Thanks for the reviews. You guys rock. Now, for some pure goodness named Atlanta! Last chap before...typical Greek shit strikes. Not ominous at all, I promise! (whistles)

Here we go.

Cute Girls and Dark Clouds

The trip to Mount Pelion was surprisingly peaceful.

As I promised to Dusa, I used shadow gate, one of the applications I made with my shadow which allowed...passengers into my domain.

While my shadow is a dimensional space that acts as a storage/portal via particle decomposition and reconstruction, it is much harder to transport living organisms with complex structures.

That changed when I managed to create a 'singularity point' in my dimension like a bubble with positive internal pressure, something my father described as 'Imaginary Space Diving' which was complete esoteric mumbo-jumbo to me despite his best efforts to explain, either than the fact it had something to do with 'quantum space energy being squared to be minus energy X due to equilibrium'...but I digress.

Sometimes, even I don't know what's going through my own head, much less the gods.

Anyway, Atlanta acted the way she always did when she met with something new. She clung to my arm with her eyes wide and unblinking in awe, her mouth open in a wide 'O'.

It was really cute in a childish way, and I made sure to exaggerate the shadow travel a little with meaningless streaks of silver and gold while also extending the time needed to open the portal just for some dramatic effect. She loved every bit of it.

By the time we stepped out from the other side across the narrow sea, she was practically looking at me as if she had found God. She was just so adorable I couldn't help but pull her cheeks and pet her ears.

The bite marks were totally worth it.

I was almost disappointed when we stepped out of my shadow gate with no hassle whatsoever, and I was half-prepared to meet some sadistic homosexual pedophile god...since it's, well, Greece. Though to my pleasant surprise, my fears were unwarranted.

Nothing happened as we went on our merry way. I spent my time talking and joking with Atlanta while we sat on her mother bear's back.

Her mother bear's back proved to be a very comfortable one since we both drifted into a deep sleep within an hour after being rocked back and forth to the steady rhythm of her steps.

Only a minute seemed to have passed when Atlanta was shaking my shoulder with her small hands, her voice filled with excitement.

"Wake up, Korecres! We've reached Mount Pelion!"

I leaped up into the air and smoothly transited into a front flip, landing on the ground on my knees with a dramatic flourish.

"After you, princess Atlanta."

Atlanta blushed, giggling as a small girl should, she tentatively reached out to the hand I held up into the air as I helped her off her mother's back with a playful smirk. Her mother rolled her eyes, yawned, and promptly laid on her back.

Wait, did an overweight bear with more honey than brain cells just roll her eyes at me?

As if sensing my more than offensive thoughts, the she-bear huffed at me with a glare. Atlanta rolled her eyes and smacked my shoulder. I gasped and clutched my chest as if mortally wounded.

"So young and my sister is already rebellious! What did I do to deserve this plight!?"

Atlanta ground her head into my abdomen and simply replied in a muffled voice.

"By being a big dummy."

"..."

Shit, is this what it feels like to get a cardiac arrest from sheer cuteness?

I swore to the gods at this moment that I will personally skin the motherfucker who tries to cheat a footrace with Aphrodite's golden apples. I'll show him some fucking apples alright.

Scratch that, I will personally shoot out his balls. A castrated suitor is a good suitor, after all.

Want my (adopted) sister's hand in marriage? You fucking wish, Hippomenes.

I stroked Atlanta's head with a content smile. All was good.

If only I could forget the reason why I came to this god-forbidden mountain...

Hera gazed down through the eyes of a raven perched in the trees from her throne on Olympus.

She had been following Korecres from the second he set foot onto the face of the earth, and today was no exception.

"So...you've reached Pelion in one piece. A shame...I did mention to Poseidon that Medusa might try to cross his sea. Ah, no matter."

Hera lifted one delicate finger and traced it across the sky in a seemingly random pattern. Something, black, smoky, and slimy slithered from the small gaps of her fingers, coalescing into a single large drop of tar-like liquid.

She lifted the suspended drop of liquid in front of her eyes as if inspecting it and then nodded in satisfaction.

"Yes, this shall do nicely. Oh, Korecres, you devious little worm. You sought to weasel your way out of this trial by attempting a non-violent approach, I'm sure. A shame that I have...other measures."

With a dainty flick of her wrist, she sent the drop of liquid down into the mortal realm, and straight into the bowl of an unsuspecting demigod mongrel of Zeus.

"O' tainted thou shall be, a drop of pure insanity induced by a fit of wild rage shall be thine meal, and may only the death of Korecres set thine corruption free."

The words of a goddess held monumental weight on their own, more so a Queen of Olympus. Her words were law, and her spite was poison. In this case, it only bolstered her already unstoppable curse.

"This way, I can kill both birds...no, both filthy vermins with one stone. Either way, it would be a marvelous sight to behold!"

Yes indeed, if Alcides were to lose all restraint and kill Korecres, Persephone would kill or condemn Alcides for all eternity. If Korecres, by some small miracle were to kill Alcides instead in self-defense, Zeus would be forced to step in and punish him, if not for love, but for pride.

No matter how it turned out, both demigods were going to pay a hefty price for their actions, and all she needed to do were to sit back, relax, and enjoy the slaughter that shall commence.

"Suffer, you worthless abominations.", the queen hissed out. "Suffer!"

Unknown even to her, a small tear slid down her cheek and evaporated in the mist down below.

"Suffer...", she whispered.

Like a mantra, like a prayer, the queen repeated the words over and over again.

"Suffer."

Hera doing her job of breaking the bonds between the brothers belonging to an already dysfunctional family. What could possibly go wrong?

Korecres and Alcides are now in a really tight spot. Atlanta is adorable. I hope nothing hurts her...surely Mount Pelion is safe enough. Surely. 100% without a doubt. Yeah...

Pls review! It helps a lot!

X-kalibuuuur, over and out.