Apollo Mission - Part 3
Disclaimer: read chapter 1
Nattie stood there in shock, but forced a nervous smile across her face, "Hercules. Icarus. What are you two doing here? And-" She snorted into laughter, "What's up with your outfits?"
"We asked you the same question!" Icarus said.
Nattie raised a brow, "About my outfit?" Thankfully, she changed out of her bikini to a dull grey toga. She was glad not to ask Hades for pants today.
"No," Hercules disagreed, "We mean what are you doing here in the Underworld? You know this place is not safe!"
"Do me a favor, and tell me something I don't know."
Icarus walked up to the girl, analyzing her with his eyes and nose. She shoved his face away.
"Can I help you?" she snapped.
"Is it just me, or did you put on some coconut?"
He could smell the sunscreen. Nattie knew the cheap brand of shampoo and bar soap was useless. She needed the Spa Envy brand - expensive but effective.
"Uh..."
"Nattie?" Hercules crossed his arms, "how did you get so dark?"
Nattie started to panic, "Um... you see, Herc, I-"
"I know what's going on here!" Icarus cried.
"Y-You do?" Nattie dreaded the thought of the goofball figuring it out before the Son of Zeus. She was dead for sure.
"Of course..." Icarus smiled, "You knew that the sun is in the Underworld, so you're helping us by getting it back!"
Nattie blinked, 'Say what now?'
"Yeah!" Hercules agreed, "That's why you're so dark! You helped us by shedding some light to our world."
"Oh!" Nattie immediately played along, nodding her head, "Yeah, totally, nearly fried my hair for you guys. Yeah, you guys owe me a load of thanks."
"Thanks, Nattie," Hercules smiled.
She meant not right now, not wiping the sheepish smile off her face, "Don't thank me just yet. We still need to get the sun out of here, and the imps are guarding the sun right now."
"So what do we do, Herc?" Icarus asked.
Hercules paused to think until a light bulb lit his brain, "What we need now is a distraction."
Nattie smirked, "I'm listening." Oh great. So much for going home.
...
Meanwhile, Pain and Panic were panting, sweating, and burnt by the sun. They couldn't take so much heat anymore.
"Get your ice-cold smoothie!" Icarus cried out.
Pain and Panic perked up when they heard the word cold. They left their post and went to a bar where Hercules and Icarus were standing. Hercules and Icarus gave them a round of smoothies.
Pain and Panic started drinking until there was nothing left.
"Refill?" Icarus offered, holding a green smoothie
"Oh, I couldn't," Pain waved, before letting out a loud belch, "Well... maybe just one more."
"Top me off," Panic raised his cup.
Icarus gave them another round of smoothies.
"You know, you're looking at two very important minions," Panic declared, the juice dripping from his chin.
"You got that right," Pain agreed, "Well, Hades has one other minion, but she's not as hard-working as we are."
Nattie was standing around the corner, listening to what they're saying. She scowled at Pain's words. She wasn't a minion, but a henchwoman. She prayed to the gods that the imps leave out her name.
"You see," Panic began, "At this very moment, our boss is kicking old grand Zeus off of Olympus for letting his kid lose the sun. Ha. Ha."
Hercules stood there, speechless, "Oh no."
Pain and Panic continued to fatten themselves, laughing. Hercules left the bar and climbed up to where the sun was at. Pain and Panic started to notice.
"Hey! Leave that alone!" Panic's command reached deaf ears.
"Yeah, who do you think you are anyway?!" Pain cried as he and Panic struggled to walk because of their round bellies from the smoothies.
Hercules turned to face them, taking off the sheep hood. The imps gasped, "Oh no! Hercules!" They started to fall backward, and they were struggling to get up.
"I am going to return the sun to its rightful place!" Hercules cried.
"I think we may have..." Pain grasped his head, feeling the world spinning. Was it a brain freeze or something else?
"Pain, are you okay?" Panic yawned, swaying side to side. "I... think we... (yawn) maybe we'll deal with this... later." Then they both passed out and started snoring.
Hercules stood there with confusion, "Okay, what just happened?"
Nattie smirked, coming out of the shadows, "Simple, while you and Icarus looked away, I put a little something in the smoothies to make them go sleep-bye."
Hercules laughed, "Thanks, Nattie... but where did you get the stuff?"
"Oh that's easy it's... not important," Nattie dismissed the answer, recalling herself sneaking in Hades's secret medicine cabinet for melatonin supplement. The god did have a non-stop, twenty-four gig.
"What's important is to get the sun out of here before they wake up!"
"Right!" Hercules turned his attention to the sun again. He started muttering to himself, "C'mon Herc, you can do it. Just remember your training." He started thinking about the mutton man from Gyro World telling him the steps.
"Number one: Always wear your oven mitts."
Hercules went ahead and put on the mitts. He grabbed the chains and broke it. The sun was free; it was falling and landed on Hercules's back. He managed to hold on to it. Nattie stood there in shock, even though he was a demi-god, she couldn't believe this boy was capable of carrying the 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit sphere.
"Your hands, not your back."
Hercules grunted, straightening his knees, pushing the sun that burnt an opening to the upper world. He carried the sun out of the Underworld, while Icarus followed behind.
"Nattie, aren't ya coming?" Icarus asked. The girl dismissed the question, stating that she'll be out to check on Cassandra while he goes with Hercules as his sidekick. The idea of impressing his Cassipoo gave Icarus the motivation and leave without looking back. Nattie was alone with the imps, who were still sleeping. This is going to be fun. Nattie smirked, kicking the demons awake.
"W-what! What just happened?!" the imps were gathering their thoughts, until they saw the girl standing there.
"Nattie!" The imps cried in surprise.
Time to put on the acting skills. Nattie thought as she played her role, "Hey, boys, having fun sleeping on the job?"
"No, we're not sleeping on the job!" Pain cried, "The sun is still here!"
"Uh, Pain," Panic tapped his partner's shoulder.
"What?"
"The sun..." Panic gestured the missing significance, "It's gone!"
"What?!"
Nattie snapped her fingers, pulling them out from the trance, "Hey! There's a slight chance on getting the sun back!"
"Yeah!" Panic agreed, pointing at the modern girl, "Go get the sun!"
Nattie's mouth dropped and scoffed, flabbergasting. "Okay! You must've been under the sun too long! In case you haven't noticed I'm not freakin' god! I can't do that! Are you freakin' crazy!"
"She's right!" Pain cried, "We have to warn the boss!"
"Right!" Panic and Pain left the Underworld to do just that.
As soon as they left, her smirk resumed.
"And now my job here is done," she uttered, approaching the smoothie bar, "I helped Wonderboy, and I helped the imps." She poured the drink, coming up the stairs to settle herself on his chair and switch the TV on, "Now all I have to do is sit back and watch it all play out." She sipped the drink, smiling with satisfaction, "Mmm. Strawberry banana."
~000~000~000~
Meanwhile, in Olympus, all of the gods were voting whether Zeus will continue to rule Olympus, or will Hades be the new replacement.
"I, Hera," Hercules's mother and Zeus's wife began, "Even though I warned him, vote for my husband - Zeus!"
"Yeah! Dig it!" Hermes was keeping track of the votes by stone and chisel. So far Zeus and Hades were tied of one to one.
"Okay," Hades pushed in between the group party, "She's his wife! Okay? It's a gimme! But come on! None of the other gods are going to vote for nepotism. Right? The god can't even keep track of the sun! Now come on, who's with me?"
"I, Hephaestus, God of the Forge!" Hephaestus stood up from his chair and sighed, "Must regretfully vote for Hades."
Hades's flames came to life, "Yes! Hephaestus!" Then Hades realized what the rusty god also said, "Wait, excuse me? Regretfully?"
~000~000~000~
Meanwhile, Hercules was carrying the sun in between grunts, "Must... get sun... back in... the sky!" He continued the labor all the way to the volcano. Icarus was watching Hercules on a tree branch, while Nattie's butt didn't leave Hades's seat.
"Damn the suspense is killing me," Nattie slurped her drink.
~000~000~000~
"We have a tie!" Hades declared. The score was four to four. "It's any gods game now! Ooh but wait! Who decides the deciding vote? Why it's... let's see it's..." Hades waved his hand, making a scroll appear. He read it until he saw the name that deepened the smirk across his lips. "It's Apollo, God of... blank." The scroll disappeared with a wave as Hades teleported next to the former sun god. "Well, Mr. please-don't-take-my-sunshine-away. I guess we all know who are you voting for, babe?"
"I don't know," Apollo replied.
Hades's eyes grew wide in shock, then burst into flames, "What?!"
"What? I need a little time to think!"
"How could you not..." Hades forced return blue, losing hours of suntanning, "What is it you want? Vote for me, and I'll tell you what, I'll make you... the god of anything! God of War? Huh? You like that? You got it!"
Ares perked up, growling at the mere mentioning of losing his war title.
"But if you're looking for love action? Boom! Done! You're a love god. But take your time. Go ahead. I've got all night." Hades peeked through the curtains to make sure the sun was still missing. He was losing his patience, "Come on! Vote already!"
...
Meanwhile, Hercules was putting the sun into the volcano. "Herc!" Icarus cried, "You got to get out of here! You can't have more than ten seconds before the whole thing blows sky high!"
"That's what I'm counting on!" Hercules cried.
...
"Okay!" Hades began, "I'm going to give you what... ten seconds, and then you gotta vote! Okay? Ten... Nine..."
...
Icarus was counting too, "Eight! Seven!" The volcano was about to explode.
...
Nattie joined the count down; her breath hitched at each number, "Six... Five!"
...
"Four!" Hades cried, "Three... two..."
...
"One!" the three finished in unison. The volcano exploded, and the sun was flying in the air. Hercules was holding on to the chains, operating the sun to go straight to Olympus before it's too late.
...
"I, Apollo..." Apollo sighed, "must regretfully cast my vote."
Hades was getting irritated, "Again with the regretfully. What am I that bad a guy?!"
Apollo continued quietly, "Vote for the new Lord of Olympus."
Zeus bowed his head in dismay. Hermes was patting Zeus on the back, trying to cheer him up.
Suddenly, a light perked Apollo and the gods' attention. Its' rays shining the temples, the clouds no longer grey but turned to white. The sun had returned to the sky with Hercules holding onto the chain's end. Zeus stuck his hand out and caught the sun with ease. He held his other hand out for Hercules.
"Father!" Hercules cried, "I'm sorry! I-"
"No need to explain, son!" Zeus assured him with a smile. He noticed his wife giving him an encouraging look on her face.
"Go on," she cooed.
Zeus sighed, continuing to address his son, "I-I'm sorry I gotcha into this, and I'm proud of you."
Hercules smiled, allowing the positive words to sink in. His father - current king of the gods - was proud of his son.
Hades, however, was not pleased with the results, "Proud?! Proud of him?! What? Did you hear that?" He asked the other gods, "He's proud of his little sun loser! I demand that you name me Lord of-"
"Your immortaliness!"
Hades paused to hear his minions calling out to him.
"Hercules," Pain paused, gasping for breath, "stole back the sun!"
Hades flared orange, zapping Pain and Panic to crisp, right on cue.
"Well," He turned to the other gods, calmly, "no harm, no foul! Right? But hey, wasn't this an interesting experiment of democracy?"
Zeus turned to his lightning bolt that was inside a box that said: In case of insurgency. Break glass.
Zeus broke it and got out the lightning bolt. Hades knew what Zeus was going to do with that.
"Zeus, come on! Don't do anything rash! Come on!"
~000~000~000~
Meanwhile, the modern girl was laughing as she watched Hades trying to smooth talk his way out of this situation, so far, nothing was working. Zeus threw his bolt at Hades, and he was falling out of Olympus and back into the Underworld. The crush proved that he made it right on cue. Nattie couldn't help but continue laughing, trying not to squirt smoothie out of her nose.
The flame god teleported back into the throne room, flaming orange. Nattie instinctively covered her mouth to stifle the snorts or laughs.
"You!" he pointed at her, growling in warning, "My seat. Get off."
Nattie knew better than to push his buttons, so she obliged to his request, taking the time to dust off the invisible germs such as toots that she bestowed on earlier.
"Oh, Nattie. You wouldn't believe what happened..." Hades turned to see the screen lit on, a view of Zeus, Hera, and their son having a family moment. He turned back to Nattie, realizing what she had done, "You saw?"
She pressed her lips tightly together, nodding her head to confirm his question.
"Boss!" Pain cried.
Hades faced the minions who got down on their knees, begging for his forgiveness. Hades rolled his eyes at the empty apologies, gliding to his throne, massaging his temples.
"How in Tartarus did this happen?" Hades cried, throwing his hands in the air, flaring up at the sight of the boy. Before Hades could be tempted to throw a fireball at the screen, Nattie snatched the remote to turn it off, closing the view from him. The ranting didn't stop, and neither did the fireball disappear in hand.
"I was winning! I was close! But then ten seconds later, I was struck by Zeus' lightning bolt!" Hades exploded.
Nattie leaped behind the throne just in time. Unfortunately, the imps' butts were fried crispy.
"We're so sorry, your flamefullness!" Pain cried.
"Yeah," Panic said, "I know you want us to watch the sun, but Hercules and his sidekick tricked us!"
"Yeah, and somehow we fell asleep."
"Wait!" Hades raised a finger, pausing the temper tantrum for a moment, "You thought I ordered you to watch the sun."
Nattie's eyes grew wide, 'Uh oh. He's on to me! Better take my smoothie and skedaddle.' She stepped out of hiding and tip-toed towards the exit.
"Well, Nattie told us that you ordered us to watch the sun while you were away," Panic said.
"Hold it, babe!" Hades extended an arm at the girl's direction. Nattie froze, moving her eyes, cautiously his way without moving her head. She was amazed to see that he didn't need to turn around to know that she was trying to escape.
"Pain," he growled, the called of names caused the imps to tremble, "Panic, go now!"
Pain and Panic remained still, debating themselves whether their boss said those words or not.
"Now!" Hades pressed, "or else I will roast you!"
"Y-yes, sir!" the imps left the throne room, leaving the modern girl and the god of death alone - face to face.
Hades chuckled wickedly, gliding forward while she instinctively stepped back.
"Okay, before - before you say anything-"
"You think you're so clever, do you?" he challenged.
Nattie shrugged, "Well, I don't like to brag."
"I can't believe you tricked the imps into doing your dirty work. Babe, I ordered you to watch the sun. I could've sworn I was talking to you, asking you nicely? Did I not? And if some yutz like Jerkules have the nerve to come here-"
"Okay, first of all," Nattie lifted a finger to argue, "I warned you beforehand that this might happen, but you didn't listen. Second: I had a project to finish and needed to soothe the burns on my back," she pulled down the strap of her toga to show the red patch of skin. Nattie raised her arms before letting them fall and slap against her legs, "What the hell was I supposed to do? Fry and Fail?"
"I don't care if you have to build a pyramid for school!" Hades snapped. "I asked you to stick around and stop the kid from taking the sun!"
"You told me to watch it! You didn't tell me to stop anyone from taking it!"
Silence developed in the room. Hades's clenched his fist, creating sparks. As much as he hated to admit it, but she was right. He never told her to stop anyone; she found the loophole. However, she would've stopped him if she wanted to go home badly. The heat intensified as he caught her lips fighting a satisfied smile across her features. Nattie knew she was right, and that Hades, too, should be careful with the choice of words.
"You know what?!" he growled, "I don't wanna hear your excuses. You were supposed to watch the sun! And now my plan failed, thanks to you."
"You can't honestly blame me for your failure, are you?"
Hades was getting redder by the minute, "Babe, it's bad enough that you showed up late, again, and now you have the nerve to disrespect me again? Do you remember the contract you signed? Page four - section XXX?"
Nattie didn't memorize the rules from a specific page or section but knew that whatever Hades planned wasn't right, except for one thing.
"You're not going to kill me," she stated the obvious. If Hades wanted her dead, she would've been dead already.
He smiled wickedly, "No, but I can punish you." The flame god flicked his wrist, and all the doors were sealed shut, prying eyes on the horror of what's about to come. Nattie would be lying if she said that she wasn't nervous.
Hades chuckled, rubbing his hands together, "You ready, babe?"
"Uh, not really," she spoke
"Oh well then - too bad!" He laughed wickedly.
Nattie knew this was going to happen - the whippings, the torture, the Iron Maiden she saw in the Underworld tour. She tried preparing herself and praying that it would be over quickly. She may have taken self-defense, but he's stronger than she was - he was a god.
"Okay, Hades, let's get this over with. Just do it now." She closed my eyes, bracing herself for the pain.
"Fine," he uttered, snapping his fingers, "Here babe!"
Nattie yelped, feeling her arms drop from the sudden weight, "What the-" She opened her eyes to see herself holding a bucket and a mop.
"My domain needs undivided attention, so I want you to clean this whole space until it shines like the top of Olympus, and don't forget to dust off my figurines over there," he gestured the pieces on top of his chessboard, clapping for her to start moving, "Chop chop, babe. Let's go."
Nattie stood there flabbergasted, dropping the bucket on the floor, "Whoa! Whoa! Wait, you want me to clean the whole throne room? That's my punishment?"
Hades raised a brow, "Yeah, babe, that's it! Unless you want to scrub the stairs?"
"No."
"Good, glad you volunteered, my little minion!"
When she heard him call her his minion, Nattie got mad. No longer in control of reason, she tossed the water at Hades's direction, making his hair go out. He turned to the girl in shock.
"What the hell was that for?!" he demanded. What do I look like to you? The Witch of the West? Huh?!"
Nattie raised a brow at that thought, "You know now that I think about it, you do remind me of the witch. You have odd color skin (miss your tan by the way), you have firepower like her, and you're wearing a dress."
"Shut up! Babe, this is not a dress!" he gestured the outfit he's wearing, "You know perfectly well that this is a chiton! Now, I'm going to leave to relight my hair. And when I come back, I better see you moving! Got me?!" He disappeared in smoke.
She rolled her eyes, beginning to mop the floors. The girl huffed, her eyes meeting the chess pieces. She walked over to the table, picking up a Hades statue that lied on the Mount Olympus map. "I better see this place spotless till it shines like the top of Olympus!" she mocked her boss's voice that required practice, "Got me?! Ugh..." she slammed the toy down in frustration, wishing that this was the real god she was beating instead, "what a jackass!"
"I can hear your voice, babe!"
Nattie jumped at the boss's echo and the erupting flames from the torches.
"But I do not hear scrubbing! Get moving!"
"I'm going!" She rolled my eyes and continued working.