Chapter 41

The manhole cover went shooting into the air like a flipping coin. A stream of billowing steam tumbled out of the sewers. The manhole cover came crashing back to the earth cracking the old pavement of the road up to the hydro dam and then spun on its edges as it vibrated to a halt. Atlanta laughed at the spectacle and turned to Odie to ask him to do it again. The steam just kept rising and rising, sending a great cloud into the air, a beacon. This was it the day they had trained for, the day to end everything.

"Cronus won't be able to leave that," Jay said in satisfaction, "Get ready guys." They waited, preparing themselves for the battle that was about to begin. The god of time didn't keep them waiting for long. He appeared through a portal in the middle of the potholed and buckled road running though the boreal forest.

"Why am I not surprised to find all of you here?" Cronus asked with a sigh.

"Come on Cronus, this ends now," Jay said and charged.

"Jay, Jay," the god shook his head and snapped his fingers for another black portal to appear, this one the size of a house behind him, "You didn't think I'd come all on my lonesome, did you?" Jay stopped dead in his tracks as shifting figures in the blackness came to being. Giants, lumpy and hideous, giant after giant after giant came tromping out of the portal. Jay fell back to his team, face white and stomach plummeting.

"Jay, how are we going to fight all those?" Theresa asked. There was one hundred of the beasts easily when the portal swirled closed. A mob of loin clothed cavemen dragging clubs.

"These are the Laestrygonians," Cronus said and Odie gasped.

"What?" Jay turned to him and demanded urgently.

"Odysseus ran into them on his journey back from the Trojan war," Odie gulped, "They're a tribe of… of…"

"Of man eating giants?" Cronus finished the boy's sentence and bust into a crazed laughter, like a patient in a mental institute. Heart hammering over all the other sounds of the forest and the sounds of the shifting and mumbling giants Jay looked to the faces of his teammates. Fright was manipulating all of them, but there was something else there, something deeper. Determination. They would fight tooth and nail. They would fight until they had no fight left in them. Jay looked back to Cronus and time seemed to slow, they would fight until they did what needed to be done.

"Let's put Cronus back where he belongs," Jay said as he raised his swords, and he charged.

"Attack, attack," Cronus told his army of giants, like a toddler would tell the family dog to fetch. The two opposing forces came crashing into one another, screaming and hollering. Jay sliced with his sword, giant after giant, but more just crashed in on him, a never ending sea. Theresa dodged clubs and meaty fists, striking in calculatedly with her nunchucks. Herry quickly tore one of the clubs away from a giant and started using it to smash in skulls, they dropped like flies around him. Archie and Atlanta, back to back, lashed out with their weapons, holding the wave back from crashing in around them.

"You know this would be a lot easier if I had a weapon," Neil complained, darting under a pair of giant legs just in time for the beast to bring down his club. Instead of crushing Neil it crushed the head of another giant in front of it. Even Odie was holding his own with a taser gun mounted on his shoulder. Opal stood at the back isolated from the massacre, the second she stepped into the fray, she would be dead. A giant noticed her standing off near the trees and he stomped over with a club swinging. There was only one defense she had. She poised her violin and began to play. The giant stopped and yelled in anger, it turned and grabbed for its closest comrade and sank its teeth into their shoulder. The giant screamed in pain and whipped around to beat on the assailant, smashing it into a pulp on the ground.

The heroes started to come back together. Herry stood in front a giant waiting for the beast to strike when Jay called them to fall back, the giant screamed and brought his club down with a heavy swing. Herry dodged and it smashed in the cab of his truck with the crunch of metal, sending shattering glass everywhere. In a fit of anger he screamed and swung his own club into the knee of the giant, crushing it. The beast fell to the ground with a screech. Hunching his shoulders in irritation as he took in the image of his demolished truck Herry jumped back to Jay.

The mass of giants was just too big. They had hardly made a dent in their ranks. Everyone was heaving in fatigue, hearts surging with the exertion. Adrenaline was still running to high for any injuries to really announce their presence. Blood was splattered over all of them, the paint of war decorating not only them but the landscape as well. It turned the forest floor red, ran down the road like a rain. The sights and sounds of a battle Opal had always known from movies and the like, but one thing cinema couldn't capture was the smell, the stink of coppery blood and dead bodies defecating.

"Where's Neil?" Jay asked searching the carnage.

"Jay!" was the model's high pitched scream, "Over here help." There was a giant griping his calf in a clenched fist, holding him over a hungry mouth. Jay leapt through the air towards his teammate and sliced the giant's throat. A river of crimson ran from the wound, quickly drenching the beast. It gurgled out a strangled scream and blood came spurting out of its mouth. It dropped to its knees and Jay jumped back to avoid its body as it came crashing to the ground. Neil scrambled out of the giant's now lose grip and ran to join the rest of the group.

"Jay," Cronus vaporized between the ranks, holding out a hand to halt the advance of the giants, "You look tired."

"Cronus, we will defeat you," he screamed and then turned to Odie to whisper, "We need to do it now." The boy nodded and he took Opal's wrist to run through the mass of giants. The battle resumed around them and they zigzagged through legs and around falling clubs over to Herry's truck. Opal played her violin to keep the giants away and influence them to fight one another while Odie reefed on the demented door, struggling to wedge it open. There was a horrid crunch and the heavy metal came crashing off the hinges to the ground.

"Sorry Herry," Odie muttered as he climbed into the cab and reached for this portal shifter tucked safely under the back seat. He flicked it on and pulled out his PMR to signal to Hermes they would need a portal soon.

The giant came up from the side, she hadn't seen it coming. With a quick swipe Opal's violin was out of her hand and yards away. Horrified she looked up to the Giant's gap tooted grin, plaque staining it yellow, and she screamed. It reached out a hand to grab her and she just froze, clenching her eyes shut. Odie jumped out of the truck and aimed a stream of electricity at the beast, it screamed and jolted, falling backwards with a ground shaking thud.

"Opal," Odie yelled and pointed to the instrument lying on the forest floor. She scrambled towards it, just as her outstretched fingers were about to wrap around it a wart covered foot stepped back. The violin shattered to splinters under the weight of the giant. She staggered backwards, clenching her head between her hands with Jaw hanging open as she took in the remains, a pile of splintered wood and curling strings. That was her only defense. That was what Jay's whole plan was based on, to use her music to distract the god while the rest of them forced him through Odie's portal. All of her hope was sucked out of every pour, tears sprang into her eyes and she fell to her knees.

Archie had dislocated his shoulder once, when he was young he had fell out of a tree. At seven years old the pain had been blinding. Now, as a giant smashed a club into his shoulder he recognized that pain. He screamed and held his arm awkwardly, lashing out with his uninjured side to slice at the giant with his whip. His assailant fell to the ground dead and he fell to his knees. He saw Atlanta turn to him, reach for him, he saw her lips move in the shape of his name, but her voice didn't reach him. Nothing was passing though his ears properly, it was like he was underwater.

"Archie!" he vaguely made out her voice as she dropped to her knees beside him to inspect his shoulder. She gripped his arm and with a sharp jolt pushed her hand down on his shoulder blade. The joint popped back into place and after the vision spotting pain there was a wave of relief.

"Thanks," he told her and pushed himself back to his feet to jump right back into the fray. His movements were much more labored now and Atlanta followed close behind.

Herry found that his screams became more pronounced the more exhausted he became. Every swing was accompanied with a growl of some kind. As if resonating the sound would pull up just one more ounce of energy to continue his fight, but how many times would it work? How long could he go before his body just decided for him it couldn't go on any longer? When would there be no tiny ounce of energy left?

Jay hacked left, right at the beasts that were advancing and closing in on him. His hair was plastered to his face and his neck with sweat. His muscles screaming in pain as he sung his sword. His shirt was hanging in tatters off his body, scratches oozing blood. His mind was numb with the task in front of him, pushing forward as hard as he ever had before, despite the pleas from his body to slow. Theresa stood behind him on an ankle the size of a baseball, dodging blows, but falling with each landing she made. She spared a glance over towards Herry's truck, but she couldn't see it though the mass of giant limbs swinging and grabbing. What was taking them so long? They didn't have much more time to wait.