Chapter XI

Following the Lead (Enyo)

"Ah yes, I remember that picture. Was that during Eddie Rips Up the World?" Ares asked, leaning back against the couch. Enyo and Ares had finished the pizza he had ordered as she filled him in on what she'd been doing for the past few months. She was still a little pissed at him for leaving but he wasn't lashing out at her for finding him so that's a good sign.

"Yeah, I think so," Enyo responded.

"I assume all my kids are OK? How bout that punk Jackson guy? Heard from him? Last time I heard anything about him, he was in California" Ares asked.

"Oh you mean the one who beat the God of War when he was just 12 years old?" Enyo taunted.

"Must you bring that up again?!" Ares snarled back.

"Yeah, because I'm still pissed at you for what you did," Enyo retorted.
"Join the club, they got jackets," Ares snarled again and grabbed another soda. Enyo noticed that he had drunk at least 6 already but still had his godly physique in check.

"Bro, how can you drink that mortal stuff and not get outrageously flabby like a lot of them do," Enyo asked.

"Gym. 5-6 times a week. Today happened to be my day off, otherwise I'd be there now" Ares responded. He then looked off into the distance for a few seconds before saying,

"How's...how's Aphrodite?"

"Gee big brother, maybe you should call her?" Enyo said and folded her arms. As expected, she saw Ares gulp and reach over to the side table and grab his Oympian phone. As she watched him work up the nerve to call her, Enyo texted Aphrodite. "Get ready. Be far from Zeus." Ares looked like he was about to chicken out (figures) but Enyo drew her sword and placed it against Ares's neck.

"Call her. Now." Enyo snarled at him. Ares looked at her and then at the sword against his neck and nodded. Enyo sheathed her sword and watched him dial Aphrodite and place the phone against his ear.

"Hey-" was all Enyo was able to hear before a torrent of sound erupted from Ares's phone. He even pulled it away from his ear and stared at it like it was a live grenade he had just caught. Aphrodite's rage was blasting from the phone's speaker. She caught words and phrases like "THAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU SAY TO ME?!" and "MORON" and a couple of curses in Ancient Greek and a few in French. Ares was looking at Enyo with a "why-did-you-make-me-do-this" expression on his face. Enyo retorted with her own "you-brought-this-on-yourself" expression. Eventually Aphrodite's rage subsided and Ares was able to speak.

"I know. I know. Look, E found me. She's here. We're gonna figure out a way to get my powers back and how to fight homeslice in Athens...what? Oh, that's a mortal term I've been hearing a lot. I think it means 'that guy' or 'friend' or something like that….Yeah...Yes I know I'm a dumbass. Zeus blasted me out of the air so what could I do? He was still miffed that I decked him in the face at the time. Couldn't just go 'sorry Pops' could I? Needed him to cool off a bit…No don't Iris Message me right now, this is fine… I know you want to see me but now is not the time...Bet you Pops is monitoring that whole situation. Leave Iris out of this," he said, gradually becoming less and less agitated. Enyo watched him speak to Aphrodite for the next few minutes. Soon enough, the conversation ended and Ares even told Aphrodite that he loved her. Ares placed the phone back on the side table and held his face in his hands. Meanwhile, Enyo's phone vibrated and she saw that she had a message from Aphrodite that simply said "Thank you. So much." Enyo smiled and returned her phone to her pocket. Ares looked up at her

"Well, she sounded happy to hear from you didn't she?" Enyo said.

"Define 'happy.' I think I was called a moron or a dumbass in about 3 different languages 50 times," Ares responded.

"Well deserved if you ask me," Enyo said. Ares pulled an expression that simply meant "very funny."

"Anyway, you were telling me how you found me. I was invested in it," Ares said, intending to move away from the Aphrodite phone call. Enyo almost made a comment about it but decided against it and continued to tell her story.

Enyo intended to start her search for Ares at various concert venues at Madison Square Garden. It was a long shot as the venue was in New York but she decided to try anyway. Maybe Ares was hiding in plain sight? Who knows what he's really thinking to be honest. Why was this place significant? Well, Ares, Enyo, Aphrodite and Eris had gone to see the American rock band Chicago in 1977. It was Aphrodite's pick as a double date at the time and Aphrodite basically had to drag Ares there because he didn't want to hear that "stupid soft rock nonsense." That turned out to be a lie as Ares harbored a secret liking for the band as Enyo had caught him lip syncing the band's song "If You Leave Me Now" while swaying with Aphrodite. Enyo hadn't let Ares live that one down for the next couple of years. She usually gave him copies of the band's newest album when they released. On more than one occasion, Enyo could hear Chicago coming from Ares's headphones at the gym. She teased him about this for a while until Ares snapped and revealed to a few others that she harbored a liking for the band Air Supply. Thankfully, Eris responded warmly to this information. Ares was wearing his infamous bell bottom jeans, a red shirt with a butterfly collar and a pair of converse sneakers during that concert in '77. This was also one of the few times that they had not posed as security guards and instead just teleported into the crowd. The mist made it so that mortals just saw them as other concert goers. Enyo teleported to the venue where the crew was apparently getting ready for a sporting event to be held later that night. Enyo was in her security guard disguise so she wouldn't attract much attention. She spent the better part of an hour walking through the venue keeping her eyes and ears open for any sign of Ares. Eventually, she got annoyed and went to go talk to the head of security. The man was admittedly confused when he saw Enyo but Enyo used her own mist manipulating abilities to get what she wanted from him.

"I'm looking for my brother. Tall, muscular, usually wears sunglasses," she said.

"What's his name?" the man asked her. Dammit. She hadn't thought about that. She ran a few potential options through her head at lightning speed.

"Leonidas. Goes by Leo or Leon usually" she responded. The man looked down his staff roster and shook his head.

"Aww man! That would have been a WAY cooler alias!" Ares interrupted.

"Anyway…" Enyo continued while rolling her eyes but still amused.

"Sorry ma'am. Never heard of him. Good luck on your search though," he said. Enyo narrowed her eyes under her glasses to determine if this man was lying and Ares told him to do so. He wasn't. Madison Square Garden was a dead end. Enyo cursed silently and crossed Madison Square Garden off her list. She thought Ares had remembered this place and how he had come here to see Chicago. Only Aphrodite, Eris and herself knew about his secret liking to Chicago (it was one of Aphrodite's favorite things about Ares...other than the obvious things) and thought that this fact was enough info to get himself found. Enyo then went to the next place on her list, the Hollywood Bowl.

Enyo arrived at the Hollywood Bowl within literal seconds of leaving New York. Unlike Madison Square Garden, this place looked pretty empty. Not wanting to be a security guard again, Enyo simply made herself invisible to mortal eyes and began to walk around. This place held yet more memories except this time, they just included herself and Ares. They had come here to see shock rocker Alice Cooper in 1972. Enyo just now realized that most of her favorite concert memories were between the years of 1970 and the early 2000s. You know, the era of good music...minus Bon Jovi and Pink Floyd of course. Ares had once made a comment about Pink Floyd that greatly annoyed Apollo, who either was a fan or one of the members was a child of his. Who cares, the band still sucked. Ares had been beyond baffled at the critical response to "The Wall." He thought it was just pretentious nonsense and just filled with useless noise. He was also beyond confused as to how the band was able to release the same songs over and over again. Apollo made a bet with him that The Wall would win best album at the Grammys that year. Surprisingly, Ares won that bet (he may or may not have cheated and goaded the judges to pick the debut album of Christopher Cross instead because Aphrodite liked that artist's song called "Sailing") and he made Apollo intervene and cause Pink Floyd's popularity to decline significantly in the following years after The Wall. Enyo smiled to herself as she remembered watching the 1980 Grammys and how Ares had rubbed Christopher Cross's win in Apollo's face for the next week or so. Ares would change the lyrics to "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" or "Saling" to words mocking Pink Floyd. That went on for a while before Zeus forced Ares to stop after Apollo complained to him like a wimp. As for her memory of this Alice Cooper concert, it was just when the musician's song "School's Out" became a big hit. She and Ares wanted to see what the big deal with this guy was and decided to attend this concert in the summer of '72. It turned out to be one wild night. There was an incident that involved dropping paper panties from a helicopter with Alice Cooper's newest LP wrapped in them. However, due to strong winds (most likely due to Zeus being a jerk because of something he thought Ares did) the panties ended up in yards of surrounding homes. Ares and Enyo thought the incident was absolutely hilarious and came back to Olympus basically in tears. The search for Ares here was pretty much the same as it was in New York, nothing. Enyo even tried a few different names Ares might have used but the mortals were unable to help. Enyo thought about killing a few of them for being unhelpful but decided against it. Her next stop in Red Rocks turned out to be a dead end as well.

"By the gods, he really thought this one through. Think E, where else did he go? I could try Phoenix. Might run into Clarisse. Ares said she's attending college there. Worth a shot" Enyo said to herself as she teleported to Phoenix.

Enyo was more successful in this city. Assistance came to her almost at once. A young woman with bright blue hair approached her on the sidewalk. Enyo thought this woman looked a lot like her but with blue hair. Could she be a daughter of hers? Probably not. She can't recall falling in love with a man in her Greek form for quite some time.

"Hey! Ma'am! Are you lost? Looking for someone?" the woman asked her. Enyo nodded and began to answer but the woman cut her off.

"Your brother's that guy Richter? Over at the Ak-Chin right? Big muscular German guy, usually wears sunglasses? I'm sorry, do you speak English?" she asked. Enyo perked up at this. This woman apparently knew Ares's alias and potentially his location. Enyo decided to play along and spoke in her own passable German accent. She too had spent some time in Germany during Oktoberfest.

"Wait...you've been to Oktoberfest before?" Ares interrupted again. Enyo smirked rather deviously.

"Remember that one bar maiden that chugged like 15 beers in a row?" Enyo asked.

"Oh yeah! She was HOT!" Ares said smiling.

"You do know that was me right? You must have had some high powered beer goggles on to not notice it was me. Remember how hard Aphrodite laughed at you later?" Enyo said. She smirked and folded her arms. Ares looked horrified.

"Thanks, I hate it. Keep talking while I try not to hurl all over the place" Ares said. Enyo continued her tale.

"Ja, that's me. I'm Monika," Enyo said. Hopefully Ares didn't give them her real name. That'd most likely be a dead giveaway if this girl knew about Greek Mythology. The woman seemed to agree with her which was a good sign...or the mist. Whichever was fine with Enyo.

"Cool! He's mentioned you a few times. My girlfriend and I rescued him from a crash and got him some help at the local hospital. We also spoke with him a few times while he was working security for my brother. We got some info about your family out of him. He said you were one of the few people that liked him back home along with his sons and their mother, his long time girlfriend. He also mentioned that he was fleeing from his dad after he blamed him for something he didn't do. What was that if you don't mind me asking?" she said. Enyo's heart was beating rather fast now. This story added up. According to Thanatos, Ares had been hiding out here for the past few months working security. Enyo wondered if this woman knew where Ares went.

"He blamed Richter for an altercation. He was completely innocent but Richter is a bit of a hot head sometimes and got a bit carried away. His friends and I have been looking for him for the past few months. He went completely off the grid. Hasn't spoken to me in 6 months. Do you know where he is now?" Enyo asked hopefully. The woman looked puzzled.

"I saw him heading out of town due north one day really early. The strangest thing is that my brother had no idea who Richter was even though he worked security for 6 months. I haven't seen him since then," the woman said. Enyo frowned.

"Do you possibly know any other major cities he could have gone to? Perhaps any with a large concert venue? Perhaps he took a new job," Enyo asked her.

"I mean, Hollywood Bowl in CA, Red Rocks in CO and the Greek Theatre in CA are the ones that I can think of...oh wait! There's one in Washington too. I think it's called the Gorge Amphitheatre or something. Greg took me to Ozzfest one time. It was great!" the woman said. Enyo nodded appreciatively.

"Thanks. I'll be sure to check out those locations as well," Enyo turned and walked off as she heard the woman greet someone named "Sophie." Of the 4 places Enyo was given, she had already been to 2 of them and they were both dead ends. The Greek Theatre sounded a little too obvious but she marked it on her list of venues anyway along with Gorge Amphitheatre. That last one sounded very familiar. Ozzfest did too. As Enyo was racking her memory for information, a college student ran into her. Enyo stopped the woman from falling over only to realize who it was almost immediately.

"Good evening, Clarisse," Enyo said, imitating Hannibal Lecter. Clarisse recoiled slightly at the sight of her war god aunt.

"Enyo?! What are you doing here," she asked.

"Looking for your father. Have you not heard?"

"What? No. I mean, I saw him at a Disturbed concert a few days ago disguised as a security guard but he didn't talk to me. What happened?" Clarisse said. Enyo quickly explained Ares's actions.

"Wow, so Zeus blamed him for what's going on in Athens? He didn't do it right? Cause he threatens to level Athens every five minutes" Clarisse said.

"NO I DO NOT! IT'S ABOUT EVERY CENTURY! That little...I'm gonna dunk her head in the toilet for saying that! Actually, I might do that anyway. Sounds fun," Ares interrupted yet again. Enyo laughed and continued.

"Ares is 100% innocent. We may know who the real culprit is. It's a good thing I found you. He values you very much and I don't want you to go take on this giant in Greece. He is very dangerous. Stay here," Enyo ordered. Clarisse nodded.

"Believe me, I'm pretty much done with questing at this point. Nice seeing you Enyo but I gotta get to class. I'm most likely going to be late," she said and walked off. Enyo watched her round the corner and out of sight. Enyo then went back to trying to find the connection between Ozzfest and the Gorge Amphitheatre. She does recall going to that location in, what, the 90s? That sounded right. If she were to guess an exact timeframe, it would have to be the summer of 1999. Yeah, that sounded right. It was the first time Ozzfest was held at that location to a crowd of about 20k fans. Enyo had wanted to see that up and coming band Slipknot who would be performing there as well and Ares has always liked Ozzy and Black Sabbath. Slayer played that year too and they quickly became one of Ares's favorite bands. He often blared their songs from his phone whenever Apollo or Athena wouldn't shut up. So, you know, all the time. Enyo stopped in her tracks when her mind landed on the subject of Ares's phone.

"Wait a second…" she said to herself and pulled out her own phone. She opened Ares's last message to her which was the cryptic code that read "71899-GA-Ozf-RK." She stared at it for a few seconds before quickly teleporting back to her bedroom on Olympus. She walked over to her closet and pulled out a chest containing all the ticket stubs and merchandise she had collected from all the concerts she and Ares attended. She rifled through it for a few minutes, moving aside guitar picks, pins and various T-Shirts before she found what she was looking for. A ticket stub for Ozzfest dated July 18th 1999 at the Gorge Amphitheatre. Her eyes widened with excitement as she looked from the ticket stub to Ares's message.

"July 18th 1999. 7, 18, 99! GA must be Gorge Amphitheatre and Ozf is clearly Ozzfest! YES! I'VE GOT YOU NOW! What's RK though...wait, that girl told me his name is Richter, the K must be the last name. I figure that out when I get there," Enyo said to herself excitedly before she teleported to George, WA. The home of the Gorge Amphitheatre.

She arrived outside the venue pretty much right at the beginning of an event. Lines and lines of fans were there to see...a country concert? What was the Greek God of War doing working a country concert? No time to question that now. Enyo disguised herself and made her way inside the security office. She noticed a staff roster pinned on the wall with the various staff members' posts for the evening. Enyo scanned the line-up and quickly located someone named "Kreigsmeister, Richter" slated to work the front entrance alongside someone named "Petersen, Domenic."

"Yeah! I like that guy! He's got a tattoo of me on his right shoulder!" Ares said quickly as Enyo continued.

Enyo looked out the window and she nearly screamed. There he was. Leaning up against the wall. He was standing next to a shorter guy with curly brown hair, glasses and a chin goatee wearing jeans and a Batman t-shirt under his security button down. Enyo thought the other guy looked rather handsome but he was not who she was here for. Ares himself looked a tad different at this distance but Enyo could still tell it was him by his expression of apathy/irritation and how he was standing with his arms folded. He did the same thing when he was presented with the statue of himself and Leonidas back at his fortress. Enyo had to stop herself from charging towards Ares and either hugging him or putting him through the wall. Instead she decided to keep a low profile and follow him home after the concert. She wasn't going to go inside and endure the same country song over and over for 2 hours. She was going to hear it anyway as this place was an outdoor venue. Enyo amused herself for the following 2 hours watching Ares listen to what she hoped was his own music. The curly haired dude next to Ares looked equally as annoyed and Enyo thought she had heard him say something like

"Oh good! I wonder what this country song is going to be about! My guess is America or some girl!" and then "A gift y'all. I have a GIFT!" when Enyo heard a song about America begin to play from the stage. Enyo decided that she liked this guy almost as much as Eris but again, that's not why she was here. Once or twice she saw Ares look to where she was standing and frown slightly as if he recognized her. She had made herself invisible to mortal eyes but since Ares was a former Olympian, he may have seen her through the mist. Each time he shook his head and went back to looking at his phone. After the concert she discreetly followed Ares back to his apparent hiding place. A decent sized condo on the outskirts of the city. She was so excited to finally see him that she nearly ran into a pizza delivery guy who was getting back to his car. Enyo knocked on the door a few times and stood there with her arms crossed. The door opened moments later and Ares spoke in a German accent to her.

"I'm sorry, did I confuse the bills again. American money can be confu-" he stopped abruptly when he got a good look as to who was standing there. He even dropped the German accent.

"Oh boy, I've got some explaining to do, don't I?" he said.

"Yes, big brother. Yes you do," Enyo said before she raised her fist and punched him in the face.

Enyo finished her tale as Ares rubbed the place where he had been punched about an hour ago.

"So, it looks like I completely forgot to erase Carla and her girlfriend's memories of me. And she tipped you off as to where I was?" Ares asked.

"Essentially yeah. She sort of kickstarted the gears in my head," Enyo responded.

"Yeah, all one of them," Ares said, smirking at her. Enyo went to hit him in the face again but this time Ares blocked the strike.

"So, what exactly is the plan now?" Ares asked her. Enyo shugged.
"I got nothing right now. I could do with a night off though. We can start thinking in the morning. What's this movie you're watching? Looks bloody and violent. AWESOME!" Enyo said pointing at the TV. Ares looked from her to the TV with a puzzled look on his face.

"That's odd...don't mortal electronics go haywire when gods are around them?" At that exact moment, the TV exploded in a shower of sparks.

"Ahh...there it is. Whatever, not important. We can watch it on Olympus later." Ares said and got up off the couch. He disappeared for a few minutes and in the meantime Enyo looked around his living room. She noticed the game consoles nearby. Ah, he must be honing his skills at video games so he can try and beat me in Olympus vs Egypt, Enyo thought to herself as Ares reappeared with a blanket and an extra pillow. He threw them at her and they landed on her lap.

"Take the couch, it's comfy. I'll be upstairs," he said and turned towards the stairs.

"Ares, I swear if I wake up tomorrow and you're gone, I'm going to go crazy," Enyo said, her blue fiery eyes blazing behind her sunglasses.

"I swear on the River Styx that I won't leave you this time," he said with a smile and climbed the stairs. Enyo couldn't help herself, she grinned too.