Chapter 3
In a flash Circe appeared at the entrance of Cronus' underground lair with fire burning in her eyes. Storming through the disgruntled hall, Circe was soon confronted by the giants as they stood in front of her to deny her passage. Without a second of hesitation, Circe spread her hands releasing a shockwave that send all the giants scattering in the air like bowling pins.
Still stomping her way through lair, the hostile sorceress soon laid her eyes on her target whose attention was busy elsewhere, until she closed in.
"Ah Circe, how was…"
Cronus was cut short as Circe clutched the God of time's collar and slammed him into the nearby wall with such force that the whole cavern shook.
"You conniving little maggot!" Circe's eyes flared red.
"Am I sensing a little pent up aggression?" Cronus responded lightheartedly as he reclaimed his collar.
"You didn't say anything about this involving Odysseus."
"Details, details." Cronus said condescendingly as he walked past Circe without fear. "That are in fact irrelevant to your task."
"Not anymore!" Circe snapped strongly.
With that Circe grabbed Cronus' shoulder, forcing him to face her as she planted her open hand on his forehead. Circe managed to sneak a peek at Cronus' mind before but she knew that if she wanted everything she needed to make physical contact. In a few short seconds Circe removed her hand leaving Cronus in temporary disarray.
"So that's what this is all about." Circe scoffed dominantly. "You are afraid of a prophecy that says that you'll be put back in Tartarus by a bunch of mortals? Teenage mortals for that matter?"
Cronus glared at the woman.
"You know who they descend from and you are still bound by our agreement."
Circe's moment of dominance was cut as she recalled the current situation.
"I'll kill the other six, but I won't kill Odie."
"You agreed to seven, no less."
Circe turned away, trying to mask her weakness as she held her arms.
"Oh come on, don't tell me you are still dwelling on what happening centuries ago." Cronus' tone was ruthlessly spiteful.
His casual stroll towards her only heightened the cruel offense. Leaning over to set his lips by her ear Cronus' whispers were as cold as ice.
"Does the life of an ancient descendant of a lost love overrule the life of your own flesh and blood?"
As his words entered her ear, Circe's breathing began to heave and her eyes went pure scarlet.
"You really want to hurt me now, don't you?" Cronus mocked as he returned to his upright stance.
Circe's only desire was to slaughter the man behind her but so much stood in her way. Unable to control her anger the sorceress funneled her anger towards a distant giant as she released a blast of energy towards it. The giant disintegrated in a blaze of white fire, his cries silenced almost instantly.
"I swear Cronus; you better pray that you never fall into my hands. For if you do, you will wish you were back in Tartarus!" Circe snapped malevolently spinning around to face him.
"Instead of making inane threats at me, you really should be focusing that maniacal power towards destroying those children. After all we both know you get pleasure from bringing death and suffering to all those in your wake."
Circe could not argue.
"Now, we will have no more distractions, or else I will be forced to terminate our agreement."
Circe did not respond as she vanished before the God.
Back at New Olympia the seven teens were still regaining themselves from their previous encounter. Six of the heroes were spread throughout the lobby while Apollo was tending to Atlanta's dangerous wound.
The group remained uncomfortably quiet in the room as an unofficial battle ensued to who would be the first to break the silence. Finally Archie cracked as he sat up from the couch.
"Is it just me or was that our worst defeat we've ever had." Archie asked rhetorically as he massaged his aching neck.
"More like our only defeat we've ever had." Atlanta's voice corrected demoralized.
The group turned to the entrance as they saw their friend shuffle into the room, the bandage on her shoulder largely broadcasted. Archie immediately got up and moved up beside Atlanta trying to help her to the couch to sit. Atlanta pushed Archie away with rejection.
"I don't need your sympathy." Atlanta snapped callously.
Atlanta's embarrassment of showing weakness overruled her empathy to Archie's kind gesture.
"Yeah, I've never been slammed like that before." Herry agreed as he thought back.
"And speaking of being slammed." Neil said spitefully as he glared at Theresa. "Thanks a lot for nun-chucking my gut."
Neil lifted up his shirt and pointed to his bruise.
"This is going to take weeks to heal; now I have to cancel my swimsuit shoot!"
"Give me a break." Theresa retorted. "She looked and sounded exactly like you."
"Don't insult me; no one can imitate my perfection, you just screwed up royally." Neil snapped back.
Theresa's frowned angrily at Neil as she started towards him, but Jay stood between them.
"Enough. Now's not the time for pointing fingers or getting discouraged by what happened. What we have to do is figure out who she was and why she was after us." Jay informed.
Everyone silently agreed as they began searching their minds for any possible clues.
"Theresa, did you sense anything during the fight?" Jay asked.
Theresa shook her head.
"Let's go talk to Hera." Jay suggested as he walked towards the doorway.
The titans arrived in Hera's study to find her sitting in her usual chair, surrounded by her favorite birds as she sipped her tea.
"Miss Hera? We have to talk to you." Jay said as he approached her.
"Is something the matter?" Hera asked with concern.
"We've been better; we just got trounced in a back alley about half an hour ago." Archie answered with displeasure.
"By Cronus?" Hera inquired as she stood up.
"Not Cronus." Atlanta responded. "By someone else."
"Who?"
"We don't know, we were hoping you would." Jay replied.
"Oh, I'm sure it wasn't as bad as you make it out to be." Hera said confidently as she picked up her tea and turned to her peacocks. "Anyone other then Cronus is the least of your worries."
"Well who ever attacked us shoots fireballs from her hands, turns weapons into animals and can change to look like other people." Herry said bluntly.
The noise of Hera's teacup crashing on the floor was heard as she let go in shock.
"Circe." Hera whispered horrorstruck.
"Who?" Odie questioned.
"Circe? The Circe?" Jay said in disbelief.
Hera nodded regrettably.
"Uh, hello? Wanna fill us in?" Archie nagged.
"Circe is the world's most powerful sorceress."
"So what." Atlanta responded. "We've beaten a witch before."
"Circe was Medea's aunt; her powers are at least a hundred times greater." Jay informed.
"But that doesn't explain why she attacked us." Theresa thought out loud.
"Well, not all of us." Archie said as he glanced at Odie.
Everyone looked at Odie.
"What? I don't know why she did what she did, and I don't know why she called me Odysseus either."
"Circe called you Odysseus?" Hera asked inquisitively.
"Yeah, just before we took off."
"This explains why she did not hurt you."
"Huh?" the teens blared.
"She must have recognized your ancestry."
"Can't imagine how." Neil muttered as he rolled his eyes.
"So what?" Odie shrugged.
"Of course, Odysseus." Jay said brightly.
"Could we just get the whole story from the top please." Archie snapped irritably.
"Okay, okay." Jay said defensively as he began. "On Odysseus' journey back to Ithaca, he and his men landed on the island of Aeaea. Odysseus sent his best men to investigate the island. There they came across a castle where lions and wolves greeted them amiably as well as Circe. She offered the crew a feast, unfortunately the food was filled with magic potion that quickly turned them into pigs."
"Ew!" Neil cringed.
"Only one soldier managed to return to the ship to warn Odysseus of the dangers that awaited him if he were to go ashore. But Odysseus refused to leave his men behind, so he set out to confront the sorceress. Along the way Hermes, disguised as an old man, gave Odysseus a strand of moly so that he would not share the same fate as his men. When he arrived at the palace, Circe planned to use the same method on Odysseus. When her magic had no effect on Odysseus and he moved to attack her, Circe immediately surrendered. In good conscience, Circe returned Odysseus' men to their original form and provided them with all the comforts they could ask for, so much so that the warriors stayed on Aeaea for a year before she helped Odysseus on his journey back to Ithaca."
"And?" Odie asked curious for the rest.
"During that time Circe quickly fell madly in love with Odysseus." Hera answered.
"Is it just me or did Odysseus get all the girls." Herry said resentfully with crossed arms.
"What is moly anyway?" Neil asked.
"It's a magic herb with white blossoms."
"So this moly stuff prevented Odysseus from being affected by Circe's magic?" Theresa requested confirmation.
Hera nodded.
"No problem, we just get some moly and we take her down." Atlanta smiled confidently.
"Unfortunately it is not that simple." Hera said. "It can only be grown by the Gods, it was extremely rare back in the times of Odysseus and in this day and age it is even more scarce to find."
"Well that's just great." Neil sighed sarcastically.
There was an awkward pause of silence in the room.
"I will consult with the other Gods on this matter, but for now I think you should go back to the dorms and get some rest." Hera suggested rhetorically.
The teens got the idea as they walked out the door.
"And be careful." Hera added. "Until we know Circe's intentions, stay together."
As the heroes headed back to the dorms each was secretly keeping an intuitive eye out for anything suspicious.
"So what happened to 'Anyone other then Cronus is the least of your worries'?" Archie recalled.
"Obviously this is a lot bigger then what Hera had expected." Theresa replied.
"Speaking of which, does this even involve Cronus?" Herry suggested.
"I don't know," Jay responded. "There isn't any evidence, what do you think Odie? Odie?"
Odie wasn't listening he was to busy looking around fearfully.
"ODIE LOOK OUT! IT'S CIRCE!" Neil exclaimed as he pointed into the alley.
"AAHHH!" Odie cried out as he fell to his knees in a crouch.
Neil burst out laughing.
"What a baby." He continued.
"Neil! You got a zit on your face!" Theresa shouted.
"AHH! WHERE?" Neil squealed as he wiped out his mirror to look in anxiety.
The group couldn't hold back their laughter as Neil realized that he'd been had.
"Relax Odie, you have the least to worry about." Atlanta reminded.
"Easy for you to say, you don't have a psychotic magician having daggers for you because she had the hots for your ancestor."
"You can't really blame her." Jay said informatively.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Odie retorted as he stood back up to face Jay.
"Well, Circe really liked Odysseus."
"What makes you say that?"
"Let me put it this way, they weren't playing cards in Circe's 'flawless bed of love'." Jay said bluntly.
Odie let out a rasping cough of surprise as the others exchanged glances. Jay just shrugged and kept walking, getting a lead on the rest of the group.
After arriving at the dorms it was close onto midnight and the teens were ready to turn in for the night.
"Dibs on the bathroom." Atlanta called as soon as they were in the doorway.
"Why do you get to go first?" Herry accused.
"Cause I'm not going after Neil, it'll be morning by the time he's done."
"Oh, ha ha." Neil said sardonically.
As the group sped down the hall Jay grabbed Theresa's shoulder to hold her back.
"Theresa?"
"Yeah?"
Jay paused as he tried to process his words.
"Uh… you're not still mad at me from earlier… are you?"
Theresa had completely forgotten about what happened before.
"No, it's alright."
"Because you know that I don't think any less of you."
"Yeah, I know."
Theresa's heart was speeding up and she had no idea why. She could no longer look him in the face.
"Why does this feel so weird? I'm just talking to him. Is… is my face turning red?" Theresa's mind shouted incoherently.
Theresa's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she had a vision flash before her eyes, forcing her to clamp her eyelids shut. Instantly she wondered why it was so unexpected and indistinct, her clairvoyance had greatly improved. Her conscious thoughts were quickly silenced as she went awestruck at what she saw.
Before her eyes she say a vision of Jay approaching her, without hindering he pulled her closer and kissed her directly and the image of herself was not fighting but encouraging it his actions.
"Theresa?" Jay's voice ended the vision and brought her back to reality.
"Huh?" Theresa shook her head out of the clouds.
"You okay? Did you have a vision?"
Theresa couldn't respond, she was to overtaken by what she just witnessed. Unable to think of anything to say or do, she went improv.
"ListenJay,I'mreallytiedfakeyawnIhavetogettobednowsogoodnight." Theresa spat out in a fifth of a second before bolted down the hall to her room.
Jay just stood in the empty room scratching his head.
I have bad news and horrible news. The bad news is that Meghan Black (the voice actress of Atlanta) won't be coming back for the 2nd season. The horrible news is because she has been diagnosed with cancer in her larynx. I was so heartbroken when I heard about this and I'm sure other fans will be too.