A/N: A round of applause to HoneyGoddess57 and Toymaker for being considerate enough to review the last chapter, here, for your reading pleasure, is Chapter 8. I hope you enjoy it as much as you enjoyed the last one.

Chapter 8
Army Ants

This has to be the strangest plan Cronus has ever come up with, I thought as I grabbed yet another soldier. Where did he get the idea to turn men into ants and for that matter why would he want to? What useful purpose could they possibly serve?

I knew I'd never get an answer to my questions. Cronus hadn't been particularly forthcoming with the details of his most recent scheme. All I knew was that he'd acquired a greave that turned men into ants and collars he could use to control them. From the little information Cronus had given us I gathered that the greave had belonged to Zeus. The collars, however, remained a mystery. I could only assume Cronus had forced someone to make them.

He'd dragged Alcyoneus, Mimas and I to a military installation built above an old mine. Since our arrival, we'd been using portals to capture each of the soldiers stationed there. Once we had them, we brought them to a room in the abandoned mine, were we secured them to a table and fitted them with a collar. Then Cronus showed up and used the greave to transform them into ants. This same greave also allowed him to control the ants via the collars they were given. The base had held hundreds of soldiers and it had taken weeks of systematic effort to round them all up. Now we were almost finished. Only one soldier remained.

When Mimas and I came to collect him, he was sitting in a jeep, attempting to contact the outside world. It was a futile gesture. Cronus had made certain that no communications could get out. After all, we wouldn't want the heroes to discover what we were doing. I lifted the vehicle our quarry was sitting in and he immediately panicked.

"Mayday! Mayday! I got big trouble!" he shouted desperately into the jeep's two-way radio.

When there was no response, he dove from the vehicle and tried to run away. Before he'd gotten two steps, Mimas grabbed him by the arm and the three of us went back through the portal. It was time to find out what Cronus planned to do next.


Mimas and I secured our last captive and fitted him with a control collar. Then Mimas left to get Cronus, while I remained to ensure our captive didn't get away. The possibility an escape was remote, but I preferred not to take chances.

"Help! Help!" the soldier yelled.

What's the point of all this yelling? I wondered. We've already captured all your comrades in arms, so it's not as if anyone's going to hear you.

I would have addressed my question directly to him, but since I don't speak English, he wouldn't have understood me.

"Courage soldier," Cronus commanded as he entered the room, "you're in my army now. You'll be fighting for the noblest cause of all, revenge, against my dear son Zeus for thousands of years of incarceration."

"Johnson, David, Corporal. Serial number 921…" the man started.

All the soldiers had spouted much the same information the moment Cronus showed up, so I was only half listening. I had focused most of my attention on the greave, which Cronus had given me for safekeeping.

"This is not an interrogation," Cronus laughed. "It's a transformation."

He held out his hand for the greave, but I didn't notice. I was busy wondering if it would fit around my wrist.

"Hand it over you fool!" Cronus snapped impatiently.

Startled from my contemplations I handed Cronus the greave without really registering what he'd said.

After fitting the greave around his own wrist Cronus touched the soldier on the shoulder and a moment later, he'd transformed into an ant just like all the others. The new ant clicked its mandibles threateningly, clearly unhappy with its present situation.

"Uh-uh-uh," Cronus admonished wagging a finger at his newest recruit. Pushing a button on the greave, he began issuing commands. "Right turn, forward march, halt."

Cronus chuckled with satisfaction as the ant obediently followed each command.

"Yes, well done," he commended.

He walked over to the ant and placed a hand on its head.

"Patience my warrior," he said, "you'll help me flush Zeus out into the open and the second Titan War will begin."

We took the newest ant to the cavern where all the others were waiting.

"Over there," Cronus directed, "time to join the ranks."

When the last ant had lined up with the others Cronus raised his arms and in a loud voice proclaimed, "Let the invasion begin!"

While all this was going on, I was trying to figure out what had happened to Mimas. The last time I'd seen him, he'd been on his way to get Cronus and now he had apparently disappeared. I scanned the cavern where Cronus had been keeping the ants and that's when I saw him.

Cronus was able to keep control of the ants most of the time, but when he wasn't physically present they could occasionally get out of hand. Usually, he was nearby ready to get the ants back under his control, but not this time. This time he'd been too busy transforming the last solider into an ant and Mimas had paid the price.

The ants had killed him. His remains were in such a state that I was unable to determine exactly how he had died, but the exact nature of his death didn't matter. I had lost another brother. Now there were only five of us left to confront the heroes. I left Mimas' remains where they were. This cavern would be his tomb.

Of course, Cronus never noticed.


The biggest problem with having so many ants was keeping them hidden, so the fact that one of them escaped and made its way to the surface wasn't surprising. What was surprising, however, was Cronus' reaction. I expected him to be furious with Alcyoneus and me for allowing one of the ants to get loose. Instead, he took the whole affair in stride, seeing it as an opportunity to get the heroes to come to us.

"Once they realize what they're up against they'll almost certainly contact Zeus," Cronus declared, "and when they do victory will at last be mine."

I was far less optimistic. It seemed every time we thought we were going to win, something happened to foil Cronus' plans. I felt it was better to be cautious than to celebrate another premature victory.

By the time the heroes showed up, as we'd known they would, Cronus was ready for them. We had already retrieved the rogue ant, though not before it had caused considerable damage to the base. Then Cronus chose a single ant and sent it toward the surface. It would lead the heroes to a cavern beneath the base where the other ants would be waiting to ambush them.

The ant was not long in returning with the heroes following close behind. Once they entered the other ants moved to attack. Cronus, Alcyoneus and I watched from a catwalk, while the heroes fought the ants below us.

Cronus had disabled the lighting, so the only illumination came from glow sticks the heroes had brought with them. The lack of light made it difficult to see how well the heroes were faring against the ants, but it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed.

Suddenly, I noticed that one of the ants had Theresa in its mandibles.

Finish her off, I thought. Crush her.

Abruptly, Theresa brought her nunchucks down on the ant's head so hard it dropped her.

"Don't kill the ants they're people!" she shouted.

How does she know that? I wondered.

"What?" Jay exclaimed in shock. "Everybody fall back!"

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Archie snapped.

The ants cornered Jay, Herry, Archie, Atlanta, and Theresa at which point Cronus stopped them, so he could take the opportunity to gloat.

"What the…" Atlanta started as the lights came on and Cronus began to laugh.

"Lost your appetite for fighting have you?" he mocked. "Not like my soldiers."

"They're not your soldiers Cronus," Theresa shot back.

"Theresa, my dear, you'll find they're very much under my command when we march on New Olympia and destroy it," Cronus retorted.

"Release them!" Jay demanded.

"No Jay I have an idea," Cronus retorted. "Why don't you call on the all-powerful Zeus for help? He has a soft spot for humans."

"Zeus?" Archie repeated sounding puzzled.

Cronus was no longer listening. Having decided that he'd wasted enough time with idle chitchat he sent the ants into battle once more.

"Attack!" he commanded.

The ants surged forward once more and it wasn't long before the heroes realized they were in trouble.

"There's too many," Jay decided, "we have to retreat. Herry clear us a path."

"No problem," Herry answered immediately using his tremendous strength to heave the ants out of the way.

"That's it run away, run to Zeus," Cronus called after them.

Thinking he meant us, Alcyoneus and I jumped down and headed after the heroes.

"Not you!" Cronus bellowed. "Them!"

He came to join us and we'd nearly reached the entrance when Cronus noticed something set up by the door.

"What's this?" he asked stopping to examine it.

His tone changed to one of alarm as he realized what he was looking at.

"NO!" he exclaimed.

He opened a portal and the three of us barely made it through before a terrific explosion ripped through the place. The explosion flung us violently from the portal onto the ground outside. We landed in a heap with Cronus on the bottom.

"Blast!" he exclaimed pounding the ground with his fists in frustration.

We climbed to our feet, our bodies aching with the force of the impact and headed back inside. We entered the base and discovered that the heroes were gone and a wall of rock was blocking the mine entrance. Cronus immediately set Alcyoneus and me to digging them out.

"Faster you idiots!" he yelled. "Dig out my warriors before those troublesome heroes return!"

You could try helping us instead of just standing there, I thought exasperatedly.

Fortunately, the ants had apparently been digging themselves out from the other side. Alcyoneus and I removed a few more boulders and then stood back as they came surging forward.

"Ah my tenacious troops," Cronus sighed with satisfaction.


Now that the ants were free, Cronus decided he no longer required Alcyoneus' or my help so he opened a portal and sent us back to our hideaway.

I decided that I would watch the conclusion of this plan on the scrying pool, so as soon as we arrived I headed straight for it.

When I got there the first thing I saw was Herry's truck pulling to a stop in front of the ants.

"So Zeus continues to rely on his brave young mortals," Cronus commented. "After them!"

The truck sped off with the ants in close pursuit. It crossed a bridge with the ants trailing by seconds, but strangely, someone raised the bridge when it reached the other side. The ants had the heroes trapped with no means of escape. The ants surrounded the truck, but no heroes emerged to do battle with them.

What's going on? I wondered. Why would they deliberately cut themselves off? Why would they allow the ants to surround them?

Something about this definitely didn't add up, but Cronus didn't seem to think anything was amiss.

"How serendipitous," Cronus sighed. "Then again I've always had excellent timing."

He watched from his position on the far side of the bridge for a moment then,

"Something's wrong."

Of course, something's wrong, I thought. If everything were right the heroes wouldn't be sitting in that truck, they'd be fighting the ants.

Cronus opened a portal and transported himself to the far side of the bridge. He opened the back door of the truck, but instead of finding the heroes sitting inside, he found only figures dressed in the heroes' clothes.

"What?" Cronus gasped.

Then the truck started moving away, apparently by itself.

"No!" Cronus exclaimed.

On the far side of the bridge Jay, Theresa, Archie, Atlanta and Herry waved and called out, laughing and mocking Cronus. Herry continued manipulating the truck with a remote control. He backed the truck up a bit further then sent it racing forward…directly at Cronus! Cronus barely managed to jump out of the way.

"Attack!" he commanded the ants.

The ants walked to the edge of the river and paused.

"Obey me! Obey me!" Cronus ordered continually pushing the button on the greave.

Some of the ants began to form a bridge, using their bodies. Judging by the heroes' reactions this wasn't part of their plan. Obviously, they'd expected the ants to remain trapped on the other side of the river, never dreaming they'd form their own bridge.

Why didn't they get Zeus to help them? I wondered. Surely, he could easily deal with a few ants.

"So what's the plan?" Archie asked turning to Jay.

"Hold them back till Odie gets here," Jay answered.

"And if he can't stop them?" Atlanta asked.

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it," Jay replied.

Atlanta opened fire with her crossbow, driving back the two ants that had crossed the newly constructed ant bridge. At first, this seemed to work, but then one of the ants reared up and then came crashing down in front of Atlanta knocking her down. Herry immediately rushed forward and heaved the ant back onto the bridge. The overturned ant brought a momentary halt to the other ants' progress.

While all this was going on, I was puzzling over Jay's earlier remark. Hold them back till Odie gets here, he'd said, but what good would that do? What possible use could a pipsqueak like Odie be in a fight against giant ants? It didn't make any sense to me, but then many things weren't making sense to me right now. I decided I would just have to wait and see what happened.

A few moments later, Odie and Neil arrived, accompanied by one of the ants.

When did they get hold of an ant? I wondered.

Odie pointed something at the ants that were slowing advancing on the heroes. He pushed a button and for a moment, the ants paused. The next moment, however, they were on the move again.

"Right idea, wrong frequency," Odie said hurriedly, scrambling to adjust his device.

"Hurry Odie!" Jay shouted as the ants drew steadily nearer.

"Where are you Zeus? Come save your heroes," Cronus called.

Suddenly the ants stopped. Shaking their heads as though confused they all came to an abrupt halt.

"Attack I command you!" Cronus shouted, frantically pushing the button on the greave.

Nothing happened.

"All right, let's go," Jay ordered.

He raced across the bridge of ants, followed closely by Herry, Atlanta, Theresa, and Archie.

Cronus continued to push the button on the greave, but the ants still didn't move. For a moment, this incident reminded me of the time Cronus sent my brothers and me to retrieve Hermes' Herald's Staff from the heroes. Cronus' increasingly desperate attempts to regain control of the ants were strikingly similar to Odie's futile efforts to control my brothers and me. Even Cronus' frantic look mirrored the one I'd seen on Odie's face that day.

"Gah it's useless!" he exclaimed tossing the greave to the ground.

By now, the heroes had reached Cronus.

"It's over Cronus, surrender," Jay directed.

Cronus only laughed, opened a portal and walked through it.

"Hah, as usual when the going gets tough…" Archie started.

"…Cronus gets going," Atlanta finished.

"You've got that right," I muttered.

"Excuse me?" a terrifyingly familiar voice asked from behind me.

I turned slowly around and to my everlasting horror discovered Cronus standing right behind me. Any explanation I might have offered died unspoken under the withering glare he fired in my direction.

I am in big trouble, I thought as Cronus drew closer. There is no way I can talk my way out of this mess.

"I'll deal with you later," Cronus snapped, "now get out!"

I moved as fast as possible, anxious to get out of Cronus' sight before I infuriated him further. I could only hope he'd get so busy thinking up a new plan he'd forget about what I'd said.

I was almost positive he wouldn't.

A/N: Please review. I need to know if people are reading this and I want some honest feedback. I plan to finish this story no matter what, but I'll get it done a lot faster if I know people are reading and enjoying it. I also have plans for a possible sequel if it does well, so tell me what you think.

Once again, I have written the death of a giant into this chapter. In this case, the giant is Mimas, the one who's bottom half resembles a polar bear. Since this is his last appearance, I felt it was appropriate. Although, I find it odd that he disappears completely within the first few minutes of the episode this chapter is based on and is apparently replaced by the big red giant I've dubbed Alcyoneus.