welcome to the next chapter of my newest 'Class of the Titans' fanfiction, 'The Warrior of the Friend Zone and the Oblivious Huntress'. I know that it's a bit early for this frequent of an update, but I couldn't really help myself. I had this fanfiction lying in wait for the longest time on my desktop computer, and after the same number of chapters as there are on the Greek heroes' descendants' team of seven total, I'm finally ready to let this fanfiction of mine fly free on the Internet, specifically on this very website. I may or may not put this up somewhere else on the Internet for other people's eyes to enjoy, but you never know.
disclamation: I do not own the 'Class of the Titans' series in any way, shape, or form whatsoever. in fact, I don't even own this fanfiction's storyline, itself. this is merely just the bits and pieces of storyline from the original series, with a few comments from yours truly disguised as author's notes in a few of the later chapters coming up in the future. I feel like such a plagiarist for this very fanfiction, itself. anyway, the 'Class of the Titans' show, itself, and all of its storyline belong to Teletoon, Nelvana, and Studio B Productions from none other than my country's neighbors from the north, Canada.
For the next half hour, Odie sat down at his computer desk and just stared at the PC. He also flipped through the channels that were on being broadcast from it.
Voice on Odie's PC: Our top story, tonight; those stunning rings around our planet. Still no scientific explanation as to why the asteroid explosion has_
Odie clicked his remote.
Voice on Odie's PC: They're beautiful, just beautiful.
Odie clicked his remote again.
Voice on Odie's PC: It's bad luck, an evil omen. _all doomed.
Then, Odie switched off the screen's dialogue and finally began to speak with his own voice and explain just what the rings around the planet's atmosphere were doing to it.
Odie: The rings are causing interference with the radio and satellite signals all over the world.
Theresa was the only one to comment on Odie's analysis of the rings.
Theresa: A pain in the planet's butt, Odie, but not exactly doomsday.
Odie had his own response to the other redhead's comment.
Odie: But, here's the kicker; according to the atomic clock, sunrise was one-point-three seconds late this morning.
Jay was just shocked about what Odie had told the rest of us.
Jay: What?! The rings are effecting time?
Odie: Not just that, Jay. Watch.
Then, Odie played the potential results of that mess.
Odie: The rings are speeding counter to the Earth, slowing the planet's rotation. The atmospheric disturbance will cause earthquakes, hurricanes, global disasters.
I was hoping not, but somehow I just knew that what Odie had told us was ironically the good news.
Yours Truly: OK, so what's the bad news?
Odie: I was getting to that.
With that, Odie played a video of an example of what would happen.
Odie (continued): If the Earth's rotation suddenly stops, everything will shear from the surface of the Earth due to the conservation of momentum.
We all got pretty freaked out by it. I wanted nothing except to retract my question about the bad news.
Yours Truly: I'm sorry I asked.
Later at school, Jay met with his own mentor, Hera, the queen of the Olympic gods and the wife of Zeus. Theresa, Atlanta and I joined him while meeting with her. Speaking of Zeus, where exactly was the king of the gods?
I had to say, however, that Hera seemed to have a real thing for birds, peacocks to be more specific. She even had one on her desk that she seemed to be petting.
Hera, the queen of the gods: Cronus has caught us by surprise, but I am aware of the danger. And remember what the Oracle said; seven young heroes would stand in his way.
I, for one, did not even believe in Oracles of any kind, but then came the incident with the Typhus just the night before this meeting with the queen of the gods. If I was wrong about Greek mythology being just that, I began to wonder just what else I could have possibly been wrong about that was turning out to be real against my beliefs.
Jay had his own input on what his mentor said about Cronus and the Oracle.
Jay: But, there are still only six of us. Cronus is about to tear the world apart at the seams, and I don't think he's gonna wait for all of us to show up for school.
Hera, the queen of the gods: Neither will we. Since Neil hasn't arrived on his own, you'll have to go and find him.
Theresa: Will one more make that much difference? Is Neil some kind of invincible warrior?
Hera, the queen of the gods: Hmm, not exactly, but Neil does have qualities that are… unique, and he will make you seven. But, as you said, Jay, you don't have much time to find him. Start with his mentor, Miss Aphrodite.
Did I hear Hera right? Did the queen of the gods just say that Aphrodite was this other guy's mentor? Maybe, I had my Greek mythology mixed up if Aphrodite was this Neil's mentor.
Atlanta: The goddess of love and beauty?
Judging by Atlanta's reaction, it sounded like I was right about Aphrodite, after all. Of course, I also had my own input on why the goddess of love and beauty would mentor anyone like the rest of us.
Yours Truly: What kinda warrior are we looking for?
Jay: Let's just look into Aphrodite's input anyway. Come on, Archie… and Theresa and Atlanta.
Admittingly, I understood Jay's eagerness to meet Aphrodite since I was a teenage boy, myself, but Theresa and Atlanta were a bit reluctant to let us go there alone.
Upon arriving at her door, Jay was just about ready to knock on it, but Theresa beat him to the punch. We could basically hear Aphrodite's voice on the other side.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty: Oh, visitors. I love visitors.
A few seconds later, she gave us permission to enter her room.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty: Come in, come in. Feel the love.
And boy, did we feel the love, alright. That was to say that Jay and I did anyway, because Aphrodite, true to her title as the goddess of love and beauty, was just breathtakingly gorgeous.
I think that Atlanta and Theresa, however, were just a bit jealous of mine and Jay's attention being on Aphrodite and how unbelievably hot she was. Atlanta just looked away from me, while Theresa elbowed Jay's side. He began to talk, but I could barely hear what he had to say to the goddess. I could hardly even hear her response, but it sounded a lot like she mentioned this Neil guy that was supposed to be part of our team of seven. After a few words between the goddess and Theresa which I almost understood, she mentioned the Oracle. I could not help but respond to that part.
Yours Truly: The Oracle. Oh, great idea, Miss Aphrodite.
Jay had something to say about it, too.
Jay: Yeah, thanks for all your help.
Theresa said a few things before pulling on Jay's ear.
Jay: OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!
At least, Atlanta only pulled me along by my torso.
Atlanta: Come on, Archie! We better go with them.
Yours Truly: Goodbye, Miss Aphrodite. Gotta save the world and such.
Before we knew it, we were all speeding away from New Olympia High School in Theresa's car instead of Herry's truck. Of course, I was still thinking about Miss Aphrodite, and I think Atlanta was still jealous and kinda peeved about having to sit between me and Herry in Theresa's classy, but crammed car.
Atlanta: Next time your daddy buys you a new car, Theresa, could you ask for something a little roomier?
Herry: We coulda used my truck, but someone stole it.
Atlanta sounded like she did not want to be anywhere near me, and Herry sounded kinda vengeful about his truck supposedly getting stolen.
That was when Jay noticed a bald man near a newspaper stand.
Jay: There he is. That's the Oracle.
That guy was the Oracle? He did not look all that capable of predicting the future. Then again, what would I have known about this mission of ours?
Upon arriving at his newspaper stand, we all stepped out of Theresa's car and approached the Oracle as he began speaking to us.
Oracle: Ah. I knew, sooner or later, you would come to see me.
Well, I'll be. The old, bald guy really did have the power to see into the future. I guess he was the Oracle, after all.
Jay: That's an encouraging sign for an Oracle.
Judging by his reaction, Jay apparently thought so, too.
Jay (continued): Listen, can you tell us where to find Neil?
The Oracle did not answer Jay's question, though… not with words, anyway. We all saw him looking towards a bus going past the street, with a picture on the side of it which featured a blonde, shirtless guy wearing nothing but his pants. He also had earbuds in his ears along with the wiring that came with them.
I, for one, did not get why the Oracle was pointing us in that direction. Was Neil on the bus or was he the guy in the picture? What did a male model have to do with any of…?
Oh. OH! I suddenly understood where this Neil was, what he looked like, and most of all, what he did for a living. He was the model in the photograph on the side of the bus, and, I assume, so did everyone else.
Herry: That's Neil? He's a model?
Judging by what he said, Herry did not get it, either. Of course, none of us got what having a guy like Neil on our team was even about. How could a male model possibly help prevent the end of the world?
Well, I, for one, had no qualms with making a little bit of fun of this Neil guy's profession and changing him from the model for these photoshoots of his to the butt of our little personal joke.
Yours Truly: Hey, maybe he's a super model.
Herry laughed at my joke. Atlanta immediately joined in, having finally forgotten all about me getting worked up over Neil's mentor, Aphrodite.
Atlanta: With superpowers like stunning good looks or a killer smile.
We all began laughing at our Atlanta's end of hers and my personal joke about Neil's profession. Then, the Oracle spoke to us once again.
Oracle: So… do you have any difficult questions that you might actually need an Oracle for?
Theresa was the only one to answer him, but she answered the Oracle with a question of her own.
Theresa: Yes. Where's Neil?
The Oracle then grabbed onto Theresa's right hand and pulled her towards him, only to take his sunglasses off and reveal his eyes as soon as he began giving her an answer.
Oracle: You don't need me to find him.
The Oracle's eyes were so full of light that they almost looked like holy, angelic lights.
Oracle (continued): The ability is within you.
Judging by the fact that she instantly let go of his hand and went back to the rest of us shortly after he said this to her, I guess that answer from the Oracle was directed solely towards Theresa for one reason or another. It could have had something to do with whatever possible role she had on our little team of heroes.
That was when the Oracle pulled his sunglasses back over his eyes, only to finally stop beating around the bush and begin giving his answer to the rest of us, too.
Oracle (continued): But if you must know where he is this minute, try the trainyard.
The trainyard? What kind of modeling photoshoot sets itself up in a trainyard? We arrived at the trainyard at which we had been told we would find Neil, but it looked as though this time, Cronus had finally decided that he had to join his minions on his own search for our seventh teammate if he wanted the tables to turn in his favor.
Cronus' giants had totaled Neil's camera crew, but Neil thought Cronus was just an overeager fan of his.
Luckily for Neil, we had arrived on the scene just before Cronus could kill him.
Jay: Cronus!
Theresa: And there's Neil.
Neil: I-I thought this was a closed set.
From the looks of it all, the only thing this Neil guy was concerned about was his modeling career. That was when he took off his sunglasses and took out a hand mirror. Just what was it with this guy and his looks?
Neil (continued): Well, I gotta make time for fans that are that dedicated.
The blonde continued inspecting himself in his hand mirror, while Cronus and all of us grew confused about it.
Cronus, the god of time and space: I'll let my bodyguards take care of them. We have more important things to do.
That was when Cronus grabbed Neil by the shoulder and pulled him away, causing him to effectively drop his hand mirror.
We had to go after him, of course, but there was something in our way… three somethings to be exact. Jay pulled out his gravitational blade to fight one of those somethings, but Cronus' head giant made quick work of our leader and hurled him onto one of the train rails, hard, practically enough to knock him out cold. If Jay had this much trouble with one giant, how would the rest of us fair against the other two?
Herry decided to take that wager and flung a barrel of oil at one of them, only for the giant to fling the oil barrel right back at Herry… and Theresa, who was standing right next to him. The oil barrel just missed the both of them and landed on the door of a stationary train on one of the yard's sets of tracks. The barrel still left a dent on the door, though, it was flung with such velocity at Herry and Theresa.
Theresa: Uh, tell you what? Let's not play catch with this guy!
The other redhead sounded really mad with the strong guy on our team. Herry only smiled apologetically at Theresa in response.
Then, the giant that hurled Jay hard onto that one set of tracks even tried to end him by sending a hand car at him while he was still recovering from what looked like a concussion of some kind. Atlanta ran towards him, worried for his life.
Atlanta: Jay, look out!
She sped forward to rescue him and made it just in time. I did not know what got into me after that, but I just could not help but stare at Atlanta pull off such a fast, yet stylish rescue. It looked just like pure perfection in the form of speed. She truly did possess the same speed as a cheetah whenever she ran.
I was so concentrated on Atlanta's fearless rescue of our leader that I almost did not notice another one of Cronus' giants appear from behind me. He probably could have knocked me out cold on the spot had he not chuckled about it loud enough for me to hear him.
I turned around to face Cronus' giant, but once I had turned to face the monster, I was suddenly a bit scared. I chose to not let the intimidating size of this giant from Cronus' squad of minions get under my skin, though. I had to be as brave against this awful creature as Atlanta was about rescuing Jay from the oncoming hand car.
Yours Truly: You're too big to play with trains.
Upon hearing my comment about what they were doing in the train yard, however, Cronus' giant got mad with me and tried to crush me under its fist. I got out of its way, though, with a backflip.
Meanwhile, Atlanta triple-teamed Cronus' head giant with Theresa and Jay, and they finally stood enough of a chance against it even to knock it out upon backing it into a coal deposit train car with the help of Atlanta's own bolas tying around its ankles. Herry had his own input about the triple team attack on the lead giant. He was a bit bitter about it, though.
Herry: Not bad. If only we had a whole train.
As much as I hated the strong guy for being overly critical of an attack that worked perfectly when Atlanta unleashed her weapon on the giant, I had to agree with him about it. A whole train would help us snuff out both of the other giants.
Theresa then noticed an entire train within their line of sight just a few feet away; caboose, engine, the works.
Theresa: One train comin' up. Get the giants to the middle of the roundhouse.
Herry tried to stop her, but just agreed to whatever plan the other redhead had cooked up.
Herry: Right! Sure! No problem!
I had also heard what she had in mind to stop the giants, and I saw no reason not to help with it. When the giant I was fighting against tried once again to attack me, I jumped out of its way before it could smash me and landed right on the back of its neck. It put up a struggle, but I just held on and even used my Hephaestus whip on it to get to go towards the roundhouse where Theresa wanted the giants.
The other remaining giant had Jay, Herry and Atlanta cornered. That was when I came in with their giant's brother or whatever and ran them into one another. Luckily for me, the rest of the team got out of the way in time.
Once the two giants connected with one another, I quickly jumped off of the one I rode on to get it to the roundhouse. They landed atop of their brother just as the head giant tried to get out from under all of the coal. Then, things went from bad to worse for Cronus' minions. The train Theresa had mentioned in her idea came rushing in towards the giants and totaled them, along with the train, itself.
Theresa approached the rest of us, wondering if she overdid it a little. Of course, I was suddenly intimidated by Theresa, but Herry did nothing but praise it.
Herry: Nice train wreck, Theresa.
Then, we all heard a voice congratulating all of us. It was Jay.
Jay: Great work, guys.
But then, our fearless leader began looking around like he was looking for something.
Jay (continued): Where's Cronus? Where's Neil?
I did not believe it. I just could not believe it. How could any one of us have been stupid enough to forget that we still had to get Neil away from Cronus and back to New Olympia High School along with the rest of our ragtag team?
That was when Jay noticed something on the ground. It was the mirror that Neil had dropped when Cronus pulled him away from us.
Yours Truly: A mirror?
I had noticed his hand mirror before now, but I had still managed to act surprised. I was at least surprised by the fact that it was a three-sided hand mirror. Just what was that even about? I still asked about it, anyway.
Yours Truly (continued): Are you sure Neil is the hero-type?
Jay picked Neil's hand mirror up right before saying…
Jay: He's one of us, Archie, and if we're gonna stop Cronus from destroying the planet, we need all the help we can get.
We once again looked towards the sky at the incredibly beautiful, but catastrophic and foreboding rings around our planet.
After getting back to the school, Theresa, Atlanta and I went to Miss Aphrodite' room to present what we could bring back of Neil's. The guy's hand mirror did not feel like enough, though. As nice as it was to see Miss Aphrodite again, she did begin sounding a little self-absorbed about the fact that her protégé was still missing in action.
It was not long before Jay finally joined the three of us after stopping by Hephaestus' garage with Herry to visit Odie while he spoke with Hermes and the blacksmith of the gods.
Jay: Well, we still have no leads on Neil, but at least, Herry finally found out who took his granny's truck from him.
Yours Truly: Really, now?
Atlanta: Who was the culprit?
Jay's answer to both mine and Atlanta's questions surprised us to say the very least.
Jay: It was Hephaestus, himself.
Theresa suddenly looked like she was just as shocked about Jay's answer as Atlanta and I were.
Theresa: Hephaestus stole Herry's truck?
Jay: Yeah, kinda.
Of course, I would not have such a thing happen to any of my friends, no matter who the culprit was.
Yours Truly: I don't know why Hephaestus stole Herry's truck from him, but that fix-it man better hope I never use his own whip on him. What on Earth could drive a god to steal from someone they're supposed to be helping?
Jay: Hephaestus customized Herry's truck.
That answer of Jay's threw us all for even more of a loop. Theresa was the only one not too shocked to ask further about it.
Theresa: You mean that the blacksmith of the gods stole Herry's truck just to make a few simple modifications to it?
Jay: I admit that I was confused about it myself, but at least, Herry was just too grateful for the upgrades Hephaestus gave his truck to be angry about it for too long. So, what were we talking about in here?
Atlanta: We were trying to get Aphrodite to focus on telling us why Neil is special enough to even belong on our team.
Jay: So, Miss Aphrodite, just what exactly is so special about Neil, then?
The love and beauty goddess was just examining the guy's three-sided hand mirror when she heard what Jay had said.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty: What's special about Neil? Why he's a direct descendant of Narcissus.
Theresa: Who's Narcissus?
That was just the question. Man, I know I've heard that name before… Narcissus, Narcissus.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty: Oh, oh, lovely boy, just like Neil… and then one day, he saw his own reflection in pool of water and fell in love. And from that moment, he couldn't leave his own side.
Oh, that Narcissus. That was a bit odd, because Narcissus never struck me as a real hero.
Jay: Oh, that would explain the mirror, the modeling.
Yep, it definitely explained every quality the guy had.
Theresa: So, we've pinned our hopes on a hero whose chief virtue is that he's in love with himself.
It sounded less like a virtue and more like one of the seven deadly sins from Tartarus.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty: Well, who can blame him? I'd kill to have cheek bones as good-looking as his.
That was when the goddess of love and beauty took a good look at herself in Neil's three-sided hand mirror.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty (continued): Oh, wait. I do!
Then, she began giggling up a storm. Of course, after that, I no longer considered Aphrodite to be hot.
That was when Theresa took Neil's hand mirror out of Aphrodite's hand and her eyes lit up in a way that was similar to when we all visited the Oracle along with Herry to find out where to find the vain, blonde male model. Then, she gasped after holding onto it for a bit.
Theresa: Jay, I know where he is.
I admit that I did not buy what Theresa was selling, but Jay seemed to.
Jay: You do? The Oracle said you had the power to find him. Can you lead us there?
Theresa: Absolutely.
Jay: Atta girl.
Atlanta seemed like she bought into this quality of Theresa's as much as Jay had.
Atlanta: Alright, Theresa.
Of course, I was not as enthusiastic about this adventure as the others, for another reason aside from my skepticism in these powers of Theresa's. I also was not all that eager about searching for a guy who was full of himself just enough to have an overdose of self-love. I played along, however, if only for Atlanta's sake right before letting out a rather sarcastic…
Yours Truly: YAY!
A little later back outside the school, Theresa, Jay, Atlanta and I had managed to rejoin Herry for a mission to finally bring Neil to the school.
The big, brawny guy was waiting for us in his truck.
Theresa: Thanks, Herry, but I'm pretty sure we can just walk to where Neil is.
Herry felt pretty down about what looked like our refusal to test out his newly modified truck that he actually looked really proud of.
Herry: But, guys. Hephaestus just touched up my granny's old truck. We can take that.
Theresa: No thanks, Herry. Our destination to get Neil back is actually within walking distance, give or take a few blocks.
Herry: Come on, guys. This is so unfair to my truck. The upgrades are just beggin' for me to test 'em out.
Jay: Maybe, we can take your truck next time we've got something that needs to be done about Cronus' evil plots.
Although disappointed at first, Herry suddenly saw reason in us all just taking his newly enhanced truck the next time we would have been fighting against Cronus.
Herry: Next time? OK, I can live with that.
The big strong man of our team, however, was still not quite ready to wait for next time.
Herry: So, is it the next time, yet?
I really did not know what could have gotten into me at the time, but I did know that I felt a bit irritable with Herry's childish antics for someone who could already drive a truck in the first place.
Yours Truly: Hmm, let's see; we don't have Neil with us just yet, so NO!
I approached Herry's childish behavior calmly at first right before yelling my 'no' in his ear.
Yours Truly (continued): It is so not next time, yet.
Herry: Well, geez, Archie, you didn't need to shout.
Even later, all five of us were walking amongst a crowd of screaming people, fearing for their lives, when Theresa had led the rest of us to what looked like a tower. Jay was the only one to ask her about where she led us.
Jay: You're sure this is the place?
Theresa: Yes. They're on the roof.
Upon reaching the balcony on the top floor, we actually managed to spot Neil looking at himself in a pool of water, just like that Narcissus guy from whom he was supposedly descended.
That is to say that Theresa was the first to spot Neil. She even had a thing or two to say about his personality judging by what she said after spotting him.
Theresa: Wow, this guy can't get enough of himself, and I fail to see the attraction.
That was when all five of us heard a voice seemingly from out of nowhere.
Voice: How so, Theresa?
We all looked behind us to find the pure evil god of time, himself, standing next to the wall.
Cronus, the god of time and space: He attracted all of you, didn't he? There are only six of you, Jay. The odds are still in my favor.
With those words, he took out his sickles and began to fight all five of us. While we all fought with Cronus, the less than aware Neil fell into the pool into which he spent what was most likely a good hour or two staring at his own reflection just in time for the planet to already start coming apart at the seams. Even Herry got tossed aside during the fighting, only to get right back up.
Cronus still had the upper hand over all five of us. He knocked me onto the floor of the roof and almost sent Jay falling off of the balcony. The evil god of time and space just continued to overpower every single one of us. Theresa tried to land a kick on Cronus afterwards, but our self-proclaimed black belt of a redheaded heroine was also overpowered by the evil god.
Fortunately for everyone else on our ragtag team, I had actually managed to hurt Cronus with my stainless-steel Hephaestus whip. Although it was nothing but his left ear that I had managed to slice off and it still grew back shortly afterwards, much to everyone else on our team's disturbance and disgust along with my own, it did pave the way for Neil to finally lend us a hand in stopping Cronus, albeit by accident.
Cronus, the god of time and space: It seems our little pool party's gotten out of hand.
Neil, fresh out of falling into the evil god's pool and all too confused about all of the fighting, tapped onto Cronus on the shoulder.
Neil: Hey, man, what the heck is goin' on?
Luckily, Neil interrupting Cronus' chance to take the rest of us down distracted the evil god of time and space just long enough for Atlanta to successfully fling her bolas at him and send him careening towards the edge of the balcony thanks to the drips of water from when Neil made it out of the pool and falling off the roof of his own house. Neil looked over the edge of the balcony as if he were actually desperate for Cronus, of all people, to be safe. Jay, Herry and the rest of us were all just grateful to the guy for a job well done.
Jay: Nice job, Neil!
Herry: Yeah! To be honest, we had our doubts about you.
It was true. All of us were afraid that a descendant of Narcissus like what Neil was would not have what it took to be a hero.
That was when all of our joint doubts about Neil returned upon hearing these several select words from the guy…
Neil: Are you guys crazy? You just killed my agent.
Really? That was what he thought Cronus had brought him to his place for in the first place? To become his 'agent'? Just how 'wrapped-up-in-his-own-little-world' was this guy?
Then we began hearing something from below us… right along the side of the building, to be exact. We all dared ourselves to look and almost wanted to shake in fear upon seeing Cronus climbing right back up to the roof with the use of his sickles.
Jay: Let's get outta here, quick!
Neil: What the heck is going on around here that I don't know about? I don't care who does, just one of you five had better give me an explanation about all of this and hope I buy it.
Theresa: We'll explain it to you on the way, Neil.
Neil: Oh, really now? The way to where? And, just how do you know my name?
After running away from Cronus' home building and finally making it back to the school, all five of us were able to get Neil up to speed with the news that was his own bloodline, at the very least.
Neil: So, this Narcissus, I actually remember that guy who pretended to wanna be my agent mention that name while I was with him. Huh, I never thought the guy in that black suit was referring to my ancestor when he asked if I had any connection this Narcissus he was talking about.
Theresa: That's just the thing, Neil. The 'guy' who pretended to wanna represent you wasn't really a guy, at all. He was actually Cronus, the Greek god of time and space and the father of all Olympic Gods.
Herry: And he's really, really evil.
Neil: Whoa, did not expect to hear that part. I guess I should've been a little bit more suspicious that there something wrong with him when he attacked my camera crew in the railroad yard, but I suppose I just thought he was an overzealous fan, just desperate and dedicated enough to pull that kind of stuff just for a measly autograph.
At least, Neil seemed like he took all of this with a grain of salt, more or less. We finally reached the entrance to the Greek gods' lair.
Jay: OK, Neil. This is the secret entrance where the immortal gods of Olympus live now.
Neil: A janitor's closet?
Neil was apparently not impressed with what Jay had told him since he began laughing at him for it.
Neil (continued): Oh, oh, you guys just won't quit.
That was when Jay pulled out his pendant key, if only to present a more convincing proof to Neil. The blonde guy seemed to finally buy into what we were selling to him.
Neil: Hey, cool! I've got a pendant just like that.
He pulled his out to show off to the rest of us, not realizing its significance right away.
Herry, Theresa, Atlanta, and Yours Truly: We all do!
We all presented our own pendants to Neil as proof.
Theresa: It means you're one of us.
Jay: Use it to open the door.
Neil acted like he tried to believe what we had told him, but he still sounded skeptical, anyway. Not to say that I was just as skeptical at the beginning of this whole journey as Neil is now.
Neil: Uh, OK! Here I am, using my secret pendant key.
The vain blonde still placed his pendant key in the whole on the lock to the janitor's door. Needless to say, that the key reacted to being placed upon the lock, much to Neil's surprise and confusion when the pendant key rotated in place upon being put into the lock and the door opened up by itself.
Jay led Neil into the janitor's closet, while the rest of us followed them. Theresa closed the door behind her after Herry was the last one to walk in. Herry then pulled on the string to turn on the light, and it lit the room up, alright… with the ethereal flashing of the portal to Olympus.
Neil still sounded confused as to just what was going on with him and the rest of us.
Neil: OK! Talk to me!
Jay: Just walk through the portal, and you'll get your full explanation of just what's going on.
Neil: You guys sure there's not some kind of horridly dark, depressing abyss on the other side of this light?
Theresa: We're sure!
Neil: OK, here's to hoping I don't fall into a blackhole or something.
Neil finally stepped through the portal just after closing his eyes… tightly, I might add. Once we all stepped through the portal after him, all five of us saw that Neil still had his eyes shut.
Neil: Am I still safe?
Jay: Yeah, pretty sure you're safe, Neil.
The blonde guy finally opened his eyes back up and looked around the place a bit.
A bit later, we all reentered Aphrodite's room, but Jay and I were not as happy to see her the third time as the second. We were not even close to being as happy to see the goddess of love and beauty as the two of us were the first time, especially considering she seemed just as hopelessly vain as Neil was in reality. At least, Aphrodite and Neil seemed very happy to see one another.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty: Neil! You look wonderful, darling.
Neil: I know. Thanks.
It was then that the immortal wife of Zeus approached us and commended us on finding Neil, even if he did not really seem like the heroic type.
Hera, the queen of the gods: Ah, you found the last hero. All seven together, at last, except for Odie.
Jay took his PMR out from under his belt.
Jay: I'll call him.
Meanwhile, Theresa approached Neil while he was holding Aphrodite's hands in his own.
Theresa: Uh, here. I think this is yours.
Neil let go of the goddess's hands to accept his hand mirror back from Theresa.
Neil: Hey, I've been looking for that.
Jay just called Odie from his PMR and asked him how he was doing with trying to stop the doomsday clock around the world.
Jay: Odie, any progress on your end?
Odie (over the PMR): Progress? Yeah, Jay, I've been running some more calculations. Unless we do something soon, the world is gonna rip apart in less than twenty-four hours. What about Neil? Did you bring him back?
Jay: Well, uh, yes, but I'm not sure he's the answer we were hoping for. Have a look for yourself.
Jay then held up his PMR in Neil's direction for Odie to get a look at the blonde guy, who seemed to be shining his own reflection into Jay's PMR and most likely in Odie's face through it. The brains of our little rag tag team just groaned in frustration over the guy's mirror.
Odie (over the PMR): Can you tell him that his reflection_
All of a sudden, Odie simply stopped complaining about Neil's mirror… and in mid-complaint.
Odie (over the PMR, continued): His reflection is brilliant!
Well, duh, his reflection was brilliant… brilliantly blinding, that is. Odie just continued with his explanation of his plan in regards to being inspired by Neil's reflection, for some reason.
Odie (over the PMR, continued): Jay, he is the answer.
I was just as confused as Jay about Odie's follow-up reaction to Neil's reflection causing glare in his eyes, but it was not like we exactly had much time to ask the brains of our team for any further explanation to whatever it was he had in mind.
All five of us showed Neil back to the dorm just in time to barely escape a mob of screaming people.
Jay: Well, it looks like the next time to stop Cronus has finally arrived, Herry. You might just have to resort to driving on the sidewalk, though.
Herry: Hey, as long as it finally is the next time we leave this dorm to stop Cronus, that is fine by me.
We were not in time to get away from the panicked, frantic mob just outside our front door before we left the dorm to stop Cronus, though.
Jay: The streets are jammed. I don't think driving on the sidewalk could help us, now.
Herry: Don't worry. I got four wheels, and I plan on usin' all of 'em.
On the way to our destination, Herry drove off road, alright… right past the metal railing along the side of the road and all the way down to the valley below them. As shocking as it sounded coming from me, I actually thought we were going to die from it.
Herry: So, where are we headed, Odie?
Odie was busy typing up results, but Neil was resting his elbow on Odie's shoulder at the time. It kind of disrupted his typing, and he had no other choice but to force Neil to remove his elbow from Odie's shoulder.
Odie: Do ya mind?
Then, Odie finally answered Herry's question after removing Neil's elbow.
Odie: Golden Valley.
Herry finally started driving a little more carefully once his truck that held all of us was finally away from the traffic jams of the city, and we were on our way out into the countryside to stop Cronus.
Herry: I'll get us there! What's in Golden Valley?
Odie: A solar array, one of the biggest thermal solar concentrated systems in the world. Look, the plan is simple; those rings are made up mostly of ice, and the array collects and concentrates the sun's energy. If we can reflect the energy back into space and focus in on the rings, we can melt them.
Herry: Thank goodness we have you to come up with stuff like that.
Odie: Thank Neil. He gave me the idea.
Of course, I had a thing or two to say about Odie praising Neil, which would more than likely inflate the vain blonde guy's ego even more than it already was.
Yours Truly: Neil?!
OK, so I just had one thing to say about Odie getting the idea for it from Neil, of all team members. Then just as I guessed it would, Neil's ego inflated even more than it already was. He even had his own comment about it.
Neil: I'm an inspiration to all who know me.
Judging by their joint reactions to Neil's narcissism, Atlanta and Theresa were both equally as annoyed with it as I, myself, was. Unfortunately for the three of us, there was not really any time to be annoyed with Neil's 'chief virtue', as Theresa, herself dubbed it earlier in Aphrodite's room, and what would sooner or later double as his 'biggest character flaw'. We all had to worry more about actually stopping the rings around the Earth from destroying it.
It was not long before we were just approaching the collection of solar arrays in Golden Valley when Odie had something to say about what was at stake.
Odie: Step on it, Herry! We're running out of time!
Herry was only too eager to oblige to Odie's request and put the pedal to the metal.
That was when all our efforts seemed to suddenly go to hell. Herry spotted something in his rear-view mirror.
Herry: Something… weird's coming up fast behind us.
Suddenly, what looked like a giant louse-like monster jumped in front of our path. Cronus was riding atop the beast. Oh, great! He probably transformed one of his own giant minions into that horrible thing. We did not have the time to deal with this awful creature, none of us did. We had a job to do.
Jay: Herry, stop the truck.
Herry: Are ya nuts?
I was with Herry on that little insight.
Jay: Just long enough for some of us to jump out and keep Cronus busy. You take Odie to the array. Everybody else, out, including Neil!
Of course, I did not see why Jay was asking Neil to fight in addition to himself, Theresa, Atlanta and me.
Yours Truly: Neil? What do you want Neil for?
For one reason or another, however, Neil suddenly seemed actually to agree with me about what I had asked Jay.
Neil: Yeah, what do you want Neil for?
Surprisingly, Jay had a valid response even to that question.
Jay: Because you're lucky, and right now, we need all the luck we can get.
Herry stopped his granny's old truck and all four of us got out, five if we could count on Neil. Cronus and his monster, however, still gave chase even after we got out of Herry's truck.
Yours Truly: Herry!
The creature almost managed to knock Herry's truck off the road. Had it not been for my whip of stainless-steel grabbing onto its front right leg, I was fairly certain that Herry and Odie would have wound up as louse food. Jay approached me and Theresa with a plan to completely stop Cronus and his monster.
Jay: He's got six legs, but he's unsteady. Let's use that.
Jay then drew out the sword on his gravitational blade, while Atlanta threw her bolas at the beast, incapacitating another two of its legs. The louse-like creature fell down afterwards.
Herry could see that we needed help stopping the danger. So, he just made the time to back into Cronus and his attack creature and drop them down over the highway railing into a rushing river just near Golden Valley. Jay, Theresa, Atlanta and I stared down at the river into which Cronus fell. We then heard Odie call out from Herry's truck.
Odie: Hurry up, you guys!
With the danger finally past us at last, all five of us got right back into Herry's truck. Although upon reentering the truck, we later learned that it was really just the four of us who had climbed back into it since Neil had already climbed back in not long after Cronus fell into the river, completely convinced that that really was the last we would ever see of the god of time. Yeah, right. If only it actually were as easy as that to defeat Cronus and his minions. Leave it to the new guy to expect to be an instant expert on these things right off the bat.
Upon reaching the solar array in Golden Valley, however, we were almost out of time to stop the planet from coming apart at the seams just before Odie could place the cord to control the solar panels into the largest one there.
Odie: It's happening. We've got to get rid of those rings, now!
It took a little while for this thing to even warm up, especially since daybreak was a good few seconds away.
Odie (continued): Come on.
Odie was successfully able to hack into the solar panels and reroute the sunlight of their reflections skyward as soon as dawn came. Once the rings were gone and the global disasters they would have caused if left alone had suddenly disappeared without warning, a rainbow suddenly appeared in the sky, signifying the end of this ordeal.
Well, I'll be. Neil really was the solution to our predicament, after all.
Just then, Herry ran up to Odie and hugged the African American brains of our team… almost to death, I might just add.
Herry: You did it, Odie! You are a genius.
Odie: Herry, you better close your sunroof.
Herry: Why?
Suddenly, out of nowhere, it began to drizzle down rain. Atlanta was the first one to rush out of the rain, followed by me.
Odie: That's why.
Upon getting back to the dorm, what we thought we could all relax over was interrupted by Neil and every bit of his bragging away about what he had contributed to this mission.
Neil: So sure. The rest of you are brave and strong and great fighters and everything, but in the end, it was my reflection and my good luck that saved the planet.
I was more than over this guy's bragging rights about having an insanely wealthy amount of good luck.
Yours Truly: OK, fine. You saved the planet. We're so lucky you came along.
He winked at me with a smile and a pointing gesture to match. Towards a girl, I suppose this action would have been met with swooning and catcalls, but I was a guy and into chicks.
Jay then went up to Theresa and Odie while the two of them were busy looking up at the sky, now without the shiny rings of doomsday.
Theresa: So, we're back to our plain old starry sky.
Jay: Yeah.
Maybe my hearing was off, but Jay sounded a bit downhearted with the way he said it.
Theresa: Hey, lighten up a little bit. I think we did pretty good.
Jay finally managed a chuckle from Theresa's comment.
Jay: You're right. We're a team, now.
Jay's newly lightened mood did not last long, though.
Jay (continued): But…
Theresa: But?
Jay: Cronus is still out there. Our fight with him has just begun.
Neil seemed to hear the whole conversation between the two of them just as well as I had.
Neil: WHAT?! No way! I thought we were done with fighting the psycho god of time and space.
That was when Atlanta escaped from her time with Herry and came up to Neil to give him a lecture about it.
Atlanta: Are you really that dense to the dangers still up ahead?
Neil: What? I'm pretty sure that all four of you saw him and his so-called pet fall into that river with your own eyes. If that wasn't enough proof for you, why wouldn't our fight with that sicko be over?
I finally had a reason to knock Neil's ego down a few pegs with that kind of comment from the guy.
Yours Truly: You're an idiot to think that it'd be that easy to defeat a god. We all wish it were that easy, but it's not.
Neil: Well, if he's still gonna show up in our future, when and where will he?
Jay just decided to butt in on mine and Atlanta's argument with Neil.
Jay: That's just the question, isn't it, Neil? Other than Theresa's visions of foresight along with the Oracle's, we have absolutely no way of knowing when or where Cronus will strike against us next time. The main thing is that there are now the required seven of us to fulfill the prophecy of his final defeat.
Neil: So then, we're just leaving this up to chance?
Theresa: Exactly, Neil.
Neil: I guess that my luck is reason enough for the rest of you to need me. Well, since it's my civic duty to serve the Olympian gods, I suppose I can't back out or else Cronus might just try once more to turn the world into shambles. So, I'm in.
Odie: I'm in.
Herry: I'm in.
Jay and Theresa: We're both in.
Atlanta: And I'm in.
Jay: That just leaves you, Archie.
Yours Truly: I guess I'm in, too.
We formed our own unity sign that night once we had all reached an agreement to our motivations for saving the world. It was made in the form of all of our fists joined together right in the middle of our pact.