According to Greek mythology, the Arae were female spirits of retribution, placing hexes against those who had murdered in cold blood. They granted a single curse to each soul that had been cheated from life, a single curse to enact their vengeance.
Herry launched himself forward, gravel biting into his forearm as he slid across the muddy earth. Dirt clung to his fingernails, and an array of scratches marked his hands. How many germs were spawning along his muddied cuts and gashes? He shuddered, once again wishing that he'd remembered to bring sanitizer along on the mission. Next time he was making Odie pack for him.
He leaned closer to the ground as the shuffle of footsteps resounded. Herry squinted, just barely distinguishing the outlines of another troop of guards. They marched under glaring arc lights, traveling up and down the barracks. He raised a hand to finger the comm link positioned in his ear. "Jay, I—" He paused at the eruption of static, probably Odie sighing into his mouthpiece again.
"Herry! You're supposed to use code names like we talked about!"
"Oh. Right. Uh, Brawn to team, the guards have just rounded the, uh, corner thing."
"Leader to team," Jay said, "Herry, which corner are you at?"
"Brawn," Odie corrected with a scowl, "'Brawn which corner are you at?' That's the whole point of code names. So that if our comm link is intercepted they won't know who we are."
"Well it's not like we used last names," Archie interjected.
There was silence after that, but Herry could practically feel the heat of Odie's glare. He took the next minute to scour for something, a fixture or landmark, to identify the area. There was a hole in the chain-link fence, but that wasn't easily detectable at night.
"Never mind, I see you." Odie peered at Herry through his night vision goggles, courtesy of Hephaestus. "Brain to Leader, look for a loose steel girder along the base of the compound. After you've spotted it, send Warrior and Huntress in to retrieve the item. The rest of you rendezvous at our meeting spot."
Herry shrank back into the shadows, ready to move, when a high-pitched shriek pierced the air.
"Remind me why we brought him along?" Atlanta groaned.
Footsteps thudded and Herry heard the low rumble of nearby voices issuing orders. Great. They'd probably been spotted.
"Move!" Jay ordered. Herry didn't need to be told twice. He broke into a run, trading in stealth for speed, and deserted the compound with powerful strides. The base became a blur in the distance as he scaled the chain link fence. His lungs ached, but not unpleasantly.
"Theresa look out!" Jay's shout was not over the comm link, but came from several yards ahead from where Herry stood. A squad of guards with implacable expressions fired into the night. The scene flickered oddly before Herry's eyes. He saw triggers being pulled, bullets being fired, and Theresa, her mane of fiery hair flying behind her as she leaped, not away from the onslaught of bullets, but towards them. A flash of purplish light, and the guards crumpled to the ground, unconscious. The bullets were nowhere in sight. Theresa gave a shaky exhale from where she, Jay, and Odie stood.
"Persephone taught me that," she said with a ghost of a smile. The smile was just a quirk of lips, but carried both pride and shame.
"Don't these guys work for the government?" Herry asked. "Can't believe they would fire at us. We're just—" the descendants of Greek heroes sent by the Olympian gods to retrieve a sealed, top-secret file. But still, they were still only in high-school.
Odie pinched the bridge of his nose, shifting his glasses slightly askew. "Top secret base. We were compromising security. Of course they fired at us," he eyed the black fabric of their stealth gear. "Plus we don't exactly look like you're average meddling kids dressed in these."
Herry frowned. Did Odie always have to correct him?
"Never mind that." Jay was now flush against Theresa's side. He raised his index and middle finger to his ear. "Archie, Atlanta. Have you got the item?"
"No. The whole building's on lock-down, because someone gave our position away!" Atlanta responded.
A defensive gasp sounded. "Like this is my fault!" Neil whined. An audible smack! sounded over the comm. "We'll regroup tomorrow. Meet us back here."
"Can't," Atlanta answered through gritted teeth. "Archie's locked inside. He made it in before the door shut. And all the windows are barricaded. He's not responding to the comm, either."
Jay's jaw clenched as he ran scenarios through his head. "Meet us back here and we'll figure out what to do."
"But-"
"Now." Herry was amazed that Jay could sound both gentle and authoritative with one simple word.
Atlanta replied, albeit reluctantly, with an irritable sigh of "Fine," and after a few minutes, she and Neil met up with the rest of the team. "What's our next move?" Atlanta asked automatically, at the same time Neil said "Hey, guys-". Though no one particularly paid attention to Neil.
"Well we can't exactly break in," Odie pointed out, "the mission was supposed to be covert. They know we're here, but chances are they don't know how many of us there are."
Jay gave an almost imperceptible nod. "Odie's right. We'll head back to New Olympia and figure out what to do from there."
"No way! Archie—"
"—Archie will be fine. But we won't be doing him any favours if they do a parameter check and find that we're still here. We need them to think that we've left."
"And what if they don't lift the lockdown?" Atlanta shot back.
"Then Odie will hack into the mainframe and we'll... we'll figure something out."
Herry turned to Odie. "Can you do that? Hack into the mainframe?"
Odie twiddled his thumbs anxiously. "I'm not sure. Normally it would be a cinch but this place has top level security. I'd definitely need better equipment, so we'd have to go back to New Olympia anyways."
"Uh, guys, back to me!" Neil exclaimed, clearly vexed that the conversation wasn't focused on him.
Atlanta glared daggers at him. "What?" she snapped, injecting as much venom into her voice as she could muster. It was his fault that they'd been seen. He'd probably only flipped out because he'd gotten some dirt on his face, or something.
"I saw someone!"
"Who was it?" Jay asked impatiently.
"Beats me. Some girl."
"Are we talking school girl, civilian, or—?"
"More like whatever Theresa and Atlanta are."
"Gee, thanks." Atlanta and Theresa shared an eye-roll.
"Guys! Hello! There was a girl here. Why would she be at a secret base?"
But the rest of the group was already packing up their gear, so Herry took his cue from them and ignored Neil's rant. He unhooked the comm set from his ear, and packed it in his burlap sack.
"I've got some anesthetic for that," Odie nodded at a particularly bad scrape running down Herry's arm.
His first instinct was to dismiss the offer, but it was no secret that he had a... slight aversion to germs and infections. "Thanks," he said with a tentative smile.
Theresa wiped the last half hour or so from the still unconscious guards' minds, and then they were gone. Vanishing into the night, with only the soft, velvet layers of moonlight to guide them.