ares casually nodded, walked over to the distracted Hermes, grabbed the back of his tunic and pulled it half over his head, knocking off his helmet and trapping his arms in a bind of cloth.
Hermes hopped around, struggling to pull himself free of his bindings without ripping his tunic in half. He eventually lost his balance and fell to the pavement, wiggling like a fish on dry land. It was a sorry sight for sure, but at least he was quiet.
"I'm sorry. Why was he panicking?" Jacob asked, "I know I'm new at this but aren't you all gods? Shouldn't this be easy for you guys?"
"In theory, yes," Athena shrugged, "One problem, however. That thing is technically a god as well."
Jacob's face grew pale.
"Excuse me?" He gulped, "How exactly?"
"Gods, monsters, titans," Athena rambled on, "It's all the same blood at the end of the day. Just with... wildly different results."
The Hydra, now fully on course toward the harbour, decided to casually flick its tail through the air, destroying the roof of a mini-mall in the process.
"No, you idiot," they heard Arachne shouting in the distance, trying to gain control of the beast, "Forget the water, destroy the city!"
Athena considered for a moment.
"We can't let it hit the water," She began, "Once it does, it can escape to the rest of the world with nothing stopping it, and then Athens just becomes the first name on the list."
Hermes, having finally fixed his tunic, decided to speak up.
"Need I remind you that no one has ever killed one this big before," he said.
"If Heracles can kill an adolescent as a demigod, I don't see why four Olympians can't at least hold their own against one adult," Athena declared as her heart raced, "That is if you can stand to follow my lead for the next little bit."
"I know I'm in," Aphrodite said firmly.
The two goddesses smiled at each other.
Hermes groaned.
"Fine," he submitted as he began to hop on one foot in some strange method of hyping himself up, "I've lived a long enough life anyway."
Ares simply grunted and looked at the hydra with murderous intent. Athena accepted that as a positive answer.
"I'll take it," Athena shrugged, turning back to face the hydra and assess the situation.
After a minute of thinking, she turned back to her family,
"Aphrodite," she began, "That thing is walking through a part of the city Ares and I managed to avoid, meaning it's still heavily populated. I need you to get people out of the way by any means necessary. I don't care if it's mind control, a rousing speech or picking them up and throwing them. Get them to the Acropolis, it's far enough out of the way that it should be safe, that's your landmark."
"You got it," Aphrodite nodded with a smile, sprinting forward, leaping into the air and transforming into her swan form and flying far in front of the hydra.
"Hermes," Athena continued, "I need you to keep the head's attention off the ground and disable them by any means possible, do not cut the heads off. You know the rules of this thing, poke out their eyes, break their jaws, just don't cut them off."
"Yeah, I gotcha," Hermes rolled his eyes, "It's like Argus all over again."
He then leapt off the ground and shot into the air like a fighter jet, making a beeline for one of the heads before kicking it in one of its jaws with the speed of a bullet leaving a gun.
"Ares," Athena said, turning to her brother, "You need to stop that thing from moving, see if you can find an Achilles' tendon to slice. If not, figure out a way to cripple or weaken it in some way, make it bleed out. Remember to keep the blood away from mortals, or we're going to have a lot more dead people on our hands."
"Done," Ares nodded, his black steel armour building around him in the blink of an eye, "What will you do?"
"Arachne still has the power of monsters from Pandora's box," Athena explained, "We can't forget about her just because of the hydra."
"Understood," Ares agreed, summoning Hound's Jaw in his hands and charging toward the hydra, his battle cry filling any free space in the air.
"What do you need me to do?" Jacob asked.
"You are going back to the airport," she demanded.
"What?" He objected, "Screw that. You need all hands on deck here,"
"Literally everyone in this fight could kill you on accident," she explained, "I'm not taking that chance."
"There's no way I'm going to run away while my wife could be getting ripped in half by a giant spider," he argued, "I'm not taking that chance! Besides, didn't mortals fight monsters all the time in Ancient Greece?"
Athena scowled at her husband.
"Fine," she surrendered, stabbing her spear into the ground before holding out her hand and summoning an FN FAL rifle, shoving it in her husband's arms, "In room thirty-eight in the hotel over there, you're going to find a small bronze jar the size of a football, bring it to my statue in the park, I will meet you there."
"Where the hell did you get this?" Jacob asked, looking at the rifle in his hands.
"They were all over the place during the Cold War. It's enchanted with my magic, it should work on gods. Or at least whatever Arachne is," Athena quickly explained, "Now do you understand what I'm asking you to do?"
"Room thirty-eight, get the jar, bring it to the park," Jacob repeated, "I got it."
"Good," Athena nodded, "Now if you'll excuse me."
Her shirt and jeans almost immediately replaced themselves with her godly silk blue dress. She felt her stomach tighten as her armoured corset built around her midriff while armour of the same metal decorated her forearms and face. Finally, her hair tied itself into a clean bun and was pinned into place.
"Holy crap!" Jacob explained in surprise, "Where did those come from?"
"I'm sorry," Athena said immediately, "I should've warned you, but it seemed kinda minor compared to everything else."
"It's fine," Jacob assured her as he looked up and down, "You look nice, like a Disney princess who kills people."
"Well, I have killed people," Athena reminded him, "And I was in a Disney movie."
"Right," Jacob nodded. It was clear that he was being overwhelmed with all this new information, "Well, good luck."
Both turned to run in opposite directions.
Athena hesitated.
"Jacob wait," she called out.
He turned back to face her.
Athena dropped her shield to the ground next to her spear, marched up to Jacob, grabbed him by his jacket collar, and kissed him.
The two stayed like that for a moment as the world crumbled around them.
Athena could feel the heartbeat in her throat eventually synchronize itself with the pulse in Jacobs.
After a while, the two separated and stood breathing as the wind howled.
"I'm sorry," she finally said, "I'm sorry I hid all this from you. After all this is over, I'd like to talk. Answer any questions you might have, but if you'd rather cut your losses and run I would understand that."
Jacob looked almost surprised by Athena's words.
"In the last ten minutes, I saw a zombie who was working with a magic talking spider to summon a dragon who has more heads than feet," He said, "You are by far the least scary thing here, so I'm looking forward to our talk."
Athena couldn't help slightly smile at his words.
The two finally turned back around and headed back to their respective missions.
This time it was Jacob's turn to interrupt.
"Hey," he called out, causing Athena to turn around; she looked at him expectantly, "Go get 'em beautiful."
Athena smiled before tensing up her knees and leaping several dozen feet straight up into the air, bounding from building to building as she made her way to Arachne, leaving Jacob alone on the street.
"Buck up, Jake," he mumbled to himself, "You've married Wonder Woman."