Chapter 22
"Huh."
Archie stopped in his downward movement, bumping into the wall a little as he fought to keep purchase. Maybe five feet below him, Atlanta had stopped too. The redhead was looking around the cavern with a look that seemed lost in thought.
"What's up?" he called to her.
She looked up, but she might as well have been several miles away for all the vacancy in her expression. It quickly faded, though, and she smirked and pointed past his shoulder. "That way," she answered. "But we're supposed to be heading down."
The purple-haired teen groaned and rolled his eyes as she chortled, but he'd walked into that one.
"But," she continued, looking downward again. "I think we have a problem."
"And that is?" Archie asked, repelling down another hop to her side.
"We're out of rope."
" ," Archie drawled slowly. "So, now what do we do?"
Atlanta shrugged, looking back towards the glow stick. "Jump?"
"You're joking right?" Archie asked with a laugh of disbelief.
"Well it's not like we have alot of options," Atlanta pointed out as she started fishing around in her pockets. A moment later she'd produced a small booklet of sticky notes.
"We've got another... what? Twenty feet left to go?" Archie commented. "Guess we're coming back later."
"Oh don't be such a wimp," Atlanta scoffed, smiling in a way that bespoke trouble as she pulled out her communicator. "We just have to improvise."
"You're joking, right?" Archie asked flatly, even though he already knew the question was pointless.
"Hey, Jay?" Atlanta called into the device.
Instantly the teen's face appeared on the small screen. "Yeah?"
"We're gonna have to be inventive," she warned him.
Jay frowned. "How inventive?"
Atlanta looked up towards the wonky circle of sky above them, then down towards the glow stick. "When I say so, cut my rope."
"What?!" both Archie and Jay yelped.
She let out a disgusted sigh. "Boys are such babies," she muttered, pinching her nose before turning her attention back to the screen. "We'll be fine! Besides, if Cronus dropped her in here, then he's probably planning something bigger, right?"
"Or he's luring us into a trap," Archie pointed out. "We probably shouldn't be going down here in the first place."
"Thank you, Jonny Raincloud," Atlanta quipped. "Either way, we're half-way there!"
"But at least that first half wouldn't have killed us," Archie pointed out.
"Seriously, Jay, if we don't do this, then we might not be ready for whatever Cronus is planning," Atlanta reasoned. "We don't have the time to find another choice."
"I don't like it," Jay informed her after a moment. "But you're right."
"Score!" Atlanta cheered, grinning broadly though Archie looked like he wanted to take up the dispute again.
"So what are we doing?" Jay asked, sounding a little tired.
"Give me a sec and I'll let you know," Atlanta advised, then moved to grab hold of Archie's line. "Alright," she said to him, flashing a smile that usually hinted at a dangerous idea. "Let's see if this actually works!"
It took a moment or two, but soon the redhead had managed to hook her own harness onto Archie's line, transferring her weight to the taught rope before she began. She worked quickly to tie the ends of the rope together, using a double fisherman's knot first and then an overhand knot for good measure.
"You think it'll hold us?" Archie asked, looking at the knot skeptically.
"Hope so," Atlanta said with a shrug. "Otherwise this might be a one-way trip."
"Thanks for that image," he muttered.
"Oh shut up," she scoffed, wrinkling her nose at him, then turned back to her communicator. "Alright, Jay! Let 'er go!"
"You're sure?"
"Jay!"
He grumbled a bit, but there were other voices that chattered on behind him and soon Teresa was the one who shouted back to them as her former rope went slack. "Look out below!"
The rope narrowly missed them as its end swung above the glove, basking strangely in the light of the glowstick.
Taking a deep breath, Atlanta readjusted her equipment and lowered herself onto the new extension. It was a little nerve-wracking, but she'd be lying if she said that the adrenalin didn't make her smile.
"See?" she said, smiling up at Archie.
Archie rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Just get moving so we can get out of here."
Chuckling, Atlanta continued moving. It didn't take long for the duo to scoot further down the bound ropes towards the glow stick, and soon they could actually make out the shape of what looked like a tawny work glove.
"Kinda clashes with Cronus's style, don't ya think?" Atlanta commented with a snort.
"Makes you wonder why he got it in the first place," Archie grumbled. "Why put her in a glove? And what's all that around it?"
Atlanta glanced back down at the strange shimmering substance on three sides of the glove and glow stick. "Dunno," she admitted with a frown. "Water, maybe?"
This time Archie was the one who let out an incredulous snort. "Well at least it landed on the rock."
"Seriously," Atlanta agreed. "Otherwise I'd hope that Odie brought a fishing pole."
Archie hummed in agreement, but his gaze was taken with the strange way the darkness moved around the rock ledge. "I don't think it's water."
"What else could it be?" Atlanta scoffed, but she looked down too.
Something was definitely off about that... fluid below them. Frowning, Archie pulled out another glowstick from his belt, cracked it, and let it fall.
It landed with a strange splat that assured the teens it definitely wasn't a firm substance below. But as they watched, the light was slowly covered in what looked like dark bubbles.
"Oh, grosse!" Atlanta yelped, holding more securely to the line. "Leaches!"
If there was anything she really could say she was squeamish about, it'd be leaches. Just the thought of those slimy little blood-suckers made her cringe.
"Maybe we should've asked Odie for a fishing pole," Archie mumbled as he stared down.
"What do we do?" Atlanta demanded. "We can't leave without the glove!"
"Yeah, I know," Archie acknowledged, already calculating what he'd have to do. "I'm working on it."
It took a moment of strange maneuvering, but soon enough he'd pulled his whip free from his belt.
"What are you doing? Doesn't that just cut things up?" Atlanta asked, eying the weapon skeptically.
"Generally," Archie admitted as he adjusted the instrument Ares had given him on the day of joining the team. "But it's got a grabbing claw on the end. It can work kinda like a grappling hook or grabber claw... if I can get it to work right..."
Atlanta raised an eyebrow at him, clearly waiting to see it before she believed it, then looked back down at the problem below them. "Well you better figure it out quick," she advised him. "Those things are aiming for Iris."
He muttered a response, but was too busy adjusting the settings to actually focus on conversation. With a victorious grunt, he pulled the cord longer and started flicking it like a fishing line towards the glove.
It was like a carnival game, with every toss of the whip Archie's heart would somersault. It took seven tries, along with Atlanta's continual shouts of the encroaching leeches, for the hooks to latch onto the glove.
"Yes!" he hissed.
"Great," Atlanta cheered. "Now pull her up and let's get out of here!"
Archie nodded, already retracting the long metal cord and luring the glove upward.
She met his gaze to smile when Archie tucked the glove into his hoodie's pocket. But Atlanta gaze went back down as they started to climb. She couldn't hold back at least some of her scream. It was bad enough that those slimy little... things had created a pool down below, but now-they were climbing the cavern walls!
"Archie! Move!" She demanded.
"Working on it," was his grumbled response, though he did seem to propel himself faster up the rope.
It definitely helped create some distance, but Atlanta was soon pulling out her communicator anyway. "Guys!" she called into the blue electronic box. "Start pulling us up!"
"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of 'rock climbing'?" Neil responded, and Atlanta could see him making air quotation marks behind Jay's shoulder.
"Neil!" She snapped, struggling as she tried to climb the rope and hold the device at the same time.
"What's happening?" Jay asked.
"Really fast moving leach things," Archie shouted before Atlanta could.
"And they're gaining on us," Atlanta agreed.
"They're what?" Teresa yelped as Jay, with a nod, ducked off screen.
"Really fast, grosse things," Atlanta responded, glancing towards the closest rock face. Nothing was on level with her yet, but they weren't more than a couple yards lower!
The rope lurched, making both teens scramble to hold on tighter as they began to rise from the dark hole thanks to their teammates. And, though they'd known it had taken a while to get down there, it seemed to be taking forever to get to a point where they could see without a glow stick. Even with their urgent climbing coupled with their friends' effort. But a few minutes after that, they could see the sky and hear their friends' effort to pull the line.
Almost not soon enough, Archie and Atlanta flung themselves onto the fantastically warm sand.
"Oh my god!" Teresa gasped, looking into the hole. "What-what is that?!"
"No species of leach I've ever seen," Odie muttered by her side, frowning as the living shimmer stayed just beyond the light.
"Did you get the glove?" Jay asked, kneeling next to Archie and Atlanta.
"Yeah," Archie breathed, sitting up. It took him a minute to maneuver, but he managed to pull the glove free by just the handle of the whip. "I don't know if I recommend touching it, but... She's in there somehow... I think."
"Right," Jay said slowly, looking the glove over as he took the device from his teammate's grip. He glanced towards Odie, hoping for the intelligent teen's input, but the shorter boy was fiddling furiously with his electronics with a frown on his face. Never a good sign. "Well, then," he continued, pulling his attention back to the glove, "let's get her back to Olympus. Maybe Hera knows how to get her free."
...:..:...
The flash of light and whizzing noise that assaulted them was almost as welcome as the air conditioned room that followed, but neither compared to the cushions Hermes had kindly left on what few benches were in the room. With groans of relief, the teens dropped onto the pillows to rest. Though, Neil turned every which way for a few minutes, still admiring himself in the surface of one of the opal they'd brought back with them.
"I doubt it will be long before Cronus figures out we got her out of the pit," Jay announced, pinching his chin as he thought. "Maybe a day, tops. We should really-."
"Relax," Neil drawled, relaxing against the cushions while he swung the opal around to see himself better. "We got Iris back. All we have to do is convince her to come back out of the glove so she can take the blue wha-cha-ma-call-it and Kronus won't take over the world. No big!"
Atlanta and Teresa exchanged glances before rolling their eyes. Odie, though, shared a glance with Jay. "Uh, yeah, well I've gotta go," Odie said, adjusting his glasses. "To-uh-check the results of some tests I was running. Catch you guys later!"
"Yeah, and I'll take Iris over to Hera," Jay offered, quickly taking the glove from Archie. "She'll probably know how to get Iris out of it."
Without another word, the two teens practically bolted from the room, leaving their teammates to rest in confusion on the cushions. Neither aware of Archie's suspicious frown.
"What happened?" Jay asked lowly as he and Odie sped through the opulent marble halls.
Odie glanced at him for a moment, clearly not enjoying that he'd been called out, but he sighed and tried to keep up their pace. "The alarms," he explained. "The ones around the stone, something set them off. But..."
"But?" Jay prompted, frowning.
"It-something's not right," Odie relented, shaking his head.
"Not right how?" Jay demanded, pulling his teammate to a halt.
Odie shook his head again and tugged his arm free. "I... I don't know yet," he said, his brown eyes already calculating behind his glasses. "Look, I'll talk to you after I check, okay?"
"Right," Jay agreed, his frown deepening, but he looked down to the foreign weapon in his hand. "I'll talk with Hera. We'll meet at your room in twenty minutes."
The shorter boy gave Jay a lopsided smirk as he nodded. Jay nodded back before Odie turned to sprint the rest of the way to the portal back to the moral world. He stared at the shimmering doorway for a moment before looking down at what he held again. Sighing, he adjusted his hold, gripping the glove firmly in his hand rather than the handle of Archie's whip.
But that had been a mistake.
Jay had barely made it three steps closer to the door of Hera's atrium when it happened. Instantaneous flashes filled his vision, replacing the world around him with... well... silent movies was probably the best way to describe it. Short clips of action passed in front of his eyes.
He could see a girl with a strange sheen to her, much like the glove had, glaring at Cronus. That same girl being hit by an attack. Cronus holding the glove as it gave off a bright glow. The pit they'd found her in. The team going to the rescue, which he had to admit was strange even if it only lasted for a few seconds.
The next scene, though, he hadn't been expecting. He saw... Harper. Looking over her shoulder, back at their dorm building. Next came a portal leading to some field of ruins. Followed by a large blue stone passing from a smaller hand to a larger one. Then Cronus was holding the stone up as he-.
"Jay! Wake up!"
A sharp sting on his cheek sent Jay curling quickly to his side in an attempt to get to his feet, tripping a little as he wondered how he'd ended up on the floor in the first place, to find Archie kneeling next to him.
The purple haired teen eyed Jay with mild relief and wariness as he got to his feet, too. "You okay?"
Jay gave a shaky nod, leaning back against the wall as his eyes searched the ground. The glove was lying a few feet away, as though it had been kicked there. And, judging by the strange ache in his fingers, it probably had been. Realizing what that meant, Jay sighed. "So that's what Teresa goes through, huh?" he muttered, giving a little huff of a laugh. "Believe me, she can have it."
"Wha-You saw visions?" Archie croaked, his eyes going wide.
Again Jay nodded, but he was definitely regaining a grip on his whits and moved to pick up the glove again-though this time he was sure to grip only the whip handle instead of the fabric itself. "I think," he said slowly, holding the glove at arm's length, "it might be her way of communicating."
Folding his arms, Archie raised an eyebrow. "What? How do you figure that?"
"Because Iris doesn't speak."
The teens jumped to attention and spun to face the goddess as Hera joined them in the hall. She was carrying a small potted flower that she must have gotten water for, as far as either boy could tell, but she eyed them with interest. "She relays messages as visions," the goddess explained. "Sometimes with sound, but most often they are just displaced images. Now, am I correct in thinking that this means you've found her?"
"Uh, more or less," Archie said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as Jay held the glove forward.
Hera's eyebrows rose up her forehead as she stared between the boys and the strange prison they held. She frowned as she took the glove from them, returning the weapon to its rightful owner as she examined Iris's predicament.
"She's tired out now," Hera commented, her frown deepening before she looked to Jay. "What'd she tell you?"
The teen shrugged under the gaze of both the goddess and his teammate. "Basically that Cronus kidnapped her so that we'd get her," he said. "And... so he'd get the Blue Chalcedony."
"Well that was a dumb move," Archie scoffed. "He can't get in here, let alone into Hera's room."
Hera looked to Jay with a raised eyebrow. "Indeed," she commented. "Well, now that we have Iris back, I believe it's safe to say that there is very little chance of him getting to use it. Well done, to all of you." She turned to leave, but paused to look back with a smile that seemed to hold a different meaning behind it. "Perhaps you should all enjoy the rest of your vacation. Maybe spend time as a team."
"Right, uh, yeah," Jay answered awkwardly. "Yeah, we'll... we'll do that."
The goddess nodded and continued on her way, but Jay couldn't help feeling tense. The visions were bothering him, had Iris been trying to warn him?
"So," Archie drawled, looking at him curiously. "I'll tell the girls, Herry, and Neil we're allowed a vacation?"
"Uh, yeah," Jay said quickly. "Yeah, sounds good. I'll go grab Odie."
Archie nodded, jogging off back to where they'd left their teammates. Jay quickly made his way to follow the route Odie had taken earlier. If nothing else, he had a few questions and only the genius of their team could answer them.
A/N: Wow, I'm so so sorry! Life kinda got... uh... complicated since my last chapter. Yes, I've been working on other stories, but my creative time has been slow as sludge. Hopefully everything in here reads well... Again I'm sorry for the wait. But since we're heading into the problem area of this story, maybe it'll work out faster! ^_^