"So how exactly are we supposed to find this guy?" Mark asked. "And if he is a son of Eris, why would he help."

Selina could have sworn that Polemos would kill Mark this time. The old god of war was a little cranky all the time. "One thing you need learn kid." Polemos loathed "is that when you want to find a god, you first have to look for him, and then you will find him."

"And where do you suppose we start looking?" Batman asked.

It was the following night from their battle in the cave with the Hysminai. The five were gathered on a top of an apartment building in the Bowery, discussing their next move, which was obviously to find this Son of Eris who would help them somehow. Selina hoped she didn't have to fight him. She didn't think she could defeat a god, especially if he was the son of goddess of strife.

Polemos shrugged. "Eris has only two god sons, really. You can count the Phonoi and Pseudologia as her male children; they are more demons than gods. Spirits above anything else."

"Wait." Sam interrupted, "Who?"

"Like the Arai are spirits of curses, the Phonoi are spirits of Murder and the Pseudologia are spirits of Lies. Eris uses them to cause strife. But her two god sons are the ones Ares was talking about. At least one of them." Polemos started twirling his Greek style sword. "Horkos and Ponos."

Selina immediately perked up. She heard the name only once before, but Horkos was still present in her mind. "Horkos is the one I've seen working with Eris." She said aloud. Batman gave her glare.

"How?" he asked.

"Dreams." Selina replied. Batman gave her another one of his disbelieving looks.

"So it is Ponos then." Polemos interrupted. "That is good. Ponos is a good god. We can trust him. If we can find him. He is god of Labor and usually devoted to his work… somewhere. No one has seen the guy in so long that no one knows where he is."

Polemos twirled his sword faster. It was making Selina nervous. Strange. Normally Selina wouldn't notice something like that, but it seemed drawn to her eye. It twirled faster and faster. Polemos was too busy thinking to notice what he was doing. Then suddenly the sword slipped out of his hand, the blade pointed straight at Selina.

Batman sprang at Selina, knocking her on the ground as the sword sailed inches from her face. Polemos snapped into reality and extended his hand, the sword returned like a boomerang.

"What the Hell is wrong with you!?" Selina screamed, brushing some of the dirt off from the dirty roof. She stepped closer to Polemos. 'You could have killed me!"

Polemos glared at her "hey, it was accident." He said defensively.

Selina stepped forward more to make her point, but she never saw the board there. When she stepped on it, it had enough leverage to spring up. The other side had nails springing up, ready to upper cut Sam's face. Sam saw the board in the nick of time and fell back just in time to miss the board. A pang of guilt shot through Selina. "Oh, Sam. I'm so sorry, I didn't that board there."

Polemos put his hand on her shoulder, "stop. It wasn't your fault." He comforted. No, not comforted, it seemed like Polemos was looking for a fight.

"What is it?" Mark asked. Batman sensed Polemos's anxiety too. The Bat drew two of his batarangs. Mark flipped out his tomahawks. Both flew out of his hand, straight for Selina and Batman. Batman jumped back, throwing his Batarangs at the same time. Both knocked into the tomahawk aimed for Selina, making the ax fall to the floor.

Batman landed on his feet with a grunt and stood back up. "These are becoming more than random accidents." He stated.

Polemos nodded. "Androktasiai."

"What?" Selina asked; only to be answered by a high pitched sob that creepily sounded like a giggle. Four women stepped out of the shadows simultaneously. Lord! They were all skinny, fashionably dressed blondes. They may have been pretty at one point, except they were covered in blood. Their eyes had a permanent look of sorry in them.

"We are the Androktasiai." They wailed/giggled together. The four encircled the group. "We are the Spirits of Manslaughter and deadly accidents, the best way to create pain and strife!" they screamed.

"Be gone." Mark said firmly. The Manslaughter girls laughed in unison.

"You can't kill us." They said sweetly with a tinge of regret. "You would just wind up killing each other."

Polemos stepped forward "only a child of Eris can kill you." He said sourly, like he hated what he was saying.

"Correct!" they squealed "Now let us let you kill each other." The Androktasiai charged.

Selina was sure they were dead by each other's hands. Then a something shook the roof below. "How 'bout me." A deep voice snarled. Selina looked up.

The man was much more muscular than Ares, with a deep olive tan. His eyes were heavy with tiredness and hair, beard and skin rolled with sweat. He wore farmer's clothes with a straw hat and overalls. In his hand was the combination of a sledge hammer and pick axe. Hammer block one side, the pick axe spike sticking out the back.

"Ponos!" the Androktasiai seethed. "Deserter!"

Ponos smiled, his teeth pure white. "No, sisters, I just had other work to do. And now I am goin' to finish my job with you."

Ponos swung his hammer spike at the first Androktasiai. She shattered into dust with a loud, mournful scream. The others charged him. One took the shape of a car and drove through the air at him, swerving like a drunken driver. Ponos caught the car with one hand and threw it up into the air. He readied his Hammer like a bat and swung with the form of a baseball player, hitting the car dead on. The car Androktasiai sailed through the air and exploded some in the background. The last two Androktasiai tried to run but Ponos stepped down hard on the ground. The shake flung them into the air. Ponos brought his Hammer axe down hard on both of them with one stroke. The Androktasiai exploded into dust underneath his hammer.

Ponos turned to the Selina and the others, hammer axe slung over his shoulders. "Now, I heard that ya needed to see me."


Ponos lead the demigods, Batman and Polemos down to the old docks, which were not used anymore. At least not legal honest activity. Criminals step up shop here once in a while, especially the Joker. Selina did not want to run into him, even after finding out about her demigod powers.

Ponos stayed clear of the criminally active parts of the wharf. No, he led them to one of the docks still in business. Ponos snuck around the main building and opened a door on its backside.

"Come, with the Mist down, we need to talk in private." Ponos steered them down the stairs. His room was a simple one, with a bed a closet, desk and TV. Tons of work clothes were strewn across the room.

"Ugh, smells a bit much in here." Selina wrinkled her nose so the stench of sweat wouldn't be so powerful.

"Never time to clean" Ponos defended "always workin'"

"Ponos" Polemos leaned up against the wall. "What is your mother up to?"

Ponos sighed. "Ya know what. She wants to destroy Olympus. Even wants me to take Hephaestus's spot. Have people labor so hard that they curse at the dirt." Ponos plopped down on his bed and opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a picture. Selina leaned over to see what it is about. It was Ponos, cold beer in his hand, smiling next a young brunette sporting ancient Greek armor. In thbackground was rolling lush fields. The girl looked somehow familiar.

Ponos handed the picture to Polemos. "Alala joined up with my Mom." Alala! The leader of the Mahkai. Wait, if Alala was one the Mahkai, why did Polemos look so sad. "She hates ya, ya know."

"Polemos" Sam said, clutching her stomach. "I can feel a fear in you know. What is going on?"

Polemos gave the daughter of Deimos an evil look. "None of your business!" he yelled. He stared back at the picture of a different looking Alala and Ponos.

Ponos rose from his bed and slowly took back the picture. "If ya are getting involved with this quest of theirs, it got be business of thiers."

"You tell them." Polemos sniffed, "I'm going out." Polemos slammed the door behind him.

"What was that about?" Batman asked.

"Alala is Polemos's daughter" Ponos explained.

Selina shook her head in confusion. "Wait, I thought the Mahkai were children of Eris."

"Except for Alala" Ponos put the photo back. "Alala is the daughter of Polemos and Hubris. She may not be a daughter of Eris, but she joined up with the Mahkai anyway. Made ole Polemos proud."

"What happened?" Mark asked.

"Don't know. Just all of a sudden got angry at her father." Ponos answered "Honest opinion, think one of Eris's siblings turned her against her father. Mom like Alala a lot. Head commander of Strife's most deadly strike group and all."

Ponos sighed. Selina got the impression that this was a bad subject. It seemed Eris was extremely good at causing all sorts of conflicts between families on her own side. Selina decided to change the subject. "What is Eris planning? What is her end game?"

Ponos laughed slightly. "Mom's end game. I imagine that is a closely guarded secret, but I can tell ya where. Mount Kyxis."

"Mount Kyxis doesn't exists" Batman said. Ponos shook his head.

"It kinda of does. Sorta like Mount Tam become Mount Orthys durin' the Second Titan War." The work god took out a map of the Appalachian Mountains "Here, Actually called Mount Aska. Mom renamed her Kyxis." Ponos handed over the map. "That's where ya need to go. And yall are the perfect people for the job too. Mom has zero defenses against Demigods."

"What are you going to do?" Batman asked. "Just go back to your work."

Ponos laughed and took up his Hammer Pickaxe. He stroked soothingly. "No, Kopiao and I got alotta work to do." Selina understood the name of his Hammer Pickaxe, Kopiao, as labor. "Mom plans on makin' my sister Lethe the fill in for Poseidon, fillin' the world's water with her memory forgettin' stuff of hers. Better go stop that. You got some god killers to find. Have fun with the Djinn." Ponos opened the door and escorted them all out to the open fish smelling wharf.

"Why help us?" Mark puzzled.

The work god looked down on him and smiled. "When I was born and all that, Mom thought she could use me to create more strife by givin' men too much hard work. Said it was my fate and all. Never learned was that even gods can change. I give men good honest work, not work that kills."

Ponos cracked down his back. "Now, let's stop a flood of oblivion!" he tapped the end of Kopiao hard on the ground and he disappeared.

"What did he say?" Polemos asked. Selina never saw him there and nearly jumped out of her skin. "Does he know how to defeat Eris?"

"Said something about finding the Djinn" the Bat replied "do you know anything about them?"

Polemos groaned. "Last anyone heard, they were still Gaza."

"Gaza?" Sam questioned.

Polemos gave her a distant look. "Israel."