Welcome To The Nightmare (Book 2)

Chapter 3: Realm of The Gods

Park Bom and Dara arrived at Mount Olympus earlier than they have thought. Olympus have been tall as ever. They made their ways to one of the peaks.

"Funny. In the ancient world, this mountain is considered sacred and the place where their gods resided. Now, Apollo and Aphrodite are huffing and puffing making their way up." Park Bom joked.

"More like irony. We're here." Dara replied.

They have arrived at a cliff wall. Dara took a blade out from her coat and cut her palm. She winced by the pain. She went to the wall and wiped her bloodied hand on it. The wall in front of her discolored and dematerialized, making a hole. Dara licked her wound and called Park Bom to enter the hole.

The pathway suddenly lit up by their presence, with escalator by the end of it. Suddenly, a hologram appeared before them in the shape of a woman in white dress.

"Greetings, Apollo. It has been such a long time" the hologram greeted.

"Hey Artemis. Miss me?" Dara greeted back.

"Of course. Not a day has gone where I didn't miss you. And hello, Aphrodite. You look..... Well?" Artemis  greeted Park Bom.

"Wow, Arty. We haven't met for more than a decade. Dissing me on the first day?" Park Bom crossed her hands and smiled.

"Sorry. I just couldn't help it. I missed you guys." Artemis gave out a laugh.

"Arty, reactivate the base, will you? We're coming home. Only waiting for Athena right now. She will be here tomorrow." Dara told Artemis.

"Really? Wow. The whole team is here again!" Artemis jumped with joy.

"Will Ares be here?" She asked.

"No. Long story. Athena will fill you in later. For now, we have to do some spring cleaning. Activate the cleaning bots too." Dara replied while going down the escalator with Park Bom.

"Okay. Good to have you guys back". Artemis smiled.

This is their previous base of operation when they were still active ten years ago. Located at one of the 52 peaks of Mount Olympus, it was hidden from the plain sight with holographic stealth mechanism. It houses everything they need to run their missions, from weapons to vehicles.

Dara took a look around. Everything is still in their places, though a bit dusty.

"Well, here we go. Let see what we need to do or repair." Park Bom took off her coat and rolled her sleeves.

Dara nodded and they started their cleaning. With them tens of cleaning bots are helping them under control of Artemis. Artemis was an AI created by Minzy back in the days. Since there were only for of them, they need someone to monitor and helped navigate them during their mission. At first, Artemis is just a dumb AI, following orders.

But over time, with developed capability to learn, she developed a character on her own. Even having emotions. That drove them crazy sometimes but Artemis has proven herself worthy and faithful to their cause. Artemis became one of their friend.

There's nothing much to clean since the cleaning bots did most of the work. In 6 hours, the base was sparkling. Dara and Park Bom nodded and went to the control centre. They launched the system and everything is fully online.

"Well, all that left is to restock the pantry." Park Bom told Dara.

"Yeah. Arty, teleporter still works?" Dara asked Artemis.

"Yep. 100% functionality." Artemis replied.

"We'll be going then. You need anything?" Dara joked around.