Chapter 21
Taking a detour through Hermes' office ended up taking a bit longer than they'd expected. As soon as the trio had joined Odie and Archie on the other side of the portal, Hephestus had come bursting into the room with the finished prototype of his dune-rider. Then it turned out that the god hadn't actually seen Harper yet and pulled the girl into a hug.
"Hi, Hephestus," Harper grunted as the god's embrace hoisted her off her feet.
The god chortled and swung her a little like a child might do with their favorite toy, before setting her down again and sizing her up. "You've been here for how long and haven't bothered contacting your old ancestor?"
"You're related to Hephestus?" Herry asked, staring between the two in bewilderment.
"Of course she is!" Hephestus said, barking out another laugh and shaking the girl's shoulders. "Her line wouldn't even be here without me! But she still forgets to stop in and say hello."
"I've been busy," she said with a guilty shrug, her face fairly pink with embarrassment as Odie and Archie joined them. "And crutches aren't the safest thing to be on in your workshop."
Hephestus let out another laugh and clapped her on the back again. "How true that is!" he announced, looking her over again. "Looks like you got off them pretty quick, though. Never could slow you up for long, could they?"
"Uh, Hephestus?" Odie interrupted as Harper opened her mouth to comment back. "We really, kinda need to get going. Iris in danger and all that."
"Right you are!" the smithy god roared, but instead he kept a firm grip on Harper's arm and gave them a smile that announced he'd made up his mind about their activities. "Don't let us keep you."
The boys blinked at them before exchanging glances at each other.
"Uhh..."
"Yeah, no worries," Harper said quickly, flashing them hurried smile. "Phest and I'll hang out in the workshop and, uh, figure out how to get Iris out of the glove."
"Huh?" Hephestus raised and eyebrow at her. "What'd that rainbow get herself into this time?"
"Plus, I'm already half way to sunburning," she continued, looking down at her exposed arms.
"I'll stay too, then," Herry offered.
"No, really, that's okay," Harper said, taking a subconscious step back even though Hephestus's grip didn't let her go far. "You-uh- you go help Teresa and Atlanta and Neil. They might need someone strong or something."
"Jay's strong," Herry said with a shrug.
"Not that strong," Archie snorted, earning him a small glare from their leader.
"Either way," Odie said loudly, "we need to get going."
Herry didn't look pleased, but followed the other boys to the new portal that opened to show the missing trio near something of a cave that jutted out of a sand-dune. With one final glance and Harper's attempt at an encouraging smile, the boys disappeared along with the scene, leaving only the sound of Hermes' high-tech system processing messages.
"Alright, c'mon," Hephestus announced, directing Harper to the door. "Let's go down to my more civilized rooms and you can tell me why little miss Technicolor is in the desert with a glove."
...:..:...
"See, now this is more my thing," Atlanta announced as the team of heroes climbed up random area of rocky hills in the desert. "So much better than sand."
"Speak for yourself," Neil groaned a good seven feet below her, examining his shoes. "My poor Clarks will never be the same again!"
"You'll live," Teresa said, rolling her eyes as she and Atlanta shared a smirk.
"Right, so, we think this is the end of the trail?" Jay asked, stepping past the girls to stare around at the top of the rocks.
"This is as far as I saw," Teresa said with a shrug as she joined him, adding a hand to her hat's visor for more shade. "Well, that and then looking up at him."
"Right," Jay said, half muttering to himself. "So... do you think you can find where he was standing?"
Odie, Teresa, and Atlanta each raised an eyebrow to look at him incredulously before exchanging glances and trooping off together to hop across the range of rocks. "Don't worry," Teresa said as she passed him. "We'll figure it out. How about you deal with whatever's wrong with Archie and Herry?"
"Yeah," Odie agreed as he and Atlanta followed her. "And Neil."
"Good luck!" was Atlanta's far too cheerful comment as she nearly bounded away.
A split-second of confusion caught him off guard, but Jay soon understood why they'd been so eager to take up his (now that he thought on it) far less than rational suggestion. A few feet away and closing in, Archie was nose-to-collar-bone with Herry and both boys looked like they were getting ready to deal punches.
"Woah, hey!" Jay shouted and tried to step between them. "What's-?"
"Take it back!" Herry growled, ignoring Jay completely.
"No," Archie snapped. "You know I'm right!"
"Right about what?" Jay tried.
"No, you're not!" Herry roared. "Take it back or, Hera help me, I'm gonna deck you one!"
"Yeah? Well, c'mon Hercules," Archie sneered. "Take your best shot!"
"Hey!" Jay shouted, forcing himself between them this time. "What's gotten into you two? Knock it off! Herry, go help Neil get up here."
"Fine," the larger boy said after another glare at Archie. "But next time, I say we bring Harper and leave Archie home."
Jay gaped after him. Seriously, what was wrong with his teammate?
"Yeah, great idea," Archie hollered after him. "Ignore your real teammate for some girl who you can trust about as far as you can throw her!"
"Archie," Jay said with a sigh. "You might be over-reacting."
"Well maybe you're under-reacting," Archie countered, though a sheepish blush came to his cheeks. "Doesn't it bother you? At all? She shows up and just happens to know exactly everything we need?"
"You're right," Jay admitted quietly before the purple haired boy could continue. "It is suspicious-really suspicious-but we can't just decide she's working for Cronus without facts. And everything she's told us so far has helped."
Archie folded his arms, scowling at their team leader, but it was hard to argue with logic.
"So, whatever is going with Herry," Jay said, glancing back to where their friend had turned to practically dragging the model up the rocky terrain. "Just... just leave it for now."
"She probably poisoned him," Archie muttered before he could stop himself.
Jay rolled his eyes and sighed. "We'll deal with it after we find Iris. Deal?"
"Yeah, deal," Archie grumbled.
"Good," Jay said, looking relieved-at least minutely.
"Hey!" Atlanta's voice rang through the air. "Huckle-buckle-beanstalk!"
Archie and Jay exchanged bemused looks of confusion as Teresa's laugh danced on the breeze towards them.
"Does that mean they found it?" Herry asked, coming up behind them with Neil hanging like a sack of potatoes under his arm.
"Can we go to the beach now?" Neil asked, looking hopeful.
...:..:...
"Wow," Archie commented, his irritation with his teammates lost for a moment as he stared down the dark hole at the new problem in front of them. "This thing looks like it'd go all the way to China."
"Considering we're near China, I think it'd probably go to Mexico," Odie pointed out as he typed away on one of his gadgets. "But, yeah, general gist."
"How far down do you think it goes?" Teresa asked, earning her sarcastic smirks from Archie and Atlanta. "I mean, in real measurements."
"Its hard to tell," Odie reported.
"Well, throw one of those Hephaestus glow sticks down there," Atlanta suggest. "At least then we'll be able to see the bottom."
"Theoretically," Odie said, folding his arms.
"It's the best shot we have," Jay said.
Sighing at the thought of losing one of his glowsticks, Odie dug deeply into his bag and cracked one of the long-lasting tubes of light. Then dropped it into the whole.
All seven teens craned their necks to watch it shrink further and further into darkness. Until, finally, a small clink sound rose to their ears. Archie let out a whistle and Odie nodded. Before turning to his bag and pulling out his laptop. "Right, then," he said absently as he typed away at the keys, looking up after a moment with raised eyebrows and a smirk. "Who's up for repelling twenty stories into a dark pit?"
...:..:...
"So... who's going over the edge and into the dark hole first?" Neil asked, peering down at what he considered to be certain doom as Odie pulled two sets of gear out of his bag.
"I'll do it," Atlanta said, shrugging when she got several wary glances. "What? It's not like this is the worst thing we've faced."
"That we know of," Jay warned, circling the pit a little as he pinched his chin in thought.
"Oh, c'mon! It's rock climbing!" Atlanta declared with a grin before lunging for the gear. "Bring it on!"
"Hey, you're not going down there alone," Archie pointed out, quickly grabbing the second set of harnesses and tethers.
Atlanta snorted. "Right, because you're totally the rock-climbing type," she said with a chuckle. "Alright! Race ya down!"
"Wait-Atlanta!" But even before Archie could lock his harness, she'd jumped into the hole.
A/N: I know, I know, FINALLY! lol I'd been trying to get it longer, honestly, for this segment. Just so I wouldn't have to continue from the desert again *sigh* Oh well. Sadly I've been working most of the day to get this anywhere near readable, but I'm currently fighting my annual season-change illness. So my brain's fuzzier than usual. Hopefully I haven't created too many errors lol
*oh yeah, studying up on the lineage of the royal family of Troy (you know, Hector and Paris and such) one side of their family was descendant from a river god the other from Hephaestus :shrug:
And of course now we start to see the effects of Aphrodite's drink...