[indent][b][u]December 25th, 0232 Hours
Mount Olympus[/u][/b][/indent]


Ted’s brow furrowed slightly at his cousin’s rather… [i]theatrically blatant[/i] threat, glancing back toward Karen with no small amount of concern in his eyes, even as he maintained a stiff upper-lip through it all.

This seemed like a terrible idea, and he was clearly thinking that as his eyes flicked back towards their foe, sitting so smug and chewing the absolute hell out of the scenery on her stolen throne, before finally they knit shut and a weary sigh escaped him.

[color=maroon][i]’Aw, fuck me- Sam’s gonna [b]ream me out[/b] for this one...’[/i][/color]

[color=maroon]”Ya heard the crazy, genocidal lady, Kiddo.”[/color] He finally managed to say as he lifted his hands out of his pockets, his skin beginning to peel back once again- though not only on his hands as before, but his face as well. [color=maroon]”...Off ya go.”[/color]

Karen looked up at Ted, looking rather shocked that he thought she would be capable of doing such a thing by herself.

But then, the woman on the throne had apparently left them with little alternative in that regard. If either of them attempted to help her, she would surely attack all three of them right then and there.

And given that she felt confident about taking the two of them on, Karen didn’t feel like her contribution would make much of a difference.

Sensing her discomfort, Ted took a moment to give her a small, reassuring grin. Even while the skin on his face was starting to peel off, revealing increasingly hot, ember-like flesh.

[color=maroon]”Kid, you just fought your way to the top of [i]Olympus.[/i] Even with our help, that’s a first in history.”[/color] He snorted away her worries dismissively. [color=maroon]”Don’t worry, you’ll think of something clever- You always do.”[/color] 

[color=orchid]”...Okay,”[/color] she frowned up at Ted. [color=orchid]”I’ll um…try and be quick.”[/color]

A small chuckle escaped the diminutive Titan at that.

[color=maroon]”Take yer time...”[/color] He called after her with something resembling confidence. [color=maroon][b]”...I made it through President King and ‘Nam. This should be a cakewalk.”[/b][/color]

Karen had already started heading for the golden doors to her left, only to freeze in place at Ted’s words. She glanced back over her shoulder at the Titan in confusion.

There had been a sense of familiarity about him since he had first arrived, but she hadn’t been able to place her finger on it. Now...it seemed so [i]obvious[/i]. That old man back in the alley, when she had first been given the mantle of Wizard...it was [i]him![/i]

...He really [i]wasn’t[/i] in any danger back then. Shazam, you rotten liar. Heh.

Sprinting towards the doors again at full speed, Karen slammed her hands against them, forcing them apart. Soon, the teen was through them and out of sight as she dashed down the long hallway behind them.

“Well, then,” Eris finally spoke again, rising to her feet. “Who would like to be the first to obtain their shiny golden ticket straight to Tartarus?”

Still smiling slightly after Karen, Ted’s eyes flicked back to his brother as Eris spoke, finding him looking right back with his arms crossed and a quietly smug look on his face, despite the situation they were in.

[color=silver]”You [i]sure[/i] that’s not your kid, Ted?”[/color] The older Titan asked one last time, as his massive musculature began to slowly harden and glow, smiling ruefully the whole while.

[color=maroon]”Like ya said, Laz...”[/color] The younger brother responded with a small chuckle, as his eyes began to pulse a violent, fiery red and the ground began to shake malevolently [color=maroon]”...They’re [i]all[/i] my kids.”[/color]

And then, to the unimaginable screaming of the very air around them burning and the thunderous, earth-shaking force of two Titanic hearts beating like the drums of war the pair vanished in a massive inferno, obscuring them from view and causing the marble columns of the throneroom to buckle and crack under the combined thermal and percussive force of what was happening.

When it subsided, there was a glowing crater. And in it, stood the [i]Sons of Iapetus[/i], in their true flesh-

[url=https://s9.postimg.org/7bz6m1jxb/Bearer-of-the-_Heavens-_Mt_G-_Art.0.0.jpg]Enduring Atlas, Bearer of the Heavens and the personification of overwhelming strength[/url] and [url=https://s17.postimg.org/pflcq2jxr/prometheus_god_of_flame_level_4_by_billcreative-d6beqku.jpg]Prometheus, the Bringer of Fire and former Champion of Mankind.[/url]

“Gasp!” Eris clasped her cheeks in mock amazement, before smirking. “I see you two still haven’t lost your penchant for theatrics.”

[color=maroon]”Said the girl with the black lipstick and the movie one-liners.”[/color] Prometheus retorted mockingly, indicating towards his cousin with his burning hammer. [color=maroon]”Now are we gonna do this or what?”[/color]

Eris stepped forward down the golden stairs that preceded her throne. Once she had reached their base, she folded her arms and lifted gently into the air above them. Staring down at the Titans, her black lips parted into a grin.

“Come then, let’s find out if your pathetic existence as a human has dulled that flame of yours!”

Without warning, her dark wings swept forward to encapsulate her slender form. This lasted for only a brief moment, however, for they soon parted with stone-shattering kinetic force. Black feathers rained down at the two deities, and those that struck the golden floor erupted in brief-yet-blinding flashes of light.

While the size of the blasts were not terribly impressive, the concentration of power in each of them was more than enough to harm even the likes of them.

[color=silver]”Kids these days…”[/color] Atlas grunted as he dug his foot into the golden floor and ripped a massive chunk of it, large enough to shield both he and his brother, upward and then forward towards his cousin and the massive volley of death headed their way with a thunderous kick from his other foot [color=silver]”...And what’s the deal with the [i]golden freakin’ [b]everything,[/b][/i] anyhow? Isn’t that a bit too much, even for people like us?”[/color] 

[color=maroon]”Zeus’ idea.”[/color] Prometheus replied dryly, with a slight click of his tongue as he raised his free hand toward the still-moving ribbon of solid gold and firing what appeared to be the teensiest little spark of a fireball into it, which violently burst outward in an immense explosion of tactically compressed fire-magic, (hopefully) engulfing the rest of the doom-feathers in it’s wake as well giving the wave of moving metal a superheated second kick of momentum [color=maroon]”I wanted to go with marble, seemed a bit less… [i]opulent.[/i] But ya know who’s [i]always right...[/i]”[/color]

Eris calmly raised her arm at the approach of molten metal, backhanding it away as if swatting an annoying fly.

Stretching out her hands towards them following this, her grin grew darker as she spoke; “Rot.”

Pouring from her palms was what could only be described as raw, untempered [i]pestilence and decay[/i], a black miasma that swept over the throne room and threatened to engulf the two deities in a deadly fog.

“You’re both boring me,” Eris said, lulling her head to the side. “At least make our first reunion in millennia [i]interesting![/i]”

[color=maroon]”Oh, ya hear that? We’re [i]boring[/i] her.”[/color] The Firebringer noted with a hint of amusement as he casually hefted his hammer to his shoulder and raised his free hand once again.

[color=silver]”Oh, we can’t have that, can we?”[/color] The Heaven-Bearer added with mock thoughtfulness as he rubbed his hands together in a deliberately mocking fashion.

[color=maroon]”So… [i]Akkad Maneuver?[/i]”[/color]

[color=silver][i]”Akkad Maneuver.”[/i][/color]

With that decided, Prometheus clenched his fist shut for a brief second, before snapping it open again as it glowed white hot and unleashed a yet another, even more dense ball of compressed fire straight into the encroaching cloud of agonizing death and the face of the Goddess standing in the middle of it as Atlas reeled his massive arms back and brought them together in a thunderous sonic clap that dwarfed all others he’d done that day by a wide margin and, more importantly, [i]forced a colossal amount of oxygen into the already hyper-dense, explosive ball of fire.[/i]

The effect was immediate, as a miniature sun abruptly came into being where Eris stood with an impossibly loud-

[center][b][color=red][h1]BANG![/h1][/color][/b][/center]


Which, hopefully, caught her attention at [i]least[/i] long enough for her to lose her grip on her magic murder-fog... if it didn’t already dissipate in the leviathan explosion.

The gas Eris had spawned had been instantly burned away by the miniature sun, and no more appeared afterwards.  For a time, it was difficult to see what exactly had become of the Goddess of discord, the light of the newly born star obscuring her comparatively miniscule form. Then, the sun began to flash and oscillate violently…

Like water being sucks into a drain, the star began to dim. Soon, it was shrinking, and shrinking fast at that. It was at that point that they were finally able to see the form of Eris again, her mouth pressed against the dying star. After another few moments, what was once a golden orb of stellar power was reduced to a mere white spark, which was quickly consumed as well.

Wiping her mouth with her arm, Eris smiled down at them. “Well, guess I’ll be laying off the Vitamin D supplements until next month. Anything else?”

For a moment after Eris had just swallowed what was essentially a small thermonuclear explosion [i]aimed directly at her face[/i], there was a pregnant pause. Broken only by the slumping of the Firebringer’s shoulders and a small sigh.

[color=maroon]”...Yeah, that just figures, dunnit?”[/color] He finally said with a weary shake of his head and a slightly annoyed glint to his smoldering eyes.

[color=silver]”Well, c’mon, we both knew it wasn’t gonna be [i]that[/i] easy.”[/color] Atlas added with a shrug as he popped his knuckles [color=silver]”So... ’Deep End’ it is, then?”[/color]    

[color=maroon]”Eeeyup.”[/color] 

With that agreed, Prometheus abruptly snapped his fingers and disappeared in a burst of flame, just as Atlas dug his heel into the golden floor and rocketed forward, his immense strength propelling him with such speed that he seemed to simply vanish in a loud blast as he made the sound-barrier his bitch. Fist cocked low to deliver the mother of all gut-punches as his brother came back into being behind and a little to the side of the Goddess of Discord, already swinging his burning hammer directly at the back of her neck with all of his Titanic might, one thing became perfectly clear-

[b]The Sons of Iapetus weren’t fucking around anymore.[/b]

“Uh oh!” Eris gasped when Prometheus vanished, her eyes settling instead on Atlas as he rocketed towards her with likely enough force to shatter the Earth into dust. His brother, too, had now descending on her from the opposite side. It seemed like they were getting serious.

She supposed it was time to return the favor.

Twisting in midair so that they were now closing in on either side of her,  she raised a single hand for each of them, closing her eyes as Prometheus’ hammer and Atlas’ fist were respectively stopped dead by her outstretched palms. “Uh oh.”

Gripping both Atlas’ fist and Prometheus’ hammer, she sharply jerked the latter forward and issued him a kick to the stomach with a force that would even make Zeus pale in horror. She then released her hold on the hammer and brought her now free hand up beneath Atlas’ chin in an equally devastating uppercut. “Uh oh…”

A wet sound, as well as a small spatter of blood that resembled molten steel escaped the Firebringer’s mouth as he hurtled backward under the ludicrous force of Eris’s kick, only able to stop his rearward momentum by digging his hammer into the shining floor of the throne room.

[color=maroon][i]’Well... that kinda sucked…’[/i][/color] He groaned internally as he finally slid to a stop, struggling to rise back up and take a knee, even as the combination of his divine nature and the old Curse of Zeus began knitting his thoroughly damaged insides back together. [color=maroon][i]’Probably should try to avoid any more of those…’[/i][/color]

Casting an appraising glance back towards his… deceptively [i]dainty[/i] cousin, he somehow found the strength to produce a sound that was honestly trying to be a chuckle, but came out more of a gargle as he spat more glowing onto the floor.

[color=maroon]”Well, [i]you’ve[/i] clearly been eating your wheaties.”[/color] He finally managed with his usual, dry humour as he steadied himself on his hammer [color=maroon]”Ya been hitting the gym recently or what?”[/color]  

Eris stared down at him with a slight smile.

“If by ‘the gym’, you mean Tartarus, then yes,” she replied. “In fact, I managed to hit it so hard that I dislodged a spark of the Godwave from it.”

Lowering her hand, she rubbed her stomach. “Now it’s in here, granting me power beyond anything you could ever imagine.”

A moment of silence followed that statement, as Prometheus just stared at his cousin in incredulous silence, clearly trying to wrap his head around that one.

[color=maroon]”You… [i]ate[/i] a piece of the Godwave?”[/color] he finally asked, with a tone that strongly suggested that [i]that[/i] was perhaps one of the most ludicrous things he’d ever heard in his immortal life. [color=maroon]”...Are you [i]stupid[/i]?”[/color]  

Eris tilted her head in confusion at his remark.

“And whatever is the problem with that? I’ve effectively become a primordial!” She spread her arms, grinning broadly. “The equal of the oldest beings in the universe. I fail to see any error in obtaining such a magnificent power.”

Leaning slightly more on his hammer and cocking his brow, Prometheus didn’t relent.

[color=maroon]”You’ve spent millennia living in a massive massive golden palace atop of a massive magic mountain surrounded by the most egotistical and prideful beings that ever existed. And not one of them ever tried it.”[/color]  The Firebringer explained, almost as though he found himself in the awkward position of having to explain that [i]water is wet.[/i] [color=maroon]”Furthermore, in order to actually [i]get[/i] it, you had to go to a place where both Cronus, ego personified, and my [i]other[/i] brother, the [i]literal God of Arrogance[/i] have been left stewing in their ravenous hatred for the rest of the universe since [i]before you were born...[/i] [i][b]and not one of them tried it either.[/b][/i]”[/color]

Tilting his head slightly, he concluded;

[color=maroon]”...You didn’t think there might be a reason for that?”[/color] 

Eris paused at this, cupping her chin in thought.

A few moments passed between them, the goddess ultimately smiling and offering Prometheus a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. “I imagine they had their reasons… but then, their goals were completely different from my own.”

“I’m not interested in ruling Gaia,” she said, drifting towards the ground. “I’m not even truly interested in ruling Olympus -- it’s just the most effective means to meet my ends. After I defeat you, I’ll allow Cronus to purge Gaia of humanity, so that he can build his new ‘Golden Age’...”

Her lips twisted into a malicious grin as her feet touched the golden floor. “Naturally, he’ll then seek to betray me… he cannot accept any ruler but himself, after all. Even if he somehow doesn’t, I’ll force him to. I’ll unleash devastation on his pathetic little paradise in a war that will last an Age.”

“An [i]Age of Discord[/i].”

Resting her face against her hand, she released a delighted sigh. “It’s all I’ve ever dreamed of, you know? And once I’ve extracted every ounce of suffering that I possibly can from Gaia, I’ll move on to some other world, and start the whole thing over again!”

Prometheus maintained an oddly stoic silence throughout the God of Discord’s monologue, letting her talk unimpeded as the Curse of Zeus finished repairing the damage done by her colossal kick to his gut, the grip on his weapon tightening steadily with every insane, genocidal word that came out of her perfect little mouth.

[color=maroon]”...You are a real piece of work, y’know that, Squirt?”[/color] He finally stated, voice even, calm and for the first time, lacking any trace of his customary wit. [color=maroon]”I’m gonna go have a talk with your parents, why don’t you [i]take a seat.[/i]”[/color]

And it was with those words that Atlas, invulnerable, unimpeded by the crack to his chin earlier and quietly waiting for his chance to do so while the Goddess of Discord prattled on, abruptly [i]ripped Zeus’ throne out of the floor and whipped it at Eris’ head[/i] in one motion. 

The throne slammed into her skull, the metallic chair bending against her form. Reaching up, she pried the now U-shaped seat of the God-King from her body, a brow arched. “Now, I find it hard to believe that you expected that to work. What are you up to?”

[color=maroon]”Wait for it…”[/color] Prometheus simply stated as the force of gravity slid open a pair of hidden compartments on the arms of the throne, where Zeus, being a creature of absolute [i]dogmatic[/i] habit, kept his goodies.

[i]Like his emergency stash of hardened lightning,[/i] the likes of which he had used prolifically throughout the Titanomachy, which came tumbling down toward the floor made of [i]highly conductive metal.[/i]

Time seemed to slow at that moment.

Atlas leapt off the floor.

Prometheus vanished in another burst of flame.

And each and every one of those crystalised warheads of pure electricity [i]shattered[/i] as they hit the floor, engulfing the room in a blinding flash of light and coating every golden inch of it with enough energy to power the Eastern half of North America for a good century or two.

Gold had been replaced with white hot electrical energy, enough to begin melting the ancient throne room that had stood for so many thousands of years and had overseen the entirety of human civilization. Far from mere gold, it had been enchanted by Zeus himself to be [i]nearly[/i] indestructible. It did, however, still have limits.

After what seemed like a solid minute of divine electrical discharge, the blinding light dimmed enough for them to once again see Eris. Her feet had sank into the now liquid gold, which came up to her ankles. Her conductive golden armor had likewise melted, and her hair was now smouldering slightly.

[color=maroon]”So...”[/color] The Firebringer inquired as he burst back into existence above the smoked Goddess, unable to hide his shit-eating grin. [color=maroon][b]"...Still bored?"[/b][/color]

Her eyebrow twighted ever so slightly as she ripped the ruined armor of Zeus from her body and threw it aside. “That...hurt, just a little.”

Her eyes shot up to where Prometheus had reappeared. Her eyes had become abyssal pits of hate, her lips twisting into a sneer. She began to slowly raise her hand towards him.

“But this is going to hurt a [i]lot.”[/i]