Note: Well, look! I'm actually creatively alive! Sorry about the length of time between this and the last part. Side projects jumped into the way. Anyway, if you wish to look up the previous parts, this story is archived on a whole bunch of pages. E-mail me and I'll provide a complete list.
Disclaimer: The X-Men and affiliated people belong to Marvel. I'm using them without permission but at no profit. It's all just good clean fun. Dakota, Yankton, and Gloriam are mine.
Note part duex: This part makes this story the longest one I have out there, and it doesn't appear to be stopping any time soon.
Feedback can be sent to bkittle@creighton.edu
All-Important Dedication: This one's for Sabia.
Climb That Mountain High - Part Nine
By: Beverly McIntyre
The object of the X-Men's interrupted trip to Athens ambled around the room, snatching up the last of her tacky souvenirs. She crammed them in the already overstuffed suitcase. Grunting as she tried to hold the contents in and zip up the suitcase at the same time, Gloriam managed to keep her clothes, books and souvenirs from exploding back all over the room. Finally zipping the suitcase completely closed, she stood up and wiped her brow. Y'know, it figures that the last day of my stay would be hell in Athens.
Gloriam's chocolate-colored eyes scanned the Mediterranean-styled suite for anything she could have forgotten. Nothing remotely jumped out at her, but that didn't mean she hadn't forgotten anything. There's probably a sock hiding somewhere, mocking me. She absently reached up and rubbed the little crook in her hawkish nose as she paced around the suite. There has got to be something I'm forgetting . . .
What it was eluded her. She ticked off all she needed on coppery fingers. She remembered everything. Good God, what am I missing?
A scream and a loud crash wafted in through a partially open window. Oh, yeah. That. Athens was in chaos. After the quick circulation of the appearance of a towering Zeus on Mount Olympus, a tremor of something uncertain had rippled through Athens. The appearance of a mythological figure who had once ruled over all of Greece, sent many of the organized religions into a frenzy. But the common people were less affected by the sudden appearance. They could shift it off as another one of those "superheroes" grandstanding again. Besides, Mount Olympus was a bit far from Athens to be worrying about it. But the tremor of unease stayed under Athenian lives for a few hours before exploding into chaos.
She had fallen out of the sky like a golden comet, falling right into one of the ancient temples dedicated to her. The ground shook under Athenian feet. A camera crew doing a sound bite about the sudden appearance of Zeus nearby rushed over after gaining their feet back under them. What greeted the Athenian audiences when they focused on the front steps of the Parthenon took their collective breath away.
She had stumbled out of the ancient temple that had managed to mysteriously not be harmed by her impact. She wore a resplendently white toga underneath a molded golden breastplate. The golden greaves on her shins had an owl exquisitely etched into each. Her body was well-built and sinewy. When she looked up and the camera focused on her face, anyone who was watching was mesmerized by her pure beauty. Loose ringlets of dark hair framed a classically perfect face. Her skin had a slight olive tinge to it. But her most amazing feature was the storm-grey eyes. The eyes that seemed to hold the weight of wisdom behind her penetrating gaze.
Gloriam had been watching the emergence of Athena on a TV in a store window. For a second, all was deadly quiet in Athens, as if the rebirth of a new era had just begun. What broke the silence was a crazed scream. On the television, a man dressed only in a bed sheet draped on him like a toga appeared out of nowhere. He screeched at the top of his lungs as he pulled a knife from out of the folds of his linen toga. With a ground-eating pace, he charged at the emerged goddess. Athena straightened up as he got closer and drew herself up to her full impressive height. The man screeched the name of the God of War and lunged at her when he was close enough. Athena simply side-stepped the attack and back-handed the loon on the chin.
It was then that Gloriam wished the camera crew didn't have such an effective microphone. Anyone who was watching could hear the man's jaw shatter as he was lifted off of the ground. The camera kept morbidly on him as he flew across the courtyard and smacked head-first into an ancient pillar. His head burst open like an overripe melon, and the formerly sturdy pillar swayed on its sound base before crumbling over atop him.
Gloriam could vividly remember the look on Athena's face as the camera slowly swung back her direction. There was no remorse, no pride, only pity for a fool who would dare to take on a goddess.
Things had spiraled considerably downhill from there. The citizens of Athens, seeing their namesake walk the world once again, snapped as a collective whole. Now the streets of Athens were ruled by looters and rioters. The police had their hands full just trying to keep government officials safe. The armed forces were called in to protect the ancient buildings that had become central targets for a mob of destruction-bent Greeks. Athena had disappeared after the dust had completely settled from the toppled column.
Gloriam just wanted to get home. She didn't care about any ancient goddess returned to earth. She did care that the looters and rioters had canceled all flights in and out of Athens by over-running all public airports. Any military ones were busy scrambling units to check on the appearance of Zeus atop Mount Olympus.
Gloriam sighed. Life had just decided to get weird on her when all she wanted to do was go home to the Badlands. Of course, her actually wanting to return to the res was another sign that she was sure meant she was unhinged somewhere. Well, it's home. And probably a whole hell of a lot calmer there than it is here.
She was left to find her own means of escape. She looked over at the overloaded suitcase sitting on her unmade bed. That's just going to be a bitch to fly over the Atlantic . . . She absently played with the end of her raven-colored ponytail. She was still in the midst of indecision when she noticed something slightly odd.
Everything outside the window had gone as close to silent as it could get. She squinted out into the Mediterranean sun, across the rooftops of nearby buildings. No skyward sign of a reason for calm. She careful walked up to the window and glanced down toward the street.
There was a dark tangle of people standing in the middle of the thoroughfare, choking the bottleneck street. In front of the group stood a very poised woman in golden armor. Gloriam strained her ears to hear something, anything from down below. All she could hear was the chaos razing through the city only a few city blocks away. If there were words being exchanged, she couldn't hear them.
The woman appeared to be talking to them but was halted by an abrupt screech of "LIAR!" A rather well dressed man emerged from the group. He was tall, dark, and well bearded. He was greatly muscled under his dark blue suit. The thing Gloriam couldn't remove her eyes from, even at the distance she was presently at, was his eyes. His eyes burned and smoldered with an inhuman rage, a battlelust.
Whatever he was saying was whipping the crowd behind him into a frenzy. They started jeering the golden-armored woman as the big man talked. He pointed an accusatory finger at her and the crowd couldn't take it anymore. They surged past the large man and enveloped her in their midst. The center of the mass roiled as she fought back against the clawing and grabbing hands trying to drag her to the ground.
She's gonna get herself killed if she doesn't get herself out of there . . . Gloriam had had few moments of heroic measure in her life. There really was no need living on the res and working for her brother in-law's business. But this was a situation that she couldn't ignore and let somebody else clean up. There might not have been a large streak of valor anywhere in her body, but there was still one there.
Reaching up with a glowing hand, she unleashed a blast of energy at the window. The lance of energy met the window and passed right through it, leaving the glass and metal construction relatively unharmed. The blast continued to travel outwards and passed across the street until hitting a pigeon that had landed for a brief rest on a ledge. The pigeon was flash-fried in a matter of minutes and plopped over dead on the ledge.
It was then that Gloriam remembered why she didn't act on those altruistic impulses. She always did a fair job of botching it up. Gloriam sighed and looked over at the balcony doors. She knew she should have used those instead. Dramatics be damned.
Rushing over, Gloriam flung the doors open, threatening to tear the door well off it's hinges. She stepped out on the balcony right into a breeze bringing the scent of burning city to her nostrils. Sighing and tugging on an inner pool of energy, she lifted herself off of the balcony and hovered over the tangle of chaos. She looked down into the roiling mass and couldn't see her objective.
How do the Avengers make this look so easy? Well, one easy way to get this crowd thinned out . . . With hands crackling with red energy, Gloriam began randomly using low-powered burst to drop people on the fringes of the group into a state of unconsciousness. Rather quickly, somebody noticed their numbers dropping off slightly. There was a shout and the action paused for a moment. The mob as a whole looked up at the floating woman in the air. 'Bout time they noticed the woman floating in the air . . .
"All right, step away from the goddess. Do so and I . . . er, Kickyourbuttus, Goddess of the Bio-charge will let you go unharmed." She had no idea if they understood a word she was saying for most of what she heard people speak here was Greek to her. They had paused long enough for Athena to bat a few off of her so she could stand up straight. As soon as the dark haired goddess grew slightly out of the crowd, Gloriam swooped down toward her. The knot surged toward the goddess, but Gloriam laid a suppressive fire of bio-burst. They fell back enough for her to swing low enough to grab the goddess by the waist. She grunted slightly when lifting Athena off the ground. She may have been a goddess, but she wasn't exactly light.
"If you don't mind, child. I can handle myself."
Pulling the goddess out of the enraged mortal mob and ignoring Athena's protests, Gloriam noticed the dark suited ringleader hanging toward the back. He scowled in her direction before fading away right before her eyes. Gloriam had little time to care as bricks and various other bits of debris whizzed by. Veering upward, she sped around the corner of the building. She continued to barrel through the air, with a goddess starting to struggle against her all too mortal grip.
"Look, Athena, isn't it? Stop struggling! You may be a goddess, but I'm willing to bet you haven't been hit by bullets before."
"We have slings in my time, child."
"Yeah. I bet. But no guns unless Hephestus did something really cool outside of his mother's throne."
Athena stopped struggling, opting for the wiser move of braining this overly helpful woman when they weren't airborne. Gloriam abruptly turned around the corner to the backside of the building and veered straight up, making Athena more or less drape herself over her left shoulder. Making it halfway up the side of the building, Gloriam found a balcony with an open door. She quickly flew up and over the railing. Landing carefully, she quickly set down the goddess returned to Athens.
"Well, there you go. Gloriam's finest ferrying service." Gloriam cocked a half-smile as Athena smoothed out her toga.
"Charon could do much better."
Gloriam's smile faded at the comment and also what she heard coming out of the open door.
Oh, God. I had to pick one that had a couple in the heated throws of passion, didn't I? She let out a large sigh and looked around for another balcony nearby with an open door. All the nearby balconies looked locked up tight and she was in no shape to fly that heavy goddess anywhere. Okay, if we quickly scamper across the room and hope to whoever that they are more intent on each other than on two grown women coming in through the balcony . . .
"Okay, O Goddess of Wisdom." Gloriam reached back and grabbed the slightly warm hand of city's namesake. "Let's go."
Pulling Athena through the billowing curtains and into a room filled with moans, groans, and pants of breath. Athena stopped in her tracks.
"Oh, my . . ."
Gloriam urgently tugged Athena along. So far, the couple hadn't noticed which is to say they would soon if both of them just stood there gawking.
When they meant virgin goddess, they meant virgin goddess . . .
Longshot was in an odd situation. A minute ago, he was lounging in his comfy seat on a private jet. Now, he was plummeting away from it at a rather alarming rate. He was finding it also kind of hard to breathe with the sudden change in pressure. He had aerially maneuvered himself as best he could, so he could see where he was actually going. Smiling, he watched the pretty scenery rush up at him: the beautiful waters of the Mediterranean and the coastline of Greece sticking out at him. He wasn't unduly worried. His luck would hold out and he'd live. And he had to get Dakota's sister back home safe and sound.
He flattened himself out, giving the air more resistance to slow his descent. Just as he did this, a green blur shot right past his shoulder.
"Longshot!!" The blur kept going for a few hundred feet before abruptly stopping and shaping itself into a baffled Rogue. She looked below her then back above her.
Longshot smiled and waved as he plummeted closer to her. Rogue flew up and met him part of the way. She gripped him tightly and used her flight ability to slow him down slowly rather than turn him into paste by abruptly stopping his descent.
"There ya are, sugah," she smiled. "Plannin' on parachutin' without a parachute?"
"No. But this was kinda neat. 'Sides I knew you'd be here to catch me." Longshot looked into her eyes with all due honesty.
Rogue blushed slightly. "How about we get back up ta the jet an' help Storm an' Betts as much as we can."
"Sure." Longshot wrapped his arms around Rogue's waist to keep himself well anchored to her. Rogue, in turn, tried to keep her heart from racing too much at his touch just before Longshot cried out. "Rogue! Watch out!"
They had just started back toward the jet when something big and human-shaped rushed past them. Zeus, King of the Gods, batted the two insects out of the air. Sending the tangle of the two bodies flying a godly distance away and into his Greece while he reached for his prey.
