No More Olympus

Chapter 27

A moment of silence hung over the air as the four stared at the closed Pandora's box, simply taking a moment to catch their breath.
They exchanged looks with each other through the smoke, each looking their own version of relief as the dust settled.
They were pulled out of this by the sound of coughing only a few meters away.
"Jacob!" Athena remembered, dropping the lightning bolt to the ground, which immediately reverted to it a smaller bronze pen-sized form once it left her hand.
She quickly sprinted toward the sound of the coughing and soon found herself kneeling beside a very grimy Jacob, who was still ensnared by Arachne's webs and fused to the ground.
"Are you okay?" She asked, looking into his eyes to check for a concussion and inspecting the rest of him for bleeding.
"Other than my newly manifested Arachnophobia?" Jacob joked as Athena cut him loose with a dagger.
"Welcome to the club," Athena smiled with a shrug.
"Are you fucking kidding me!" A voice shouted.
Athena looked back to see Aphrodite holding the lighting bolt between a pair of dainty fingers.
"Do you mean to tell us..." She continued, "That this entire time you've had the lightning bolt in your back pocket, one of the most powerful weapons in existence, And you didn't think to mention it?"
"In my defence," Athena began, motioning for Aphrodite to toss the bolt back to her, which she did, "I didn't want to use it, and I didn't think we'd need it."
"I'm sorry," Ares injected, "You didn't want to use it. Who doesn't want to use Zeus's lightning bolt?"
"You know what?" Athena shrugged, "You're right."
The bolt flared to life in her hand.
"Common Ares," she challenged, "Let's have a rematch."
"Fair enough," Ares shrugged.
Athena tucked the bolt away into her dress pocket but winced as she moved her shoulder a certain way.
"Everything okay?" Hermes asked, sitting on the ground with his legs outstretched like a child.
"I'm fine," Athena excused, clutching her shoulder, "The bolt must've damaged a muscle or something when it went off, Don't worry about it."
"No, that's not it," Jacob corrected, closely inspecting her bare shoulder, "I think you have a piece of glass or something in there."
He carefully pulled the broken shard out of her shoulder. Through the blood, it was clear that the centimetre-long cut had scabbed over almost instantly.
"What did I tell you?" Jacob remarked, holding the bloody shard between his fingers before tossing it away casually.
But by the looks on the faces of the other gods, Jacob could've pulled a needle from her that was labelled 'Black Plague,'
Athena's own face was purposely being held in a stoic expression.
"Athena," Aphrodite began, "What exactly did you give up?"
"Excuse me?" Jacob asked, "What are you talking about?"
"The only way Pandora's box can be closed is if something powerful is sacrificed," Ares explained, "Now answer the question."
Athena hesitated.
"I gave the box my immortality," She answered sternly.
The others immediately reacted with looks of horror and fear.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Ares snapped.
"How do you just give that up?" Hermes asked, with much more sympathy and concern.
"There wasn't much choice," Athena retorted,
"We could've found another way," Aphrodite cringed, "Sacrificed something less important."
"Okay, I'm lost," Jacob interrupted, "What exactly does it mean you 'gave up your immortality'?"
"What it means," Athena began, grabbing Jacob's hand and squeezing it, "Is that now I'm mortal, which means I'm vulnerable to mortal weapons, guns, knives and whatnot, it also means that one day I will grow old and die."
Jacob's eyes grew solemn as he squeezed her hand back.
"How much time do you have exactly?" He asked cautiously.
"Oh right," she remembered, doing a series of quick calculations in her head, "Hey guys, how old do I look to you?"
"Like a child making the worst decision of her life," Ares sneered.
"Go stick your head in a storm drain," Athena spat back, "Hermes?"
"Hundred thousand years young!" Hermes said cheerfully, giving her two thumbs up.
"You're even less help," Athena rolled her eyes, "Aphrodite help me out here."
"Turn around," Aphrodite requested. Athena complied, turning her back to the goddess.
Aphrodite carefully looked her up and down.
"Thirty," she said with strong certainty.
"You sure?" Athena asked, "How can you tell?"
"Trust me, I know what I'm talking about," Aphrodite said as if spreading some great piece of wisdom.
The sound of helicopters rang through the air as they surveyed the record.
"Won't be long until the authorities get here," Athena said, bending over to pick up the sealed Pandora's box, "We better get moving, disappear into the crowd."
"Do you think our hotel's still in one piece?" Hermes asked.
"I think the monster mostly avoided it," Jacob informed him, "The worst it did was punch a hole through the front wall."
"Oh, that wasn't the hydra," Ares chuckled.
As they slowly approached the top of the hill of wreckage, a strange noise could be heard from beyond, a low hum of voices almost like some sort of army was over the ridge.
"Wait here," Athena ordered Jacob as she summoned her Aegis shield and Owl's Talon spear.
Hound's Jaw materialized in Ares' hand, and he held it at the ready.
Aphrodite pulled her dagger and her new sword from their sheaths.
And Hermes, having no weapons to speak of, waited patiently while the others armed themselves.
"Ready?" Athena asked quietly.
A series of nods replied.
The four then climbed over the hill.