New Human

Hades is set and his plan is ready. Nothing can stop him now. He is sure of it. Nemesis is dead and Zeus can do nothing more than watch helplessly. Vengeance feels so good, he thinks, as he drinks in his impending victory with an evil smile in the moments before he turns to his drone army. Each and every one of them were created by his hands and without the great data archives of Olympus.

“My children the war is here. Let the invasion…begin.” Hades thunders loudly, his low rumbling voice shaking the walls of The Underworld in the moments before his mass of reanimated dead surge forward.

They worm their ways through the cracks and fissures, as well as through the forgotten corridors and disposal shoots, into the city of Olympus, which Hades is sure will fall to him with little resistance. The citizens of the city will replenish and bolster any numbers he suffers before he begins the preparations to ensure that Apocalypse’s inevitable return will be met with a resounding victory for humanity. Not one as insipid as the last.

Hades leaps and punches through the rock above him, breaking through the cavern ceiling and into Olympus. His metal feet boom as they meet with the streets of Olympus. He throws his head back and inhales the air deeply. He smells only fear and weakness as the screams of citizens begin to ring out in response to his drones attack. The fear makes him smile as he opens his black soulless eyes and rushes headlong toward the screams, desperate for his own personal fill of the torment that he has unleashed.

The drone army wash over the city like a flood as the people of Olympus try and flee in fear and desperation. But they are too slow and the drones simply overwhelm the people trying to escape, busting through doors and into homes, shops and offices. Hades drinks in and feeds off the fear that is terrifying the people he once stood to protect. He will protect them again, but only once they become what is necessary to survive. These people have forgotten his name, but he will bring it back to the fore. He will ensure that he is remembered for all time and in a manner most befitting a God. An explosion rips open a section of rock and building sending an enormous plume of black acrid smoke high into the space above. Hades traces the column upward only to find many of his drones are already assaulting the upper levels of Olympus. He licks his lips pleased with the progress thus far.

“What the hell was that?” Ares exclaims as he hears another explosion.

“Zeus?” Athena queries expecting Zeus’ holographic visage to appear, but instead she is met with nothing. No visage or even a verbal response to her call.

“Father what is going on?” Ares asks unsure as to why Zeus has not answered Athena’s call. Nemesis and Hecate come rushing in as he asks the question.

“What’s going on? There’re explosions in the city.” Hecate asks worried as her eyes dart from Ares to Athena.

“We don’t know. Father won’t respond.” Ares replies with his a shrug of his shoulders.

“Visual?” Nemesis asks her hands fractions away from drawing her nanoblades.

“Nothing’s responding. There’re no alarms, no feeds, nothing. It’s like we’re locked out.” Athena answers her expression still as serene as ever, though her voice betrays a miniscule amount of worry. For Athena that’s a huge display of emotion, Nemesis knows it, and so do Ares and Hecate.

“Old fashion way it is then.” Nemesis decides looking at Ares who simply nods his confirmation in the moments before the four Olympians rush for the grand entrance hall of their mountain peak palace.

Ares pries the lift doors open with little effort and holds it agape while Nemesis leans her head over the edge to stare at the city below. She pays little attention to Hecate and Athena either side of her who are doing the same. Instead, she looks past the thick rising black smoke as her nanotech enhanced eyes magnify the carnage below.

“What are they?” Athena asks.

“Nem, are they…” Hecate starts.

“Yeah, that’s what attacked me out in the wastes.” Nemesis confirms before pulling away from the edge and backing up. She takes several deep breathes before she then explodes into a sprint straight for the open lift doors just as Hecate and Athena turn.

“Nemesis, what are you doing?” Athena exclaims in surprise.

But Nemesis doesn’t answer as she throws herself through the opening, her blades appearing in her hands as she glides through the air, arms outstretched, blades pointed backward as her legs are bent at the knees.

“What are they?” Ares asks.

“Hecate?” Athena questions.

“All I know is Nem says they attacked her and that they were definitely human once.” Hecate answers honestly, her eyes darting between Ares and Athena.

“You don’t think?” Ares asks sure that it can’t be.

“Who else?” Athena replies bluntly.

“Our brother would never do this.” Ares counters.

“Wouldn’t he?” Hecate queries. She is sure he would as she doubts centuries of solitude have done much to lessen his madness.

Ares says nothing in response. He doesn’t want to admit that Hades could be behind this, but sees little proof to argue otherwise as he hangs his head and exhales loudly.

“We have to stop him.” Athena proclaims in the moments before she launches herself out of the open lift doors, her shield and spear appearing in her hands as her armour weaves across her body, gleaming.

“Come on, I know you’ve been hoping for a fight.” Hecate says seconds before she steps backward off the edge, gravity dragging her downward to the city below, daggers in both hands. She always keeps them hidden about her person, but Ares had no clue Athena had kept herself armed and ready all this time. The revelation makes him chuckle as he heaves himself forward roaring loudly. He hasn’t been in battle for a very long time and he’d be lying if he said he hasn’t missed it. His sisters are right, Hades needs to be stopped. Ares just never thought their return to battle would be against one of their own. In fact, he realises, he has no clue who he imagined they would be facing in their return to battle. All he knows is that he never expected it to be another Olympian. Oh Hades, what have you done, Ares thinks, as he clenches his fists tightly around the shafts of his twin axes, which he has pulled from across his back.

Nemesis tears through the drones without quarter as she spins, parries, dodges and swirls. Her blades tear through the rotten flesh and cybernetics without a care. She realises these drones are weaker than the ones she faced before, but none of that answers who is leading them or how they got here. Olympus is built into a mountain and its only entrance is the huge solid twin doors she walked right through. Besides the balcony at the peak of the mountain that is. But no one could have entered through there, so that leaves the doors. She has to admit she cannot fathom what could have cleaved their way through them as she spins, her blades cutting the drones to ribbons, clearing the area around her as Ares, Hecate and Athena arrive and gather around her.

“So what’s the plan?” Hecate asks.

“Save the citizens and drive them back.” Athena replies.

“Good plan. You do that. I’m going to satiate my bloodlust.” Nemesis retorts with a grin as she launches herself off one of the upper levels toward the lowest level of Olympus.

“Nem, wait!” Hecate exclaims, but it’s too late, Nemesis is gone and just as a swarm of drones descends upon the three of them.

Ares goes into a rage, his axes flailing left and right as he decimates the drones, while Athena blocks with her shield and then stabs with her spear. But the three Olympians quickly realise rending their attackers does little to pause their assaults as one launches itself at Hecate knocking her to the ground. However, the raven haired Olympian simply explodes into a frenzy of stabs, tearing the flesh of the drone to confetti in the moments before she throws it from atop her only to see the thing rise, awkwardly and unsteadily backs to its feet.

“They really don’t like staying down.” Ares roars as he swings his axes so they cross one another right before him. One swung high, the other low. The drones caught in the swipes are sliced in three as others leap atop his back, stabbing furiously at his flesh.

Athena slams the butt of her spear down sending out a small seismic wave that throws the drones from their feet while Hecate leaps atop Ares and slices at the attackers on his shoulders.

“Did Nemesis say how she stopped them?” Athena asks as she blocks a fresh wave with her shield. The drones metal claws scraping and clawing at the edges, some of which catch her legs, but she feels no pain from the wounds as her metallic bones hold strong.

“No. We didn’t get to that part.” Hecate shouts back as she is hauled from Ares back in the moments before his mighty fists pull them away so that they are no longer continuing to pile up on top of her. He squeezes his fists tight and the drones’ bodies shatter and break before he hurls them at yet more of the swarm around them. These crushed examples don’t rise again, but their battered brethren hit by the crushed bodies do.

“Looks like crushing them works.” Ares bellows as he unleashes upon them with his fists, pummelling some of them into the rock before crushing them into small balls which he slings at the seemingly limitless supply of entities rushing their position.

“How many has Hades got?” Athena asks as she throws her shield. It spins in a wide arch around her beheading the drones as she blocks and then jabs with her spear. Then she ducks allowing her shield to continue its widening arch as two of the drones slam her to the floor, face first. They claw at her back, tearing at the armour and flesh below it. She feels no pain, but she knows the damage they are causing to her as the claws strike her metal bones, shaking her body.

Hecate throws herself headlong at the pair of attackers ripping at Athena. Each dagger is driven into a skull as she sails through the air, her momentum dragging them off of the pinned Olympian who raises her hand to find Ares mighty hand extended toward her. With his other hand he continues to crush and pummel at their attackers.

Athena takes his hand and is hauled back to her feet. Her back is a shredded mess of blood, thick and dark which her augmentations are attempting to apply temporary remedies too so that she can keep battling. It’s a times like this she wishes she had augmentations like Nemesis.

Athena has to admit Hades has outdone himself both in terms of his insanity as well as his ingenuity. She abhors him for his actions, but believes this may very well be the toughest fight of their lives and she isn’t sure they can win.

“What about Nem?” Hecate asks as she kicks the second of the drones off the edge of this upper tier, the pierced skull still skewered on her blade as the body drops. She returns to the fray using the skewered cyber organic skulls to bludgeon the drones.

“We have to worry about the citizens.” Athena calls as she batters some of the attackers with her spear.

“But Hades!” Ares protests.

“There aren’t enough of us.” Athena reasons.

“We have to save the city.” She continues as she unleashes another small seismic wave that knocks the drones around her off their feet.