Ganymede rose to his feet, his hands clutched to his crook. Zeus' chariot landed and the god stepped forth, filling the air with stinging, biting electricity.
"Kid!" Hades yelled, before two pairs of gauntlets clapped back down onto his shoulders and yanked him back. again Zeus' slow chuckle rolled over the shaking caverns and the endless boom of the Lethe. His red eyes leered through the darkness.
"So this was your grand plan, eh lad?" he asked in the thinnest veneer of paternal gentleness, "Go fist-to-fist with the king of the gods?"
Ganymede backed off as Zeus advanced. "Pretty stupid plan, huh?" he said. Though his legs kept trying to freeze on him, his mind whirred too fast to get bogged down. He studied, adjusted, recalculated, and it kept him moving. Up above, Hades' eyes flicked over everything, absorbing it all.
Zeus circled the waterfall with Ganymede, toying with him as the rushing vapour sent shivers through their hair and robes. "Well, it wouldn't be your first," Zeus said, relishing the moment through a parody of kindness. "You demolished my temple, released the Minotaur, brought the Cretan gods to Greece and even..." His eyes flashed, "Well, you backed the wrong horse, eh? If you had only stayed on Olympus, none of this would be happening to you."
Ganymede felt the back of his heel hit dead air and corrected himself with a yipe and a scramble. Stones chuffed down into the lake below as he tried to put distance between them again, but Zeus wouldn't give him the opening.
"What about him, huh?!" he snapped, jerking his head towards the chariot and to Hades. He hoped Zeus would turn, but his eyes remained fixed on him like the wide, staring eyes of a predator about to lunge. "Wh-what about Hades?!"
Hades clucked his tongue and placed his hand on his chest. "Aww," he said, glancing between his two guards, but they didn't react, so he returned his attention to the fight in a grumpy deadpan. Zeus laughed.
"Ha! Your sympathy is misplaced, my boy! That man-" He jabbed a thick finger at the chariot, but his attention remained locked on his quarry. "- Is a manipulative, lying sneak, and if you imagine for one second that you've changed him, then I underestimated your youthful naivete!"
"Guys," Hades said, unheard, from captivity, "Stop with the compliments already, this is too much!"
For a moment, Ganymede dropped his calculations to lash with anger; "Who cares if he's changed?!" Zeus' brows raised in confusion, but still no opening. "What matters is that neither of us are alone!"
Hades, however, did see the opening. He called like an ugly raven from behind his brother; "What's the matter, Zeus! Did I get something you didn't?!"
Zeus flung himself around with a bellow of rage. "You have NOTHING!"
Ganymede flew forwards and threw the curve of his crook around Zeus' neck and, before the man could hope to reach for it, he swung himself out. The new weight on the god's unexpecting body sent him keeling towards the edge of the bridge and towards the rushing waters of the Lethe.
And then Zeus caught himself. Stamping down one heavy foot, he halted his fall and became as immovable as the walls of the Underworld themselves. Ganymede's eyes flashed with horror as the King of Olympus grabbed his shepherd's crook. A divine fist dragged him up to his face. Zeus' beard spread into a cruel sneer as jittering monsters seemed to dance behind the red glow of his eyes.
"It's a shame," Zeus said as he let the crook clatter to the ground, and as Ganymede braced with a whimper against the heat of his breath. He felt himself freeze. "You used to be such a looker."
A titanic fireball slammed into his side. Ganymede crumpled to the ground as Zeus careened backwards. Apollo and Athena were blasted back. A shadow monster now engulfed in flames hot enough to melt the metal fixtures rose in the centre of the chariot.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Hades roared. He vanished in a pillar of smoke,, flooded forwards and surged around Ganymede in a loop. He reformed in front of him, still crackling with the embers smouldering across his shoulders, and as he felt shaking hands grip the hem of his robe, he fixed his brother with a brand new sort of rage. "Don't you dare talk to him like that!"
Zeus picked himself up off of the ground and gave his neck muscles a click. His goons pulled themselves together and prepared to lunge, but he held up one solid hand and they stopped in their tracks. "You're going to regret that, Hades."
A wall of muscle hit Hades like a grizzly bear, and the two gods crashed into the dirt. Ganymede stared as sonic booms quaked at every punch. His crook lay close by, half hanging over the water below, but he couldn't move to reach for it.
Zeus kept hold of a fistful of Hades' robes, so that even as he turned to smoke and even as his fist kept hitting the rock beneath them, Hades couldn't get away. Hades scrabbled and clawed like a feral cat caught in the paws of a lion, and as he struggled Ganymede saw that his plan had failed. Now there would be no escape - just a second-by-second survival until their time ran out.
"Hades!" he cried out, his devastation carrying through the noise.
"Little busy here!" Hades replied as he tried to pry himself free.
"I'm so sorry!" The tears came again as his limbs ignored his plea for them to move. "I let you down!"
Hades' back slammed into the ground and Zeus reeled back his fist. In that split moment he turned his head to face Ganymede and fixed him with a determined look of flippancy. "Hey, you think this is the worst plan I've ever had? You're not that special."
Ganymede spluttered with unexpected laughter, and suddenly his legs came unstuck. Zeus' fist came smashing down. Ganymede leapt for his crook as behind him the sound of flames joined both of the gods' cries of pain. Zeus clutched his burned hand as Hades rolled away and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"You always did fight dirty!" Zeus said as he readied himself on all-fours. Hades' pulled himself to his hands and knees and gasped,
"Again, we're all very proud of you for the pattern recognition."
Zeus roared, and pounced for him with the force of a speeding train. Ganymede darted away from the collision as, finally, Zeus drew back his shoulders and a thunderbolt crackled into his hand. "I can't kill you, Hades!" he said as he lifted the bolt high above his head, "But let's see how close I can get!"
Hugging tight to his staff, Ganymede squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to hear the silence of the Underworld beneath the shouting, the crashing, and the ever-present roaring of the Lethe. You brought us here, right? He braced against Hades' shout of pain. I don't know what to do!
The chariot banked from wall to wall, spraying rocks and peacock feathers with every impact as Panic screeched from his vice-grip around Hera's shoulders.
"FLY STRAIGHT!"
"I told you!" Hermes yanked on the reins, heaving them away from one wall and back into the other. "I don't drive! And-!" In another plume of feathers they ricocheted around the corner. "-You try steering with these on, man!" He shook his manacled wrists at him.
"Hermes!" Hera screeched. He snatched back hold of the reins.
"Right! Right!"
The explosive barks of Cerebus shook the tunnel, and as they streamed in closer, the sounds of his snapping teeth were joined by furious shouts and the clanging of weapons. They streamed past as the gods lashed down the great aimal with chains and muzzles, their spears raised in angry victory. Panic's beak followed them as they passed by.
"That's our dog!"
Aries, god of war, turned his noble profile. His red eyes caught theirs, and Panic flattened himself to the floor of the chariot with a squeak.
"Darnit!" Hermes lashed the reins and leaned forward, lowering himself for speed. "We're in for it now!" Hera pulled her veil tight around her chin and crouched down beside him as incoherent shouts erupted from the crowd of gods behind them. Some broke off like wasps from a nest and aimed straight for them.
"Faster, Hermes!" she cried.
"Trying, babe!"
Hermes' wings buzzed in fear as he whipped the reins and willed the peacocks onwards. They careened through the chasm as the rock shook around them, chunks dislodging from the ceiling and smashing around them into the water. He didn't dare look over is shoulder as faster, stronger, better-trained warriors hunted them down and faster, stronger, better-trained sounds of fighting clashed up ahead. His fear was an odd fear, however, and one he wasn't used to.
He was used to anxiety - he was used to the zip of electricity that jolted him in the opposite direction. He was used to fumbling his trumpet, sounding the alarm, then making a beeline for the exit as guys who actually knew how to hold weapons went and fought the battles. He was used to panic, nervousness and - though he didn't like to admit it - cowardice. This new fear, however, tasted different because he wasn't scared for himself. He couldn't even think about himself - his eyes were looking outwards.
The tunnel yawned wide, thrusting the shattered mouth of the Great Skull up before them. All around them flew gods with their swords and spears aloft, buzzing like hornets now that Zeus had gone, smashing everything in sight. A cloud of them noticed the sparkle of peacock feathers. Hermes yanked back on the reins, twisting the birds around and pointing them up towards the ceiling. The gods behind them charged onwards, and tangled with these new enemies.
"What have they done to our house?!" Panic stuck his beak over the side.
"To be fair!" Hermes heaved on the reins again, sending both Hera and Panic tumbling around the chariot like pebbles. "This is kinda how you guys left Olympus!" Panic dragged himself up off the floor and blew out through his lips.
A bellow of fear sounded beneath the chaos, like a storm siren already drowned out by the wind as Hermes sent them barrelling through the gaps between the other gods. Panic's spines stood straight up.
"The Minotaur!" He suddenly yanked on Hera's sleeve. "We can't leave him!" Hera met the little imp's eyes, then turned to Hermes. She stabbed her finger towards the architecture above the remains of the Skull.
"Can you land us up there?!"
"Technically! But I hope you don't mind a rough landing!" Hermes threw his weight against the reins.
The world shook around them, sending the Styx surging up the sides of the cavern, then crashing back down again. Hermes' head darted back and forth as they ducked the falling stalactites.
"What is that?!"
"I don't know!" cried Hera. "Let's just get everyone out of here!"
They crashed down within the mess of the buildings and fled along the open walkway, the swirling fury of the gods - the green light of the Underworld and the red light of the gods' new aura - broken up by the shadows of each looming column. They hurled weapons towards them, striking towards the movement, but the greatest prize was the trashing of the Underworld and not the fleeing of three unimportant figures.
"By the way-" Hermes asked between now-ragged breaths as his sandals struck against stone, "Herc didn't get dragged into this mess, right?"
Hera pressed up against a pillar as the blazing chariot of Hephaestus raced through the air. Panic pulled her skirts around his head, his tail curling around his ankles. "No," she gasped, "Quite rightly, he's chosen to stay out of all this family drama." An errant axe whipped towards them, forcing Hermes to throw himself to the flagstones. He uncovered his head and gave her an encouraging grin.
"Good for him!"
Panic zipped deeper into the maze. "This way!"
As they scrambled after him, the air grew cooler and the sounds of war sank beneath the growing volume of the Minotaur's siren. The light couldn't penetrate so deeply through the mis-matched balustrades, palisades, columns and nubbed statues, and though this darkness was - for now - their protector, soon the world became as dark and as foreboding as the bottom of the ocean. As they trotted deeper into the many-layered mausoleum, Hera cast a glance towards the god beside her. She hadn't forgotten what she had seen on the walls of Hades' temple. He, in turn, lifted his eyes to her and gave her another smile.
"It'll be okay," he said, accompanied by the rattling of his chains. "This fighting won't go on forever."
The siren wailed louder and louder as the world grew darker and darker, until they were navigating by slivers of blue stone and the air seemed to shake with wailing blackness. Panic slid to a stop and bounced from foot to foot in front. The door beside him roared, and shook with every slam, exploding with dust and loose stones.
"Dangit - dangit!" He fruitlessly patted himself down, his eyes bulging from his skull. "They locked it! I mean, obviously they locked it, the guy's a menace, but-" He raised his voice over the cacophany as both Hera and Hermes pressed their hands to their ears. "Don't worry, buddy! We'll get you out!" The slamming paused, and for a moment the siren died down.
He turned to his two companions and gestured wildly for them to come up with something, but they only stared helplessly back. He let out a groan of frustration. "Why am I never on the side of the guy with super strength?!"
His spines lifted to the sound of grunting, and he span around to see Pain wiggling himself out of a crack in the wall. He shrieked with delight.
"Pain!" Dashing over, he yanked him from the wall himself and squeezed him as tight as he possibly could. Pain squeezed back, their tails swinging around each other as their big, goofy grins matched. "You made it!"
"And!" Pain drew back and pulled out a key with triumph, "I got a little present for ya!" Hermes jumped with shock as Hera let out her own screech of delight and clapped her hands together.
"What marvellous timing!"
Pain beamed with all of his needle-sharp teeth as Panic shoved the key in the lock. Stretching his round little body out like a smug athlete, he said, "Well, we know these tunnels pretty well after a thousand years, you know?"