Chapter 1
Hercules, Jason, Lilith, and Iolaus were all working out in weight training area of the practice room of the academy regarding the new Cadet Asa with great interest. He had only arrived at the academy a few days ago. He was the only other cadet they had ever seen that practiced with the same determination and focus that they saw every day in Hercules. He wasn't anti-social, Aloof or rude, but he did have a tendency to keep to himself. As though he constantly had something on his mind
He was currently up on the short poles in the practice room working on his staff routine.
"Guy's," said Iolaus, as he did curls with a set of weights "This Asa is a bit of a mystery. I can't seem to put my finger on what makes him tick."
"Maybe, if we could just get more of a chance talked to him," said Hercules, "Somewhere less formal than academy grounds."
"I know," said Lilith, "We're all going down to Korra's after practice why don't we invite him to go with us."
"Yeah," the other's agreed. Right about then Asa finished his practice and the gong sounded signaling the end of the last practice period of the day. The students had free time for the rest of the day.
Asa hopped down from the poles and was in the middle of putting the training staff back on the rack when Lilith approached him.
"Um Asa," she said, "We're all going to Korra's to eat would you like to come with us."
"I appreciate the invitation," he began.
Lilith automatically began to expect a "no thank you" but was surprise when he smiled and said.
"After being cooped up here for three days I think I would like that."
"Well okay," said Lilith a wave of relief washing over her. "We'll leave as soon as we all get cleaned up."
A short time later the small group of cadets left the academy and started down the well worn road to Korra's when they got there they found a large number of the other Cadet's had the same idea. Hercules waved to Korra as she appeared the kitchen door. She gave a little wave of greeting in return.
"Just grab a seat where ever you can find it," she called out, "I'll be with you as soon as I can."
"No hurry," Hercules called back as he and his friends slid into a corner booth.
"No Hurry?!" Cried Iolaus, "Speak for yourself I'm starving!"
"Iolaus," said Jason, "You're all stomach."
"Ha ha," Iolaus snorted sarcastically as the other Cadets snickered, "You're a million laughs" when the snickers died down Hercules turned to Asa.
"So Asa," he said, "I have to admit that we had kind of an ulterior motive for inviting you down here."
"Oh," said Asa raising his eyebrows
"You've never said much about yourself and that has us all very curious," Said Hercules, "We were hoping that maybe in a less ridged setting we could convince to tell us a little about yourself."
"Oh great, Herc," muttered Iolaus. "Way to approach the subject subtly, now he'll never talk." Asa just gave a sad little chuckle and leaned back in his seat.
"To tell you the truth," he began with a half sighed, "I never said much about my past because I really don't know that much about my past."
"How so," said Jason
"My parents died in a shipwreck near Ithaca when I was three, so I never really knew them. I washed ashore in my cradle and spent most of my childhood in a home for war orphans in the seaside town of Krayus.
After I got older I left the orphanage and took odd jobs here and there until I had enough money to come here and well that's my story."
Just then Korra arrived to take their orders and the attention of the Cadets was soon turned to food. The first decent meal they'd had in days. Time was lost in companionship and good food and soon a couple of hours and gone by.
Several of the more artistically inclined students had found some old instruments Korra's storage closet and began to play some lively tunes. While they played Iolaus tried to dance with hysterically comical results. Finally Asa stood up and stretched and told the others that he's was going to start back to the academy.
Hercules nodded and said they would catch up as soon as Iolaus got one more dance out of his system. Asa nodded, thanked them for the meal and stepped through the doors into the cool evening air. He started up the trail for the academy. Just as Korra's Inn disappeared from sight behind him he suddenly became aware that he was being watched. His fists doubled up.
Half a dozen pairs of red eyes stared at from the shadows. Follow by a hissing sound. The pack wolf-like creatures began to charge. At the same time Asa's eyes and doubled up fists began to glow and ripple with electric energy.
Back at the Inn, the merry making was suddenly interrupted by bright flashes of electric blue light back up and the woods about a mile away. Several short rumbling noises reached the cadets ears.
"What is going on up there?!" said Jason
"I don't know," said Herc, "But we'd better get there fast. That's where Asa went."
The Cadets jumped up and ran for the door. When they reached the spot where the flashes came from they couldn't believe what they saw. 6 bacchai were draped on the ground over logs and over tree limbs." There were charred smoking spots on the ground and in the trees.
The astonished friends looked at each other in disbelief. They were all thinking the same thing, but it was Hercules who spoke first.
"Who could do this to the Bacchai?!"
"I don't know," said Iolaus, "but he was powerful whoever he was."
"Or whatever he was," added Lilith
"Well we can't be dealing with a mortal here," said Jason
"What about another Half-god," said Lilith
"Of all the half-gods I've ever encountered none of them were this powerful," said Hercules.
"Alright a full god then," said Iolaus
"They certainly have the power." Nodded Jason
"There's just one thing wrong with that idea," said Hercules, "The Bacchai aren't stupid enough to mess with a full god, and they can certainly tell the difference between a god and a mortal."
"Besides," said Lilith, "none of the other gods like Bacchus. If he was stupid enough to provoke another god he'd have all of Olympus down on his neck, and even with all his Bacchai he'd be no match for all the other gods combined."
"All of which leaves us right back where we started," said Hercules
"Yeah," said Iolaus, "Who or what did this?"
"If only we had a witness," muttered Jason. Hercules suddenly slapped his forehead.
"Great Zeus!" he exclaimed, "We forgot about Asa!" The little group turned and hurried up the road calling for Asa. There was no answer. Finally after about an hour of searching they arrived back at the academy. Hercules was feeling extremely guilty.
"When he left the Inn I should have gone with him." In a fit of guilt Hercules slammed his fist on the door post, making a bang loud enough to make the others jump.
Just then a head popped out from underneath a blanket on a nearby bed.
"Hey," said Asa, "do you mind? Some of us are trying to sleep!" Asa jerked the blanket back up over his head leaving the four cadets standing in shock with their mouths hanging open."
2.
For most of the next morning Asa was occupied with class, drills, and his friends asking umpteen times if he had seen on the road the night before.
"I saw the flashes of light alright but I couldn't see who or what was going on." He answered for what seemed like the twentieth time. He felt bad about lying to them but he had his own reasons for keeping his powers a secret. He sighed inwardly and hoped that someday he would be able to tell them everything.
In the practice room that afternoon, Iolaus was sparring with Lilith and losing as usual. Jason and Hercules were sparing up on the high platform. Asa was practicing his spear fighting over by the practice dummies. Just then the doors to the practice room were pushed open and in walked Cheiron followed by two men and a group of soldiers.
The smaller, gaunt little man with an amazing resemblance to a ferret looked around the room and then pointed a bony finger at Asa.
"There he is, Mr. Cassius," he said, "I told you he was here!"
"Yes you did," said Cassius, "Guards take him." The guards surrounded Asa. Hercules and his friends almost instinctively made a move to defend their friend. Cheiron held up his hand.
"Do not interfere, Hercules," he said, "Asa's wanted back in Ithaca. There's a five hundred dinar price on his head."
Hercules turned to Asa and looked at him is disbelief.
"Asa," he said, "it this true?!" Asa nodded.
"It's true." He said quietly. The Guards were taking Asa toward the door when Felonious, the local magistrate, and an even bigger group of soldiers, came bursting in. the surround the other soldier disarmed them and took Asa away from them.
"What's the meaning of this?!" roared Cassius indignant, "I am here on the orders of chief magistrate Patreaus of Ithaca to arrest this man for crimes against the Ithacan government!" Cassius held up the Wanted Poster with Asa's face on it to prove his point.
"Cassius I don't care who in the Ithacan government ordered you to do what." Felonious snorted, "In this province you are out of your jurisdiction. You cannot arrest people here without the proper orders and permission letters which I know for a fact that you don't have!"
"W-well I can get them," Cassius blustered
"Until you do this boy will stay in my jail, and if you ever attempted to arrest anyone in my province without the proper permission papers and telling me first, you are the one who will in up in shackles! Goodbye Mr. Cassius!"
A little while later Asa was sitting quietly in one Felonious's holding cells. Cassius had followed Felonious to the Jailhouse arguing with him all the way but Felonious wouldn't budge. Cassius had really raised the roof when Felonious decided that it wouldn't be necessary to shackle Asa to the wall.
A smile teased at the corners of Asa's mouth as he remembered the round faced Cassius looking as though he was about to pop a blood vessel. The hint of a smile disappeared again as Asa's mind went back to his situation at hand. He could of course get out this cell if he wanted to without half trying. But he knew that if he did that he would run the risk of Cassius accusing his new found friends at the academy of helping him escape. Asa didn't want that. The Academy was just about first place that he had ever been completely happy.
Lyra the woman who ran the orphans home in Ithaca was a good and kind woman to be sure but he just never really felt like he belonged there. The Academy was a different story. When Cassius goons had grabbed him he had seen Hercules and his friends move as though to come to his aid. He had been touched that even though they had only known him for about a week they were still more than willing to fight those men for him.
Suddenly Asa was brought out of his thoughts by the outer door at the top of the stairs being opened.
"It sure didn't take Cassius long to get hose permission letters," he thought as he heard footsteps coming down the stone steps. He stood up and steeled himself to meet what was coming.
He was more than a little surprised when his friends from the academy appeared through the doorway at the bottom of the staircase.
"No that I'm not glad to see you guys because I most definitely am, but what are you doing here?" A still somewhat surprised Asa asked.
"We still believe that you're a good guy, Asa," said Lilith
"Yeah," said Hercules, sitting down on an upside down water bucket "And we want to hear your side of all this?"
"Yeah," said Iolaus, "I thought you said you grew up in Ithaca."
"I did grow up there," said Asa, What I told last night was the truth, every word of it. But there's more that I didn't tell you."
"Well tell us," said Jason, "Maybe we can help you." Asa took a deep breath and started his story.
"It all started on the day of my fourteenth birthday, Miss Lyra the lady who ran the orphan's home where I grew up took all of us into town to spend the day at the market and at the beach. It was the best present she could come up with for my birthday.
While we were at the beach I became separated from the rest of the group. I was walking along enjoying the day and the beautiful sea air. Just as I past a large rock I heard a soft moan. I knew at once that it was a human moan of pain. When I circled around behind the rock I found a young girl that had apparently been beaten and dumped there like so much garbage. She was on her stomach when I found her but when I turned her over I recognized her. Her name was Kita she was a strikingly beautiful girl from the village. She was easily the prettiest girl around. There wasn't a teen boy in that village that wouldn't have given his right arm to be her boyfriend, and that includes Patreaus's spoiled son Sorin too.
Sorin though it only natural that since he was the richest boy in town that he ought to have the prettiest girl in town. To his dismay thought she wasn't interested.
When I was helping her on the beach she told me that Sorin had come around up the beach a ways and asked her or should I say informed her that she was to be his girlfriend. When she told him no he flew into a rage and attack her. She didn't remember anything past the first few punches." I picked her up and carried her to the town healer. When we were halfway there I saw Sorin and he saw me. I kept going when we got the healer he began to help her and I went and brought her parents. They thanked me and I left.
The next morning I woke up to find that I was being accused of beating Kita,"
"But wait a minute, how could that happen?" said Jason, "Kita and her parents could tell people what really happened!"
"Yeah," Hercules agreed, "You said yourself that she knew who attacked her."
"You don't understand. Chief Magistrate Patreaus rules that town and everyone in it, at a trial he presides and the witnesses say what he wants them to say." said Asa "And that's what happened at the trial, she and her parents had completely changed their story claiming that her head was turned so she never saw who hit her. After the trial they just disappeared."
"Patreaus got to them," said Lilith nodding in understanding.
"Yeah," said Asa, "He's trying to get me locked away in order to protect his son, and to cover up something scandalous enough to cost him his money and prestige; not to mention his job as chief magistrate. I'd bet every dinar in this province that Patreaus knows full well that his son is the guilty one."
"How did you end up here if he had the trial rigged." Iolaus asked.
"The night before I was to be shipped off to the Ithacan penal colony on Cardis, I managed to escape from the dungeon. I knew I couldn't stay in Ithaca so stopped by the orphan's home to say goodbye to Lyra. That's when she told me a little secret of her own. She had a small fishing boat that Patreaus and his goons didn't know about hidden in a little cove down the coast. She told me to take it and come to the mainland. We both hoped that once I got over here I would be able to get someone to listen. And she told me something else.
Kita and her family were taken out of Ithaca earlier that night. They're in hiding somewhere over here on the mainland under Patreaus's orders of course.
"If we could find this Kita and her family, get them into court here on the mainland where Patreaus and his men can't get to them, and get them to tell the truth Asa would be out from under this mess." Said Iolaus
"Believe me." Asa said, "There's nothing that I'd like better, it's no fun running around with a price on your head."
Just then the door to the stairwell opened and Maximus the jailer walked in. the keys on his belt jangled as he walked.
"Time's up," he said gruffy
"Okay," said Hercules standing up he started to move toward the door then stopped and seemed to be digging pebble out of his shoe. The Jailer rolled his eyes and continued toward the door. As soon as head was turned, Hercules, gave his friends and barely perceptible wink, spun on his heel and punted the water bucket sitting there right into the back of the man's head. he grunted and slumped to the floor unconscious.
"Nice shot," said Iolaus, "Cheiron's foot drills are really paying off."
"Iolaus watch the door," said Hercules
"Lilith," he hissed, "get the keys." Lilith pulled the keys off the man's belt and tossed them to Jason who unlocked Asa's cell.
"what are you doing?!" exclaimed Asa
"I believe it's called a jail break!" Jason Replied
"Listen," said Hercules, "if we're going to find this Kita and her family we'll need you because you know what they look like, so let's go."
"Come on guys," said Iolaus, "Felonious always goes over to Korra's for supper we have to be gone before he gets back!"
The group of friends locked the jailer in one of his own cells then snuck up the stairs and right out the back door past the sleeping door guard.
After thirty minutes of hard traveling they were back at the academy packing up their things.
"This is crazy," said Asa packing his bag, "By helping me escape your now in the same boat I am."
"He's right about that you know?" said a deep voice behind them. It was Cheiron
"Cheiron," they said in unison
"Cheiron," said Hercules, "I know that you're probably mad at us but we believe that Asa is innocent and that these men are framing him on orders from their boss Patreaus. Even if we have to scour all of Greece we will to find those witnesses and get Asa off the hook."
"First," said Cheiron, after Hercules had finished, "I'm not mad I'm actually very proud of all of you. You've stuck your collective neck out that's true but you stuck it out for the right reason."
"And second," said Iolaus
"Second you don't need to tell me about Patreaus I've met him and I have no trouble at all believing that the charges against Asa are false. And third I don't think you'll have to scour all of Greece. When I met Patreaus it was here on the mainland because he owns family property somewhere in the Corinthian province.
"On his own family land would be the ideal place for Patreaus to keep Kita and her family," said Asa, "They'd be out of sight but still under his thumb."
"So we shouldn't have to go any farther than the palace hall of records." Said Jason
"Right," said Cheiron, "your land records should tell you exactly where to find his land. Now you better get going before Felonious and his men show up, and stick together."
"Right," said Hercules, "Until we find Kita and her family and get Asa off the hook, we're officially on the lam!"
TO BE CONTINUED…
THERE ARE PARTS ONE AND TWO OF THUNDERER
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