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	It was a calm, clear night on the Atlantic Ocean.  Hercules had sailed past the Pillars of Hercules, otherwise known as the Rock of Gibraltar in the north and the northern coast of Morocco in the south, and had found himself deep out at sea.  He checked the constellations in the sky in order to make sure he was in the right spot.  Once he had confirmed his location with the stars, Hercules dove into the sea, descending into its depths.


            At first, the moon’s radiant light, Artemis’ jewel, provided some visibility in the water as Hercules swam down into the darkness of the ocean.  However, as he went further and further down, even the superior eyesight of an Olympian god, let alone a mortal, could hardly see anything at all.  But as he continued his journey, Hercules began to catch sight of some ominous lights shining from below. Those were the lights of Atlantis, the lost continent of old.


            “χαίρετε, Ἀτλαντικοῖ.”  Hercules shouted out once he had entered the city, “Ἡρακλῆς ἥκω!”


            But Hercules did not receive a greeting in return.  In fact, he realized that strange was going on because the entire interior of the Atlantean buildings were drained of their ocean water, which allowed Hercules to speak in the first place.  Something obviously was astray.  Zeus, the Father of Gods and Men, had sent Hercules down to Atlantis in order to retrieve the Omphalos, a powerful magical relic that could teleport its user to a parallel universe of the wielder’s creation.  It could not be a convenience that someone was attacking Atlantis on the same day that Hercules was sent there to retrieve the Omphalos.


            After searching most of the sunken city of Atlantis, Hercules finally found the chamber that housed that powerful relic.  A large security door guarded this room and Hercules would have needed to use his divine strength in order to make it budge if it had not already been open.  Inside the vault, Hercules discovered the culprits of the invasion of Atlantis.


	“Hippolyte”  Hercules growled as he saw once of his old enemies.


	“Hercules, long time no see.”  Hippolyte taunted the greatest of all Greek heroes, “I suppose you are looking for this?”


	At that moment, Hippolyte held up an old, cylindrical object that had engravings carved around its sides.  This was indeed the Omphalos.


	“I suppose that you’ll not going hand over that relic to me.”  Hercules asked.


	“It’s far too late for that, son of Zeus.”  Hippolyte declared, “For on this day, I shall reshape this world in the image of myself and my sisters!”


	“You do realize that relic will only create a self-contained universe, right?”


	“Silence!”  Hippolyte yelled at the lion-hearted son of Zeus, “Do not spoil my final victory!”


	The Amazon queen raised the Omphalos above her head.  At that moment, a blue light began radiating out of the open top of the relic, while at the same time the same light was slipping out of the carving on the object’s side.  This blue light started to swirl around the chamber, just like a whirlpool spinning around is a glass of water.  Faster and faster did it rotate around the room until the light filled the entire room.  But almost as fast as it had filled the chamber, just as quickly did the light flow back into the top opening of the Omphalos.  Once the blue light had finally receded back into the relic, if one were present in that room, you would have been shocked to find that no one else was left in the room.

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*English translation: "Greetings, Atlanteans. I, Herakles, have arrived!"