Disclaimers: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real people are coincidental. If you are under the legal age in your area to read erotic literature, please stop reading this and go somewhere age appropriate. If you are offended by homosexual material, please stop reading this and go somewhere your bigoted little mind can handle. If you're looking for pure sex, and plot/character development only get in your way, this story is definitely not for you. The rest of you, please enjoy chapter eight of this tale.
----------------------- Godsend Chapter 8: The New Power
"Mike, please," Angie said. "I know you want to help, and we really thank you for it, but right now, we have important family business."
"Actually," I said. "Mike, could you go to the front gate and deal with the reporters while Angie lets me know what else is going on?" Mike gave a small nod and hopped back in his car, driving off toward the front gates. "What's this family emergency?" I asked, suddenly very worried because of the look on Angie's face. There were actual tears, which I had never seen from her since she was old enough to talk.
"Stef," she said. "It's terrible. Thor...," she broke off into tears and sobbing. The front door of the house opened and Kelly walked out, her eyes also red with tears.
"Did she just say Thor?" I asked Kelly.
Kelly looked at me oddly and then shook her head. "I forgot," she told me. "This is all new to you. Our pantheon isn't the only one. When the world became more connected, we found that different sets of gods had different ways of ruling, and some were so different that they caused major wars. The leaders of all of the pantheons convened and agreed that most pantheons would take a large enough group of people to make a new population, and go to new planets. Any planets in the universe would work, since gods can make them hospitable. Over half of the pantheons not only agreed, but also took their followers and left.
"There were many, however, who wanted to be the ones to stay on Earth. There would still be the largest population on Earth, and there would be no need to rebuild civilizations. The largest of the pantheons convinced the smaller ones that it would take a large number of gods to run Earth smoothly. So the smaller pantheons relinquished their claims and left as well. That just left us, the Norse gods, and the Aztecs.
"It was then that Odin did something that averted war completely. He told us that, if we were to stay on Earth, they would stay and work with us, by our rules, so that our numbers would be sufficient to guide the planet. He did not offer this to the Aztecs, as their ways were too alien to Odin's people. With this offer, we then became the largest pantheon by far, and had no trouble with the Aztecs, who then departed for their own planet."
"Ok," I said. "So the Norse gods are here, too. Why is Angie crying about Thor?"
"Thor is dead," Kelly said. "He's been obliterated."
"How?" I asked. Then something struck me - something I had forgotten. "The new power Cassandra was talking about. It killed him?"
"He killed him," Kelly told me. "The new power is a god. He appeared as a comet at first, but he moved too fast and arrived here millions of times faster than a comet could. He landed at the very center of Antarctica and waited for us to make a move. Thor, Skadi, and Ares went to approach him. When they neared, he fired a warning shot over their heads. `Who are you?' Skadi asked.
"I am O'onerut' he said. You will die, and I will have your mortals. Who shall be first?'
"You cannot kill us O'onerut,' Thor said, for we are gods.' Then Thor rushed at O'onerut, Mjollnir in hand, to smash the interloper, but O'onerut wasn't there. He was behind Thor, and sent a fist smashing down on Thor's head. Thor went to his knees, stunned.
"O'onerut walked around to the front of Thor and placed his left hand around Mjollnir. Then he placed his right hand on Thor's forehead and whispered, `Obliterate.' Thor just..." Kelly stopped, sobbing.
"Thor dissolved into nothing," Angie breathed out in a horrified whisper. "When that happened, so did his incarnations. O'onerut threw Mjollnir to Ares, who caught it. I know you, gods,' O'onerut said. I know what you can do, and when you will do it. I can and will kill you all, one at a time. And, with each one of you I kill, I will grow stronger.' The he pulled up his cloak and vanished. Ares says he recognized the feathers the cloak was made from. He says they were the wings of Isis."
"Does that mean...?" I asked.
"We can't get into contact with the Egyptian gods any more," Kelly said solemnly. "We're pretty sure O'onerut eliminated them."
"Who is this guy?" I wondered out loud.
"No one knows," Kelly replied. "He's not from any Earth religion. His population of worshippers must be huge, though, for him to have that much power." She paused for a moment and pursed her lips. "Gods have great power, but worshippers amplify that power. One or two don't change things, but one or two planets full, especially all concentrated on one god..." She whistled. "This guy has at least that much."
The sound of an engine going full force stopped our conversation. Mike's car pulled up to stop right by us, and soon other cars were coming, too. These, however, were police cars and news vans. Mike's window rolled down.
"Bad news, Stef," he said. "As soon as they saw me, they knew you were inside. They all saw me take you out of there. Your gate guard let them in when they demanded it. Get in. We'll go out the back way."
"No," I said softly, "but thank you. I'm going to have to face them sooner or later. Please, though, take yourself out of this. You don't need to ruin yourself for me."
"I'm not," he replied. "I'm doing it for me. I'm going to do something right for a change. I don't know why. Maybe it's your power, maybe something else, but I know that I've been a dick to people. I'm staying here, with you."
I knew what was making him do it, but I wasn't going to say it. Mike was my ally now, and telling him that he was in love with me might have gotten rid of a strong pillar of support. "Fine," I said, "but I do the talking."
The police cars stopped, followed closely by the news vans. I noticed that the cameras were out of the vans before the police opened their doors. Leave it to the media. "Stefanos Kereanoi," the first officer to step out of his car announced, "we have a warrant for your arrest. If you do not try to run or fight, we will not have to use force."
I stood up straight. "Under what grounds are you arresting me?" I asked.
"Contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual assault, and statutory rape," the officer said.
"Really?" I asked. "Last time I checked, I was the minor, and Mike here was eighteen."
"The boy you forced Mr. Logan to sexually assault was sixteen, Mr. Kereanoi."
I wasn't going to lie and tell them I didn't do what I did. "Fine," I said.
"I'll go with you, but please put your guns down. I'm unarmed." I put my hands up to show them they were empty and started walking over to them. They backed away.
I don't know what it was in me, but I found that extremely funny. I giggled. "Are you sure you came to get me?" I asked, very amused. "It doesn't look like you really want to."
"We don't want you to use your powers on us," the officer said.
That was really funny. "You think that extra few feet will help?" I asked. "If I actually wanted to use my powers, I would have reached out to you at the front gate. I can sense the doorman inside the house right now, and I could affect him if I wanted to. You're all completely within my range. Now the truth is that I don't want to use them, and that makes you all safe right now. However, if you're still nervous, send a female officer to handcuff me. I can't do anything to them."
The captain nodded over to his left, and an officer jogged over to me. She was a female, but she was really strong. "Ow!" I growled as she grabbed my arms and wrenched them behind my back to cuff them. "I'm not fighting you, so you don't have to rip my arms off."
"Quiet, Stefan," she hissed. "Just play along. I'm getting you out of here."
"Alright," I said, understanding that this was a goddess. "Which one?"
"Hebe."
"Never heard of you," I said.
"I get that a lot, now go," she said, giving me a shove. She walked me over to the squad car and opened the door for me, pushing my head down so I wouldn't hit it on the frame.
When the door closed behind her, a thought occurred to me. "Kelly told me there were no more of our kind in the area."
"She was correct," Hebe said. "I'm in disguise as the officer you see here.
She's really fast asleep in the trunk."
"Isn't that unethical?" I asked.
She started the car. "So is making a jock molest a wrestling team," she retorted. "Right now, however, ethics be damned. Your presence is needed on Olympus." She stepped on the gas hard enough to make me hit my head on the back of the seat. Spinning the car around, she floored it past the rest of the officers and reporters, leaving them all in the dust.
"I'm about to freak out your gatekeeper," Hebe informed me. The car sped toward the gates without slowing down. I felt an odd tingling sensation as I was bracing for impact, and realized, after we passed through the gate without touching it, that I was feeling the effects of deific powers. Behind us, cars were screeching to a halt at the gates, and officers were calling for them to be opened.
I put my hands on the grate in front of me, noticing that my handcuffs had vanished. "How are we related?" I asked.
"Zeus is my father," she said. "That makes me your aunt. But there are more important things to talk about."
"I know," I said. "Thor is dead. Kelly told me."
"O'onerut is on Olympus," she stated. "He is calling for all of the gods to arrive and accept his demands. He says he will not start until we're all there."
"I'm not a full god yet," I protested. "He wouldn't know..."
"He knows," Hebe interrupted. "He said that there was one missing. He said to bring Stefan."
I felt a cold lump in my stomach. This being wanted to kill me, and he knew me by name. "Why are we all going there if we know he wants to kill us?"
"He says this meeting is just to talk, and he has several of our future incarnations hostage. If he kills them, we die. I don't mind dying so much, but my daughter means the world to me. If she's killed, I won't want to be alive."
We passed through the forests without any sound but our own engine. There were no cops behind us, and I couldn't hear them in the distance. "They're not following us?" I asked.
"We're on the road to Olympus," she said softly. "Only gods may take it. We've passed out of the humans' perceptive ability."
"How long is this road?"
She pressed on the brakes slowly and we coasted to a stop. "It's only as long as the god taking it wants it to be. I needed to let you know what was going on so you would be prepared. I made it take longer because of that. I also didn't really want to go back so soon, so I stalled."
"I take it we're here then," I said, the cold lump growing. Hebe stepped out and opened the door for me. As my foot touched the side of the road, the scenery changed. Around me, white puffy clouds billowed and flowed. In front of the car, what looked like a white path of sparkling sand stretched uphill to meet another cloud bank, this one had a Parthenon look to it, though it was still intact and impressive. It was toward this that we walked. There was a very light breeze as we went, and Hebe stayed silent and solemn, leaving us with only the slight whoosh of air and the shifting of the sand for sound. I felt a slight tingling in the back of my mind, like it was being caressed my gentle and loving fingers. I wondered if this was how everyone felt when they arrived here. Next to me, Hebe shifted her clothing into flowing robes, leaving me to arrive in my t-shirt and jeans.
When we reached the top of the path and I could see into the building, it was like looking into a painting. Hundreds of gods, some greater, most lesser, all clad in white robes, sat on benches around a central circle. I knew some of them as relatives on sight. My mother and father - step-father, if it really mattered - gazed over to me with worry and concern. They didn't want me there and were afraid for my safety.
They had good reason.
In the center of the circle, clad in a black robe with the hood drawn back, was a man with black hair that fell down over his left eye in front, and cascaded down his back. The eye that wasn't obscured by the hair was also black, obsidian black, glowing with an inner fire and malice I never knew existed. He was tall and slender, but not overly thin. He smirked with his cupid's bow mouth when he saw me.
"This child is the newest god?" he asked the entire group as if giving a speech. His voice was sweet like honey, but I knew it was poison. "He only has active control of one...no, two, of his powers, and has nothing that can threaten me. He does have the good sense to be afraid, however," the man I knew had to be O'onerut said.
He turned to a woman in white with a bandage around her eyes. She looked to be about eighty years old, but I knew she had to be older. I knew because, looking at her, I simply knew who she was: Cassandra. "You are not a very good seeress, woman. This boy cannot harm me." He raised his hand toward her, palm facing her, fingers splayed upward.
He took a breath to speak, but another voice broke out instead. "But you promised there wouldn't be any killing here," said a woman's voice. I looked closely at the regal bearing and the majestic beauty, with a hint of jealousy in the green eyes. Hera.
O'onerut lowered his hand and sighed. "You are correct, lady queen," he said. "Though you would be wise to rid yourself of this charlatan." I was nothing but confused. O'onerut walked over to me, placed his hand on my chin, and tilted it up gently so I was facing him. "This...Cassandra told me that you would kill me," he said. He closed in so that his face was centimeters from mine. I could feel his breath on my lips. "You and I both know that's not possible, right?" he asked in what could almost be considered a purr.
He looked into my eyes and the caressing in my mind gave a small flitter. "The seeress said, `the weakest shall destroy you.' Now what else could she have meant by that than you, godling?" I didn't honestly know, and I wouldn't have said anything if I did. He let my head down and kissed me on the forehead. "You're a sweet boy, Stefan. We may be able to work something out." Terror and disgust welled through me. If Cade had done that, it wouldn't have bothered me, but O'onerut made my skin crawl.
He let go of me completely and walked to the middle of the forum. "Now, gods, I can tell you why I have come. I am here for your humans. I require more power if I am to rule, and your human worshippers will add fuel to my fire."
"You cannot have them," announced a strong bearded man with laurels in his hair, who sat at the head of the assembly next to Hera. Even had I not been able to recognize the king of gods on sight, I would have known it was Zeus just by the position of power. "If you take the humans, we will have no purpose and will cease to be." That was news to me, but I kept quiet. It also explained why O'onerut killed the other gods.
"Yes, yes," O'onerut replied in a bored tone. "This is why you must die. I cannot very well take them all while you fight me, can I?" He paused. "I probably can, actually, but this way is more enjoyable to me. Here is my question to you: who dies first?"
"Do you expect us just to choose who dies and in what order, like a voluntary slaughter house?" This came from my uncle Cal, or Ares.
"It is more convenient for me than hunting you," O'onerut replied.
"Is there anything we can do to make you not kill us?" a strong woman with a bow asked. Artemis was my guess.
"Yes," he said, "you can submit to me taking your humans now, and you will merely fade out. I hear it doesn't hurt at all."
"I, for one, am not going to sit back and let you destroy us, be it peacefully, or through murder," Zeus said. He looked around the room to the other gods. "None of us will." Standing, he raised his right hand into the air and clenched it into a fist, forming a lightning bolt in it. "Now, warriors!" he shouted.
As one, all of the gods with offensive powers hurled their weapons or attacks at O'onerut. With impeccable aim, all of the attacks flew directly at the center of the forum, colliding in a brilliant flash of light.
"Wonderful display of firepower, is it not?" asked a soft voice in my ear. I turned and, next to me, wearing a smirk of satisfaction, was O'onerut. He leaned in and gave me a little nibble on my ear, then returned to the middle of the forum.
"Very nice," he said to them. "I have a proposition for all of you warriors. I will fight you one on one, or all together, but with no powers.
If any of you land a blow on me, I shall not only spare your lives, but I will also leave you with a handful of humans to repopulate with when I am gone. If I walk out of this place untouched, I shall feel justified in hunting you all like the animals you are."
"We will accept your challenge!" called another man, who was tall and powerful, with a raven on each shoulder. I couldn't just sense him like I could with the gods of the Greek pantheon, so I knew he was Norse. The ravens were the clue that I needed to know that this was Odin. Following his words, a very large number of gods, and several goddesses as well, rushed to the floor of the forum.
It started out beautifully, with gods and goddesses jumping and weaving about each other, throwing punches and kicks at the new god, though none of them actually touched him as he ducked and weaved. Athena spun her spear around and jabbed at O'onerut a few times, each time missing in a different direction. Ares kicked and jumped and chopped, using every martial art on the book, but also couldn't touch O'onerut.
Then the madness began.
Artemis shot an arrow at O'onerut, who dodged, which pierced the shoulder of dark Hades. Poseidon's trident whipped over O'onerut's head, the butt of the trident smacking Ares on the side of the head, while the points grazed Odin's chest, leaving three trails of blood. A mighty blow from Heracles whizzed right by O'onerut's left shoulder, only to be pierced by an arrow from Eros. Left and right, gods and goddesses were being taken down to the floor, but not by the interloper. In fact, O'onerut had still not been touched.
Due to his fighting prowess and the ability to pull back a punch, Ares had neither harmed any of the other gods, nor been hit by any of their attacks. After several minutes of fighting, with gods and goddesses lying around the forum floor, Ares was the only contender left standing, and he didn't seem winded. "You seem to be an amazing fighter, O'onerut," Ares said. "I do not believe that is true."
"So you have figured me out, God of War," O'onerut replied. It wasn't a question.
"Yes," Ares said. "You read minds - even those of the gods. You know our attacks before we make them. We have no way to harm you, for you always have warning of the incoming danger. I wonder, though. Since defense is purely reactive..."
"Can I hurt you if you do not attack," O'onerut finished. He walked over to Ares and threw a punch, which was dodged by Ares, who then quickly fell to the floor from the kick to his knee that he didn't see coming. "You see, O God of War, that even defense has a thought process to it. As your mind reacts to one attack, mine knows what you will leave open and vulnerable." He gave a little chuckle. "However, as you have figured out this secret, I judge you mentally worthy to serve me in my army. What say you?"
Ares didn't even stop to ponder being allowed to live. "My family is here, and I won't let them be slaughtered. If you do kill them, then my place is in oblivion with them, not at the side of their murderer."
O'onerut's face became a frown. "You are a sentimental fool, Ares. But I leave you to your decision. If you wish to die, I will honor that wish."
He raised his right hand to Ares, his palm facing the god of war. Then, without warning, he turned and whispered, "oblivion," sending a purely black beam, only a few inches across, in a different direction. There was no sound as it passed through the air. The target was Apollo. As it stuck him in the chest, it ripped through his clothing and tore a hole through him. But it didn't stop at the hole through his chest. Once the beam was gone, the outside of the hole grew as it ate through the substance of the god. Apollo himself was screaming, crying out for mercy. It was horrible to watch him being torn apart like that, so I looked to O'onerut, who was watching the scene with a grim satisfaction.
Eventually, the screaming stopped, and I looked over to see an empty space where the sun god had been sprawled on the floor. There was sobbing all around, but outright wailing coming from Artemis. "You monster!" she yelled. "You killed my brother. I hope you rot in Tartarus for all eternity. You've crushed my life, and I don't know if I can go on without him."
"You can't," O'onerut replied. "Oblivion." The screaming started again, but this time it was female in timbre. I didn't watch it at all, but I couldn't block out the screaming. It was horrible and it cut into my soul. When Artemis was gone, O'onerut spoke again, his voice solemn. "The moon goddess was in pain, so I gave her mercy through death. However, take Ares' mistake as a warning. Cross me, and I will have revenge on you by taking someone innocent and destroying them. Now, I must go collect some warriors."
The new god then closed his eyes and faded into nothing.
Author's note: O'onerut is pronounced, "Oh Own-eh-root", so I don't get emails for just that. Sorry for the long wait. I had a lot of life events recently, and haven't had much time to write.
Questions? Comments? Plane tickets to Cali to see my guy? Email me (Joe) at academygm@hotmail.com.