Disclaimer: I don't own Class of the Titans or any works by the Brothers Grimm. It would certainly be nifty if I did, though.
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The Leader, The Model and The Brain
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Once upon a time, there were three boys. They met each other in high school and, along with four other friends, were put in charge of defending the world as we know it from an escaped figure from the pages of Greek mythology. Jay, Neil and Odie put their respective talents to use and battled evil vigilantly. They even managed to maintain decent grades and thus, by the time they graduated, were guaranteed a spot in any major university they desired. Neil's luck, they were pretty sure, had nothing to do with it.
Having been together for so long, the three were reluctant to part ways with each other, and the rest of their heroic group. Evil had yet to be completely vanquished, although it seemed that the Titan Chronus had faded out of sight, and nearly out of mind. It was Theresa, planning to accept a scholarship to one of the top schools in the United States, who reasoned that maybe their long-time enemy had finally given up and moved on. She suggested they do the same, as they each had futures to pursue. Futures, she argued, that would be hindered rather than helped if they all stuck together in one big clump.
So it was that Theresa moved off to the States, as did Herry, on an athletic scholarship himself. Atlanta found her own path as a conservation advocate in a small town facing problems with pollution. Archie, harboring a crush that would not release its hold on him even after so long, made sure to enroll in a college nearby the hunter. He planned to conveniently bump into her sometime, and maybe finally work up the courage to express himself. His only hope was that Atlanta would hear him out instead of accusing him of being a stalker and running. He would never catch her if she ran.
As for Jay, Odie and Neil, well, they weren't quite ready to move on. Instead, they invested in a shared loft apartment in a city that appealed to all three of them. Neil was able to find a contract with a top modeling agency while Odie found work at a technological institute. Jay opted for a proper university education, but dabbled in sailing lessons on the side. All in all, they were satisfied.
Part of their shared residence agreement was the division of menial tasks, so that everyone was responsible for some crucial, if tiresome, chore. Odie was in charge of laundry. Twice a week he would bundle together their dirty clothes and sheets and make a trip to the local Laundromat, sitting and whiling away the time on his laptop. Jay ran errands, from getting groceries and mailing letters, to picking up copies of Neil's pictures from the drug store and renting movies on the weekends. The model, then, had run of the domestic side of things. It was his job to wash dishes and keep the apartment looking neat, tidy and stylish. He typically spent an hour each day dusting.
This arrangement worked out fine for the boys in the beginning. Each was happy to do his part, and things ran smoothly. That is, until one day. Neil, after a hard day's work looking beautiful, returned to the apartment to find virtually everything coated in a fine white film. Apparently Jay and Odie had decided to try their hand at making muffins, a fact Neil soon learned after entering the kitchen to find the two culprits as white as everything else. They smiled and shrugged sheepishly, shuffling off to clean themselves up. The blonde, then, was stuck with cleaning everything else.
"Now wait just a minute," he said, marching after the pair. "I'm not going to clean up all of this when I had nothing to do with it. Besides," he added, "I'm tired."
Odie tried – and failed – to look properly chastised and serious. "But Neil, it's your job to keep the apartment clean and tidy. I didn't make Jay do his laundry when he spilled coffee all over himself, looking at the ladies." He chuckled and then sneezed.
"Hey, someone bumped my arm." Jay's head poked out of the bathroom. His forehead was still a stripe of white, but the rest of his face was looking decidedly more human. "Anyway, I'm with Odie on this. You chose cleaning duty when we picked jobs."
Neil frowned. "Because I don't have a car and I can't risk being seen at something so common as a Laundromat." He jabbed a finger in the direction of Jay's nose. "If you would lend me your car, I could easily do the errands on my way home from work. It's not like the campus is that far away."
"Fine, if it will make you happy, Neil, we'll switch jobs." The descendent of Jason cast a sidelong glance at Odie. "You and me, too. I always thought you got off too easy with the laundry. It's only a twice a week job."
Odie shrugged. "Okay. Dusting's a piece of cake."
The blonde grinned. "Great. So you'll get right on cleaning up your mess." He raised a hand to clap Odie soundly on the shoulder, eyed the flour, and thought better of it.
At first, this arrangement suited them quite well. Neil was able to grab things on his way home, Jay merrily washed their clothes between classes, and Odie dusted the house as he waited for various movies and .mp3s to download. But the fates are fickle mistresses, and they soon felt the need to interfere.
Perhaps it was a case of Neil's luck being stretched too thin, or maybe the image of Jay whistling innocently as he walked the few blocks to the apartment, laundry neatly folded, was too tempting. Regardless, it wasn't long before Chronus reappeared, ready to take full advantage of the split heroes.
Jay was the first. It could be argued that the Titan had a long standing grudge against him, the age-old hero against villain standoff that he finally had a chance to rectify. To Chronus, however, it was merely a case of convenient coincidence. While out searching, the god happened across the merry Jay, heading toward the Laundromat. Chronus silently fell into step behind him, waiting, watching for his time to strike.
As he observed the leader, Chronus was struck with morbid inspiration. It wouldn't do to simply use his scythe to cut Jay down, not after so long a struggle. For his vengeance to be truly sweet, Jay's end had to be almost ironic. Perfect, in a way. His chance came as the descendent of Jason was loading wet clothes into the dryer. It was an oversized model, perfect for doing a heavy load of sheets and towels all at once, instead of splitting them amidst several machines.
As Jay shoved a mass of damp flannel into the dryer, he felt to hands press against his lower back and shove. Hard. With a muffled yelp, the hero found himself roughly crammed inside with his laundry. The door slammed shut behind him with an ominous clang. He struggled to get his feet against the small circle window but his legs were trapped up against the side, useless.
"I'm almost sorry to see you go, Jay," Chronus' muted voice gloated. "But then again, you always have been a thorn in my side." The leader heard the clinking sound of change being fed into the dryer. "Don't worry. You'll have plenty of company soon enough." And the god pushed the start button.
With a metallic hum, the dryer spun to life. Warm air blasted Jay on all sides as he tumbled painfully about the cylinder. It wasn't long before the metal heated up, scorching his clothes and exposed skin with a hiss. He found it hard to breathe. His head was spinning and his vision was spotted with dots from what glimpses of the window he could get. Before he finally passed out, never to wake up, Jay screamed. It was barely heard over the sound of the machine.
"One down," Chronus said smugly once the dryer had finished its cycle. He deftly reached in, unbothered by the body, and fished out Jay's wallet. Inside, slightly singed, was his license. On it was his address.
Odie never saw it coming. He was busily swiffering the top of a bookcase when he heard the doorbell ring. His sweater caught on the edge of one of the shelves as he hopped off the chair. The objects on the structure jiggled, and Jay's sword, mounted for sentimental value, clattered off its perch. Cursing mildly, Odie made a mental note to fix it as soon as he'd seen to whatever salesman or census person was at the door. If only he head been that lucky.
Chronus wasted no time in pushing his way inside the neat apartment. "Hello, Odie," he said cheerfully. "Sorry to barge in like this, but seeing as the prophecy is broken, I wanted to take care of business as quickly as possible. Running a world will be tough enough without you and your friends bothering me."
"What?" was the only intelligent reply the thinker could produce. He was quick to back away, drawing both himself and the Titan deeper inside. When he reached the living room, Odie stopped. There was no where else he could go.
"Any suggestions on how I should kill you?" Chronus asked. "Something preferably ironic would be lovely, if you wouldn't mind." The god pressed closer and the descendent of Odysseus shied away.
Odie's mind was completely blank. No cunning plan of escape offered itself to him, and he was not nearly as proficient with weapons or conventional fighting as the others. His PMR tazer was in his bedroom, no help to him now. He backed toward the bookcase uneasily, like a cornered rat.
"Nevermind, I think I've figured something out." The Titan lunged forward suddenly, causing Odie to jump back in alarm. He felt a sharp pain lance through him even as a groan of pain left his lips. "You really ought to be more careful where you leave things," Chronus chided, reaching to take Odie's shoulders and press him back even farther.
The pain cut deeper and Odie yelled. Blood dribbled past his lips feebly as if in answer to his shout. He glanced down at the tip of Jay's xiphos, which protruded from his chest, from what he guessed was between two of his ribs. As Chronus let go, the hero crumpled to the floor. The sword thumped dully against the other shelves of the bookcase, and Odie moaned in pain. More blood trickled from his mouth, and with it, his life.
"Next?" Chronus mused, glancing about the room. He stalked quickly through the apartment, noting the rooms of Jay and Odie for their decorating styles and technology, for the latter. The third room, however, caused him to pause. A large vanity mirror occupied nearly a third of the space. "Ah, I see. This will take a different touch." He snapped and stepped through the portal that appeared.
Neil sighed and stretched as he left the classy high-rise building of the modeling agency where he held his contract. He had had a rough day of primping and posing, and one of the interns had failed to get him the bagel he asked for. The blonde pulled out his trademark mirror and along with it his errand list. After making sure his image was still perfection, Neil hopped into Jay's car and sped off to get his chore done. By the look of things, there wasn't much to do.
His final stop was at a pawn shop where Odie had put a hold on some equipment he would no doubt use to make some trendy gadget or other. As he emerged from the store, his eyes lit on a small park across the street. It was quiet except for a softly murmuring fountain in the middle, and just the thing he needed. A rest certainly wouldn't hurt him, he figured, and who deserved it more than him? As he skirted traffic and entered the park, he noticed that the fountain had attracted other company, namely three comely young girls.
"Hello, ladies," he called, walking over. "Do you mind if I join you for a bit? I've had a long day."
They eyed him appraisingly and nodded. One giggled, hiding her smile coyly behind her hand. Neil seated himself in a clear spot between them, glancing only fleetingly at his reflection in the water. The urge to glorify himself rose strongly and he couldn't help but boast of his career.
"Ooh," one of them breathed adoringly. "Can we have your autograph?"
He nodded graciously and then paused. "I left my photos in the car," he said, standing. "Just let me go grab them and then you can have as many as you want." Neil flashed them a winning smile.
But this had the opposite effect. "You're leaving?" they chorused. "But we thought you liked us!"
"You're nice and all, certainly." A distinct feeling of dread was working its way into the back of his mind. "But I'm not really interested in a relationship. At least, not right now."
The two closest to him latched onto his arms. "But you will, in time," one of them said sweetly. She drew him back, stepping into the fountain. As she sunk up to her neck, Neil was jerked roughly backward. He barely managed to keep his balance. When the other one dropped into the water, however, he was sunk.
The two pulled him under, kissing him with cold lips and tearing at his wet clothing. They drifted deep, the shimmering light of air and freedom slowly growing smaller and smaller until it vanished completely. A trail of softly breaking bubbles was the only mark he had ever been there. The girls left no trace.
Chronus emerged from a copse of bushes, grinning. He nodded to the third woman, who bobbed with her head above water. "Thank you, ladies. He's yours to keep and do with as you will." The god shrugged. "Personally, I would kill him, since he'll love no one other than himself."
She nodded fleetingly and then disappeared beneath the surface. If Chronus looked hard enough, he might have thought the water had a distinct, if slight, pink tinge to it.
And so the three boys were no more, swallowed up into the pages of history just as their ancestors had before them. Their friends, Theresa and Archie, Atlanta and Herry, continued innocently with their lives until Chronus appeared for each of them in turn. Theresa's intuition had been wrong. The Titan was out of sight, but they had never left his mind. Not until they were out of sight forever.
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So, what brought this on you ask? Well, I kind wanted to write something a tad on the dark side (namely with death) and I figured this would be the best way to go about it. The story is based on The Bird, The Mouse, and The Sausage by the Grimm Brothers, with Jay as the Mouse, Odie as the Sausage and Neil as the Bird. Chronus is meant to be the dog, but he pokes his nose in other places, too. Also, there's a bit of subtle mythology involved. Jay dies in a Tantalus-inspired way, Odie as Ajax the Greater, and Neil as Hylas.