Young Writers Society

"We're from the beginning of Ancient Greece's reign," Hades replied. Darkness impatiently licked the air around his sword. It wasn't technically correct - Perse came just a bit later. But the time difference was so insignificant that it wasn't worth bringing up.

"And even if you are older than us," Perse added, "there is a large group of gods that support us. All of us are very skilled at what we do, and we'll make sure that you two are punished even after you die."

"How do you know I can die?"

Perse and Hades briefly exchanged looks. The thought hadn't crossed either of their minds, though for good reason. That would mean that she was a god like they were, but that didn't make sense. They would have heard at least something about her before now! Even if it was just in passing conversation, someone like her wouldn't have gone unnoticed.

"If you can't die, we have some very top notch prisons," Hades replied, though it lacked the same effect the earlier threat had held.

All three of Cerberus' heads barked in agreement.

"Really? How do you know that I haven't ESCAPED from said very top notch prisons?"

"You don't," he answers. "But there's not."

"Say it in Demonic."

He repeats the words in the language.

Jeanine sighs. "Fine."

Alex listened to the back and forth between Deedee and Hades and Perse with a twitching grin on his face, yet for the time, he held his tongue, awaiting the moment to spring into action, should it come.



James nodded at Jeanine's orders to gather as many supplies as possible and departed from her, first, attending to the escaped hotel residents and helping them get moved under the trees, in the shade. He went first to Cynthia, who was still sobbing.

He knelt down beside her, and put a hand on her back. "C'mon, I'll help you get moving."

Cynthia cried as he carefully picked her up, with the help of another able fellow, but arrived at what would be their makeshift 'medical center.' James took off his raincoat, and laid it on the ground before they set Cynthia down on it. Returning to the other injured residents, he helped get the others over before running off towards the burning hotel to rummage for anything of use.

Hades held up his sword. "We would have heard about you if you did," he said, preparing to attack or defend himself. He was unsure of what was going to happen next. He also wished to avoid any major conflict, but he was almost completely certain that they wouldn't come quietly. "And you certainly haven't escaped from Tartarus."

Jeanine runs from person to person, tending to their wounds. "Hey, James? Give them mirrors too. They need the Woman's and her twin's protection,"

--

"Are you so sure about that? Maybe I belong to the Roman gods, or to the Christian ones. The possibilities are endless."

Just as Perse opened his mouth to give some sort of a retort - most likely about how they also were the Roman gods - Hades realized how they weren't focusing on the matter at hand. Bombs had gone off in a hotel, with countless people injured in the blasts. Arguing about their power and backgrounds wasn't important.

Getting justice was, though he wasn't sure where to start. "It doesn't matter," he cut Perse off before he could even begin to speak. "The fact is that we're here to fight you and serve justice. That could happen in the realm of the living or the dead. Either way, you'll be punished for what you did!"

"By you?" Alex asked, one brow raised. He scoffed, seemingly unimpressed, then sighed. "I was hoping for a different way to go."

DeeDee rolls her eyes. "How do you know I'm not a goddess myself? A secret goddess, if you will."

"Then we'll still fight you," the god of the dead replied, prepared to strike after Alex or DeeDee attacked first. He needed to get a taste of their fighting style before he could decide what he needed to do to combat it. "If you're secretly a goddess, we'll just have to skip the killing bit and throw you in prison right after the battle. It's as simple as that. You wouldn't have been the first god to have been imprisoned."