"What up Steve?" Peter asked, falling in line beside Captain America as they walked through the Common Room, "I hope it won't be a problem for you with Tony joining us on this mission. If you want to stay here…" Steve was cut off by Peter saying "No, I'm coming. As I told Stark last night, I might not have forgiven him yet for his backstabbing betrayal. But there is a chance that he could redeem himself, and the only way that he can is by proving he has our back on missions. So while I'm still mad at him, I'm willing to work beside him. At least more so than working with Green Goblin."
Steve smiled and padded Peter's shoulder, "That's good to hear Pete. Now go prep your team." Peter nodded and turned back to the war room to find MJ and the others coming out. "You guys ready?" He asked and they all nodded, the Spiders pulled on their masks as they made their way out of the Abbey. After a quick trip through limbo the heroes arrived in front of the Empire State Building that towered high into the sky that was filled with a collection of clouds. Looking at the building Peter briefly remembered that he used to be afraid of heights, until he climbed all the way to the top of this very building in order to get over the fear.
"To think that the Greek Gods might be somewhere higher than this." Peter commented and Mary Jane nodded, "Yeah, but a course this is New York. Strange things happen here everyday." While most of the heroes waited outside, Peter, Mary Jane, Ororo, Pam, Jean, Steve, Hunter, Magik, Nico, Tony and Carol entered the lobby with people giving them puzzled looks and Peter knew that they were one of the most strangest people to enter the building. "So where do we start?" Nico asked "How about with the front desk." Hunter said as she walked towards the man sitting behind the desk.
"Can I help you?" The man said looking up from the magazine he was reading, the words on the front cover looking strange to Peter until he realized that the letters were in Greek. "Yes, we need an audience with the Gods." Hunter replied casually and the man raised his eyebrow "Sorry?" He asked "You heard me." Peter was about to decide that this guy was just a regular security guard, when he said, "No appointment, no audience, ma'am. Lord Zeus doesn't see anyone unannounced."
"Oh I think he'll make an exception… That is unless he want his biggest 'fan' to come knocking." The man seemed to know immediately who Hunter was talking about and because of the look she was making, he believed that she might actually go tell Typhon and answered quickly. "Uh, no. There no need for that…" Getting up the man fumbled around on his desk until he brought out a key card to hand it to Hunter. "Insert this in the security slot. Make sure nobody else is in the elevator with you, guys."
Nodding Hunter took the card and the others followed her to the elevators, when the door closed she slipped the key into the slot. The card disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red one that said 600. Pressing it the group waited as Muzak played "Raindrops keep falling on my head…" Finally with a ding, the doors slide open and they stepped out and Peter almost had a heart attack. They was standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air. Below them was Manhattan, from the height of an airplane. In front of them, white marble steps wound up the spine of a cloud, into the sky. Peter's eyes followed the stairway to its end, where his brain just could not accept what he saw. 'Look again.' Peter's brain said. 'We're looking.' His eyes insisted. 'It's really there.'
From the top of the clouds rose the decapitated peak of a mountain, its summit cover with snow. Clinging to the mountainside were dozen of multileveled palaces, a city of mansions, all with white-columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace gleamed against the snow. Precariously perched gardens bloomed with olive trees and rosebushes. Peter could make out an open-air market filled with colorful tents, a stone amphitheater built on one side of the mountain, a hippodrome and a coliseum on the other. It was an Ancient Greek city, except it wasn't in ruins. It was new and clean, and colorful, the way Athens must've looked twenty-five hundred years ago.
"This place can't be here…" Peter heard Tony say "The tip of a mountain hanging over New York City like a billion-ton asteroid? How could something like this be anchored above the Empire State Building, in plain sight of millions of people, and not get noticed?" To which Magik replied with "E butt load of megic." She gazed at Nico's staff that was glowing slightly as it retracted to the magic of the impossible place. "Well, let's go. Don't want to keep the owners waiting." Steve said as he lead the way up the path.
Their trip through Olympus was sort of a daze for Peter, they passed some giggling women that might've been normal beautiful humanoids. Except for the elf-like appearance of their ears, the tree-like appendages and the fact some had green skin like Pam. "Dryads." She told them and then had a puzzle expression on her face at knowing what the women were. Who threw olives at them from their gardens, while hawkers in the market offered to sell the heroes what was called 'ambrosia' on a stick, a new shield to Cap and even a genuine glitter-weave replica of the historical Golden Fleece that was seen on a show called 'Hephaestus-tv'.
Nine muses were tuning their instruments for a concert in the park, while a small crowd gathered that were made up of people with goat-like legs that Peter recalled was called 'satyrs'. Along with ladies who were water like features singled them out as naiads, and lastly a bunch of good looking teenagers who might've been minors gods and goddesses. Nobody seemed to worry about the group of colorful clothed mortals in the godly city, several of them did turn to watch the heroes pass and whisper to themselves but that all they did.
Peter and the others climbed the main road toward the big palace at the peak, which glittered white and silver in the sunlight. Steps led up to the central courtyard and past was a set of massive size bronze doors inlaid with Greek designs, which opened as they approached and allowed them to enter the throne room. 'Room really isn't the right word.' Peter thought as he looked around. The place made Grand Central Station look like a broom closet, especially because of its size which was humongous. Massive columns rose to a domed ceiling, which was gilded with moving constellation.
Twelve thrones, built for beings the size of the robot Ultimo, were arranged in an inverted U. Each one were customized differently, one had a woven of apple-tree branches, wheat stalks, and dried grass with a small yellow seat cushion to sit on. Another was made of leather and chrome with large human skulls built into the arms and what seem to be a cushion of human skin on the seat. The third were silver with golden basket work on the back and sides and a crown of violets was above it. The fourth looked like a huge mechanical La-Z-Boy type chair covered with bronze and silver gears. The fifth was a golden throne that seem to glow like the sun, while the sixth was silver as moonlight with two date palms on the back, full moons above and a wolf-skin cushion.
The seventh was also a silver, but inlaid with aquamarines, beryls and other precious stones set into it. The back is shaped like a large seashell and the seat was made from soft swansdown. The eighth was made of gray rock with ram's heads on the arms and had a cushion of goatskin. The ninth seemed to be grown out of grape vines with a leopard skin cushion on top. The tenth had a molded black seal leather seat which was attached to a swivel pedestal, and with a built-in holster for a fishing pole. And the eleventh has the picture of a willow and peacocks on it. It is made of ivory and some material that Peter couldn't identify, but he could identify the occupants of the thrones; Demeter, Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes, Dionysus, Poseidon and Hera. The positions of the thrones were ladies on the left, men on the right facing towards a large burning fire in the center of the room and both Hera and Poseidon were sitting on either side of the last throne located in the middle of the U.
Peter didn't need to see lightning designs, set into the simple throne made out of solid platinum, to know that the man was the King of the Gods. Zeus was very tall, imposing, and very muscular, with shoulder-length black hair and a gray-and-black neatly trimmed beard. He had a serious and proud, but very handsome face with brilliant electrically-blue eyes that gazed down at the group that walked past theses giants and stopped before the 'master of the house' as Hunter might put it. Who, along with Steve gave a bow to, the others followed, though Tony was reluctant until Carol gave him an elbow to his ribs while whispering. "Be respectful." So Stark bowed his head as Zeus spoke in a deep booming voice.
"Greetings Captain Steve Rogers, I hear that you are seeking an audience with us. Why should we grant you one?"
"Because we have a common enemy that is attacking the city of New York. The King of Monsters, Typhon." When Steve said the monster's name, the room seemed to get colder for a moment, the fires flickered slightly. "I rather you not say that name in theses halls. In any case, I don't see any proof that it's the brute." Peter was shocked to hear that Zeus didn't believe that it was Typhon, he was about to object when Ororo beat him to it. "It's true, Lord Zeus. I can speak evidence to their claims." The King of the Gods looked at the woman with a stern gaze, "And who might you be?"
"Ororo Munro of the Amazon island known as Themcyra, I can vouch that it's the King of Monsters. For I was captured by him and used as a weapon against my companions." Ororo answered "A daughter of the Amazons, you should know better than to speak against your Gods." Zeus said with a flare of arrogance that astound Peter. Who again tried to speak and yet was beaten to the punch, this time by Pam and Jean. "She only doing so because she is speaking the true, Lord Zeus. I, Pamela Isley, a servant of the Goddess Demeter, was also captured by the beast."
"As was I…" Jean said, flames appearing around the edges of her body as she partly changed into her Phoenix harpy form. Which immediately drew all the gods attention and Zeus actually seemed alarmed, "It's you." He said with what seemed to be a touch of fear in his voice. "Yes Zeus…" Jean's voice was amplified by the Phoenix, "Its us, and as much as we would love to make you pay for your actions against us. But right now is not the time. Typhon is back and he tearing up New York trying to find you. So get your fat head out of the your cloudy ass and look down for a change." Peter could see Jean was getting angry and he also seen when the Phoenix lost control and didn't think now was a good time for that. So reaching out Peter placed a hand on Jean's shoulder, the two looked at each other for a moment before Jean took a deep breath and reverted back to her human form.
Trying to turn the Gods attention from Jean, Peter finally spoke to Zeus, who had crackles of electricity dancing through his hair at Jean's word. "We need your help. So far we've been able to repel Typhon's attacks, but he won't stop until he has found and destroy you. Typhon using captured heroes to gain power. Power which rivals even yours. Do you want to face him at his full strength, or stop him before he reaches it?" The Gods exchanged glances and spoke to each other in Greek, after a minute the Goddess Hera; A tall and graceful lady with long chocolate-colored hair braided in plaits with gold ribbons and wearing a white dress that shimmered with colors like peacock feathers. Her eyes shone with power and she had a sunny smile as Hera spoke in English.
"We need to discuss this, could you please go wait out in the courtyard." Steve nodded and the others followed him. When they were outside Tony finally spoke "Well, anyone want to play cards?" When everyone looked at him, he shrugged "Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood. I'm not sure how good that went." "Nor did I." Hunter answered "I knew from the legends that the Greek Gods were arrogant and stubborn. But I would've thought that they might've adapted to the times."
"They're Gods, and Gods rarely change. At least from the ones I met." Carol said "Still they live above the city. I'm having a hard time believing that they wouldn't be even aware of the Greek like soldiers running around Main Street."
"As I said, Zeus is so pigheaded that he wouldn't do anything unless a child was coloring on his throne." Jean said with disgust and flickered again with flames "Easy Jean. We need to get the Gods on our side, not be facing enemies on two fronts." Peter told her and Jean powered down. But not before she grabbed his mask, pulled it up to his nose and kissed him deeply. "Sorry…" She said as she pulled away "Needed to calm the phoenix and thought that would be the quickest way."
"I'm not complaining." Peter replied, pulling the redhead into a hug that help dispel the flames from her body. The moment was ruined by their com-links going off "We got trouble Cap, Typhon launching another attack, this time in the upper region of the city. Stark's heroes and Shield are responding but they need help." Steve turned to Magik, "Are you able to create a portal here, Illyana?" After a moment of extending her power out Magik sliced open a portal. "Peter take the others. Me, Hunter, Carol and Stark will stay to continue the negotiations." Peter nodded and headed through the portal through limbo to soon arrive back down on the streets of New York. They were somewhere in Harlem, a few blocks away from where they could see Typhon's forces reeking havoc.