Episode 11: The Gorgon

Disclaimer: read chapter... you get the idea!

A/N: I know I said that I'll make the aftermath in the next chapter, but it was too short. So I posted the ending scene of Hercules and the sheep on the previous chapter. If you want to see the short ending, before reading this episode go right ahead. I must warn you, it's very short. Okay, I'll shut up now, and here's the episode...


Two weeks after the Hecate incident, Natalie was free from punishment. After she helped Hercules get rid of Hecate, Hades was forced to unground Natalie. She demanded that he should unground her. At first he said no, but Natalie told him, 'A wise god once said, if I help you, you help me.'

Hades asked her, 'Who's the yutz that told ya that?'

'You're the yutz!" That ticked Hades off so much. He always kept his word, so now Natalie was officially ungrounded, when she only had a week left.

Today, after school, Hercules, Icarus, and Natalie were flying together. Natalie and Hercules were riding Pegasus, while Icarus was flying with his wax wings. As they were flying, they saw Apollo riding his sun chariot across the sky.

"Hello Sunshine!" Icarus cried as he flying closer to the sun.

"Icarus, you're TOO CLOSE!" Hercules cried, "PULL BACK!"

"STAY AWAY, YOU IDIOT!" Natalie snapped.

"Negatory!" Icarus refused. "Must maintain intercept coarse with flame!"

"He's crazy!" Natalie cried to Hercules, "He is going to fry his brain... AGAIN!"

"Icarus, fly away!" Hercules tried to warn Icarus, but Icarus wasn't paying attention.

Icarus was flying too close to the sun, and his wax wings were starting to melt or fall off his wings; until Icarus couldn't fly anymore. Icarus looked down and mumbled, "Uh-oh... I did it again." He was now falling, "AAAHHH! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! I'm going DOWN! OH MAN!"

"Hercules, look!" Natalie pointed at Icarus, who was falling to his death.

"Let's move, Pegasus! DIVE!" Hercules cried, as Pegasus was diving through the clouds.

Luckily, Icarus fell into the river instead of the ground. He was floating, and took off his featherless wings, "Well, we can rule out the pilot air, that was clearly the result of equipment failure." Icarus was floating backwards, and was calm.

While he was relaxing, a bird land on a log, and made noises. Icarus looked at the bird, that was flying away; as he was watching the bird fly away, he also saw a cliff. Icarus was now panicking. He was trying to swim away from the waterfall, but the river was too strong.

Hercules and Natalie arrived just in time. "HOLD ON!" Natalie cried.

"Thanks, Nat!" Icarus cried, "NEVER WOULD'VE THOUGHT OF THAT! HELP!"

Hercules grabbed Pegasus's tail, and jumped off him while holding on. He reached his hand, and grabbed Icarus's shirt with his free hand, "GOTCHA!" Hercules tossed Icarus in the air, and Icarus landed on Pegasus back behind Natalie.

"Welcome aboard," Natalie greeted Icarus. Hercules accidentally tripped over a small rock, and let Pegasus' tail slipped his fingers. Pegasus stopped, and turned for Hercules, who was struggling to swim away from the falls. Natalie reached her hand out for Hercules, as he was approaching the falls, "Give me your hand!"

"Come on, buddy! Grab Nat's hand!" Icarus cried.

Hercules reached his hand out for Natalie, but their fingers barely met. Hercules floated pass them, and fell into the waterfall. "HERCULES!" Natalie and Icarus cried in fear.

"Move Pegasus!" Natalie cried. Pegasus did just that.

Meanwhile, Hercules was into shore, unconscious. Somebody saw him floating, so he pulled him out of the water. He laid Hercules' head on his lap, and began stroking Hercules' head. Hercules was coughing out water, but was still asleep.

Then a leopard was watching the figure and Hercules, as he was about to catch them as it's prey. He leaped up, and began roaring.

ROAR!

The figure turned and gasped as he saw the leopard. It suddenly turned to stone, and crashed into a rock. The figure chuckled nervously, "Oops... sorry." The figure turned out to be a girl. She was wearing a dark purple dress; had reptilian, green skin; orange, snake eyes; and snakes for hair. Her name's Medusa, and she's a gorgon. Medusa continued to stroke Hercules' head, until somebody ruined the moment.

"HERC!"

"Uh-oh!" Medusa ran, and hid behind the trees just when Pegasus, Icarus, and Natalie showed up.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" Icarus cried.

"Guys, he's over there!" Natalie rushed to Hercules, lifted his head up, and laid it on his lap for support.

"Herc, buddy, are you alright?!" Icarus asked, but Hercules was still out of it. Pegasus licked Hercules' face, and that made Hercules' opened his eyes. He saw Natalie above him; heard the Muses singing and the birds chirping; and saw Natalie smiling, and asked, "Hercules, are you okay?"

Hercules let out a small grin, and said, "I am now."

"HERC!" Natalie cried as he gave him a small pat on the cheek; and that made Hercules become fully awake.

"W-What?! Oh! Um- I mean I'm fine!" Hercules said. Icarus and Natalie helped Hercules up on his feet. "Thanks for pulling me out of the river, guys."

Icarus dropped Hercules and said, "Oh, no thanks necessary!"

"Herc, what are you talking about?" Natalie asked, "We didn't pull you to shore."

"Really?" Hercules asked, "Then who did?"

"Maybe it was that guy over there," Icarus pointed at a guy, who looked like a soldier. "Ya-hoo! Mister! Thanks for helping my friend here. He-" Icarus looked at the guy, and realized that the soldier was a statue. Icarus began to panic. "OH NO!"

Natalie gasped as she saw the statue, then became more panic as she, the boys, and Pegasus saw more statues. "What is this place?" Hercules asked as he looked at the statues.

"Get on the horse NOW!" Icarus ordered Hercules.

Natalie immediately shut her eyes, because she knew that a gorgon was in the area. She felt Pegasus behind her, and hopped on his back. Icarus did the same, and Hercules was right behind him, "Right." As soon as Hercules hopped on, Pegasus flew away from the island, and headed straight back to Athens.


At Phil's place, Hercules was there for training, and was explaining what happened at the island. Phil was looking for new equipment at his closet of bronze, while Hercules was explaining, "It was so weird, Phil. There were dozen of statues."

Phil frowned and mumbled, "Statues. I knew it!" He got out a silver shield, and a sword, "Alright, here ya go, kid." He tossed the equipment to Hercules.

"What's this for?" Hercules asked.

"GORGONS, kid! You were in the gorgon lair! Starting tomorrow, we are shifting your training to gorgon intensive program."

"W-What do I do with this?" Hercules asked gesturing his shield.

"Kid, you can't look a gorgon in the eye. They'll turn ya to stone!"

Hercules gasped with fear and shock.

"So use the other side," Phil flipped the shield around, and Hercules saw his reflection, "It's like a mirror."

Hercules noticed small words at the bottom. It said, 'Monsters are closer than they appear'.

"Words to live by, kid."


In Gorgon Island, Medusa was feeling lonely, so she was talking to her statues. She first talked to a soldier statue, "Hey, what's the matter, Mister Stone. People take ya for granite."

She chuckled at her own joke, and moved on to a different statue. "How about a little sun?" She was dragging the statue away from the shade, "You feel heavier. I think it is your sedimentary lifestyle." Medusa paused for a moment, "Hey, come on, folks. I don't sing or dance this is my best material."

Medusa looked, and noticed something on the ground, "Hm, what's this?" She picked up an object, that turned out to be Hercules' Student ID. "Hercules..." She sighed, "What I would give for a friend, who isn't a rock head." She knocked on a statue's head. "I would do anything to change the way I look."

The snakes from her hair tied themselves up in a bun. Medusa chuckled, "Nice try." She then screamed, "Hey, if there are any gods, who are listening out there, I'M READY TO DEAL!"

Suddenly, a god appeared in a black of smoke. It was none other than Hades, "Hey, how ya doing? Hades, Lord of the Dead." He extended his hand for a handshake.

A second later, pink hearts appeared, and a theme song was played, Aphrodite, Aphrodite, Aphrodite... The Goddess of Love. Aphrodite was floating, and made her greeting, "Greetings mortal, I am Aphro-" She paused when she noticed somebody behind, and that someone was Hades. Aphrodite wasn't happy about seeing her, "Oh no! Oh no! What are you doing here?! No! No! No! This is MY beseechment!"

Hades smirked when he saw Aphrodite, so he started putting on the charm, "Aphrodite, babe, looking good. Love the song by the way."

"Mm-hm, save it!" Aphrodite snapped, "Look, this is really MY territory, alright? It's clearly a self-esteem issue."

"Oy, issue. Oy, listen, babe. May I call ya babe? Last thing I want to do is step on your territory. The desperation is my bag, okay? It's my issue."

"Not really," Aphrodite disagreed, "Sticking your nose, where it don't belong is your bag!"

"Uh excuse me?" Medusa interrupted. The two bickering gods looked at Medusa. "I don't care who really does the job, as long as someone makes me look good."

"Medusa, you want real friends, right?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yes! Not a mineral!" Medusa gestured the statues.

"Mm-hm, well, real friends would like you for who you are. Not what you look like."

"OH PLEASE!" Hades snapped, "In storybook land, maybe. Look, all you need is to lose this GORGON accoutrement, and become human."

Medusa smiled and asked, 'You can do that?"

"Yes! This is what I do!" Hades smirked, "Medusa, babe, here's my offer: your work for me at night, you know?" He made an orb that had Medusa's picture, "Using your gorgon terror- bugga, bugga, bugga- And by day, I'll make you HUMAN!" He changed the orb of Medusa in gorgon form to a human. "You can frolic, play, schmooze, gossip- whatever! Talk issues with all your human friends. It will be great!"

Aphrodite pulled her aside, and whispered, "Okay, you do know he's the Lord of the Dead, right?"

"He's coming up with the goods, and what are you offering?" Medusa asked.

"Well, Hephaestus made these for me to wear at the beach, but they'll absolutely work for you." Aphrodite got out a heart-shaped, pink sunglasses. "You can look at people, and they won't turned to stone." She put the glasses on Medusa, and held out a mirror, "Keeps harmful gorgon magic in; harmful human rays out."

"And?"

"And... I don't know- I-"

Medusa took off the glasses, and said sarcastically, "You're really wowing me."

"So..." Hades began as he got out a contract, "Do we have a thing here or what?"

"Medusa, if you live a lie, you'll never know that your friendships are true," Aphrodite warned Medusa.

"Will ya STOP?! You're killing me!" Hades chuckled, "Here, just for fun, let's stick with the plot if you will. I'll sweeten the deal." He zapped the contract while mocking, "If she finds one true friend, who likes her for who she is, then- Hey! BOOM!- I'll make her human... FOREVER!" He showed Medusa a bold print that said, Human forever! "What do ya say?" He held out a pen.

Medusa smiled, "What do I say?! Between the stupid glasses, and the full on make-over. THIS!" She grabbed the pen from Hades, and signed the contract.

Hades smirked, and made the contract and pen disappeared, "Bibbity, bobbity... BOOM!" He zapped Medusa, and she began transforming into a human.

Her skin turned fair tan; her eyes changed from snake eyes to dark brown; and her snake hair disappeared into dark brown, human hair. After the transformation, she was coughing up the smoke, and was satisfied with her appearance, "Man! I should've beseech ya, YEARS AGO!"

"Go on! Get outta here, ya crazy thing; but remember, you're mine at sunset."

Medusa waved at them, and cried out, "Later!" And for that, She left the island.

Aphrodite was unsatisfied with the whole thing. She narrowed her eyes at Hades, and said, "Wow, you do nothing, but prey on the weak and disadvantaged!"

Hades shrugged, "It pays the bills, huh?"

A/N: So how was that? How do you think Natalie would react with Medusa? Hades' deal with Medusa reminded me of Ursula's deal with Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Anyway please review, and tell me what you think. Don't forget about my poll. 50 or more did the poll, but I'm going to tell ya about it. Not until the end. I would like to thank everyone for reading, reviewing, favoriting, or following this story. This book is reaching the 500 review mark. This story is by far the most reviewed book, I have written. Thank you!