It was nearly midnight. The members of the Starcrushers' crew were getting tired, having been attacking the wizard world for nearly 12 hours now.
"Commander, when are the gods supposed to arrive? We cannot keep this up much longer. The crew is getting tired." Ninety said.
Commander Forthwith picked up the phone and dialed 'G' for 'gods' and wired into Mercury, the Queen Goddess's personal assistant.
"Mercury," Forthwith said, "we have launched the attack and the wizard world is scrambling to assemble their forces. When is the backup you promised going to arrive? My men are all getting tired."
"You have done well, Commander Forthwith," Mercury said on the other end, "the backup is on its way. Odin, Jupiter, Zeus, Poseidon, Thor, Isis, Mars, and Loki will be there by midnight."
"Mercury, I don't know how time works in the fourth dimension, but here in New York, midnight is in five minutes." Commander Forthwith said.
"Exactly." Mercury said, and hung up.
Sure enough, five minutes later, at the stroke of midnight, a battalion of gods came pouring over the horizon toward New York, ready to continue the attack on the wizard world.
"By gum, they came through after all!" said Forty-One, looking up from his monitor, purple bags visible under his eyes.
"They did indeed." said Commander Forthwith, "Half of you may turn in for the night. The other half, you may break into the energy supplements we keep hidden away until it's your turn to sleep."
Commander Forthwith then picked up the phone and made a call.
"Mercury," he asked, "this is Commander Forthwith once again. The gods have arrived as you promised. I am requesting permission to go on standby and orbit the city and hover above the clouds for the night."
"Permission granted, Commander Forthwith." Mercury replied.
"Thank you. Goodnight." Forthwith said, and then hung up and directed the remaining crew to go into standby for the night while the gods continued fighting.
As this was going on, the Wizard Council was holding an emergency meeting.
"Okay, so Golorgi's pushin' daisies, which means I'm in charge now." Said Ben Henry BenZoltar, Gologri's appointed successor. He was a portly man with a large appetite and a voice about as pleasant to listen to as a dental drill. "So, my first plan of action: Find out what the hell is going on here and why these spacemen and now gods are attacking us for seemingly no reason—"
Suddenly the phone rang.
"Hello," he asked, picking it up, "Wizard Councilman, Ben Henry BenZoltar speaking."
"Councilman BenZoltar," said the voice of Mercury on the other end, "this is Mercury speaking on behalf of the Queen Goddess."
"Why can't she speak for herself?" BenZoltar shot at Mercury.
"Because the sheer awesome celestial power of her voice would fry the phone lines, that's why." Mercury shot back. "Anyway, we know that you are wondering why we've launched our attack on you."
"Yeah, that was puzzling us a bit…" BenZoltar said sarcastically.
"The Queen Goddess is sick and tired of the way you wizards abuse your powers and run your society." Mercury said sternly. "You willingly break apart your own families with your whole 'one-per-family' policy, you segregate by forbidding exogamy, you treat non-human magical creatures as beneath you, and when she sent the great young prophet Stevie Nichols to usher in social reform, you let her be petrified and then shattered, killing her."
"B-b-b-b-but she was sent to an island for soul-rehabilitation!" BenZoltar stuttered in a panic.
"Don't even attempt to lie, BenZoltar," said Mercury, "we gods see everything. And guess what else: gods don't like when people kill their prophets." And with that, Mercury hung up.
BenZoltar sat there, a terrified look on his face as he now realized the full gravity of the situation.
"Well, sir," asked one official, "what is it?"
"Remember Stevie Nichols?" BenZoltar said, all the pride and haughtiness drained from his voice.
"The rebel who threatened the social status quo a few years ago?" asked the official.
"What about her?" asked another official.
"Turns out she was a prophet, and the gods are really mad at us for letting her get killed…" BenZoltar said.
You could have heard a pin drop the room became so silent.