Chapter 7: Boy Meets World: Part Two
“Okay, just to make sure, are you planning to just drop us down in the middle of the town?”
Kali asked the question as she pocketed her cell phone, having been playing some game on it as we flew. At the moment I was inside the sphere with her Athena since I just wasn’t fast enough to keep up with Joan when she got up to full speed in her angelic form, and Athena had elected to join me.
It was kind of funny that this topic hadn’t come up earlier. In my mind, I’d just taken it as given that if we got there earlier then we’d just find somewhere to hunker down and stake out the address we’d been given. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me we’d do anything else until Kali brought it up.
“I had not thought to,” Joan replied, her voice passing into the globe that held us without interference from the wind or the barrier of light. “We have our time and location, would it not be best to conceal ourselves and wait for whatever opportunity shall present itself?”
Okay, it looked like the resurrected Saint had the same thoughts as me, Kali on the other hand . . .
“Sounds safe, but it also sounds boring!” the black-haired goddess commented. “Wouldn’t it be more fun to make a splash? Might be better for Adam too. I say, let’s set down in the city square!”
“Huh?”
I hadn’t been expecting to be drawn into this conversation since choices like that seemed over my pay grade for the time being. Being the subject of the conversation, on the other hand . . .
“How would such a blatant discarding of any chance of stealth be worth it?”
It was Hadriel who asked the question, her voice carrying just as easily as Joan’s. I could see where she was coming from, keeping a low profile would help get the drop on whatever was going to happen.
“There are advantages to more overt action,” Athena commented, her calm tone making me think of a librarian holding a sword. “Adam shall need to establish a public persona sooner or later, especially if he wishes for others to respect him. If this oracle is as accurate as you believe it could be used to build the foundation of a reputation.”
“Greecey has a point,” Kali agreed. “He’s gotta start somewhere, showing up in a decent-sized city with us, especially you Joan, could give him a big boost off the starting line. If we play it right, we could also have the authorities on our side, that could be a major help if things get messy.”
“Oui, there may be some advantage to that.” Joan agreed. “What I fear is that Adam showing himself in such a public manner may attract the attention of those that tried to interfere in his Awakening. Making it a simpler matter to find him seems unwise.”
“When they last attempted to assault him, they struck when he was at his most vulnerable and when you were alone in protecting him,” Hadriel commented. “The forces acting in his defence are now far stronger. Indeed, it would be to our advantage if they attempted something so foolish once more, it would be a fine opportunity to deal with them.”
“Hey, let’s try not to kick off a fight in the middle of the city if we can avoid it,” I suggested, waving my arm to try and get the angel’s attention.
“Probably wouldn’t be too much of a fight,” Kali replied. “According to God girl over there you got jumped by a bunch of meat puppets stuffed with hellfire, right? The only way things got as bad as they did was because they also had that golem to help out. If they try hittin’ us again with that level of muscle . . . well, sometimes being stupid is a terminal condition.”
True. I might not have seen too much of what either of the goddesses was capable of, but I was pretty sure they’d go through those homunculi monsters like a chainsaw through fresh cheese. Throw in Joan and Hadriel, neither of whom could just be dismissed, and me for good measure, and that did make quite the woodchipper to stick your hand into.
“Enlisting the aid of the Authorities of this city would be a boon,” Athena commented. “Though the oracle was precise, it was lacking in detail. Having more resources to call upon would grant us greater options if circumstances take an unexpected turn.”
“I gotta agree,” I chimed in. “It would suck if we get there all geared up for a fight and it turns out that I’m meant to defuse a bomb or something.”
Not that I was expecting a bomb. I doubted that a prophecy from an angel would have me going there to manage something so mundane. Of course . . . if it was a nuclear bomb or something on that scale, might that be a different matter? I could feel the butterflies in my stomach starting to take on new life and vigour as further possibilities started to pile up in my imagination.
“Perhaps you are right,” Joan allowed. “It could be that I am being overly cautious when some bolder action is called for. The cooperation of the local forces de l’ordre may be a wiser option than simply operating on our own.”
“Very well, but do you know where they can be found? This is a sizable city.” Athena enquired, raising a valued argument.
There was a pause as we all looked around. Unsurprisingly there wasn’t a large flashing neon sign helpfully pointing out the location of the main local police station. Or at least, not where we could see it.
“Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to find them, right? We can just ask someone. It’s not like it’s some huge secret.” I suggested, then realised the problem with such an approach.
“Should we risk making such a public spectacle? If we descend it is not going to go unnoticed.”
Joan voiced my worries even as they occurred to me, but Kali didn’t seem concerned.
“What's the worst that can happen? Adam’s gotta make an appearance sooner or later, so this is as good a place as any. What, did you want him to touch down in front of Buckingham Palace and have Arthur declare him the rightful protector of all that is good? Y’know that life’s never that easy, right?”
“A lower-key introduction to the world at large may be a good idea,” Athena commented. “It can serve as a testing of the waters prior to a more . . . public revelation.”
“There is nothing in the general area that I can sense that could be a threat,” Hadriel commented. “I shall ensure his safety, so pursue and course you choose.”
“Adam?” Joan asked. “What do you think?”
Wait, I was meant to choose? When did I end up being the last vote? Were we voting? Ahhh, what had the others said?!
I did my best to keep my face straight and my burst of panic under control. Seriously, why was I being given the final choice? They were the ones with lifetimes of experience, an agent of god, a warrior angel, and two goddesses, what was I next to that? If anyone was meant to choose how I should be revealed to the world shouldn’t I be someone more qualified than me?
Except . . . this was my life wasn’t it? no matter how crazy things got or what kind of forces got involved it was still my life. And if I started giving up control of it because I was getting cold feet over making decisions . . . well, where would that end?
Was that why Joan was giving me this choice now, or was I just reading too much into it? well, it didn’t really matter, I wasn’t about to let someone else start leading me around like a horse wearing blinkers, I wanted to take the reins of my own life damn it!
Looking down at Le Havre from where we were, up in the sky, I could see a couple of green areas, parks I guessed. That’d be as good a place as any. Probably plenty of people, but not as many as in a major shopping area. Fewer cars too, and that was something to keep in mind. If we came down too near to some roads I wouldn’t put it past some drivers to rubber neck on seeing us, leading to the kinds of piles ups that you normally only see on the news as some sort of disaster.
Okay, so . . . somewhere away from roads. Somewhere that hit that sweet spot between too many and too few people. Somewhere large enough that we could touch down without flattening anything important.
“Right, how about we go with that park just down there?”
My companions looked at where I was pointing, and then Joan nodded.
“It is as good as any other location,” She allowed. “Very well, we shall descend there. Prepare yourself.”
As the sphere of solid light I was in began to fall I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d made the right choice. Well, it was too late, I’d just have to roll with whatever punches came my way.
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For Avril, it was a normal day. Well, as normal as things could be after the Black Sun. She enjoying the sun and reading a magazine at her favourite park. It was something she’d done on sunny days for some years running, ever since she was a teen looking up details on the latest hot bands and hot boys. Now though, the magazine she was reading was called ‘God Watch’ and was filled with the latest news about what gods were doing in America.
The big news at the moment was that another deity had arrived in Hollywood to try the life of a superstar. Surprisingly it was one from the Egyptian pantheon this time, a goddess by the name of Meret. Avril had never heard of her before, but, according to the article, the goddess was a deity tied to acts of rejoicing, such as singing, dancing and storytelling. Though a relatively minor goddess in her pantheon there was frantic media attention as her first film went into preproduction.
There were other articles, of course. Some gossip about Zeus being found in a compromising position with a another company’s principal model. Speculation about who some demigod in Brazil was dating. New fashions popping up in China. All of it was so . . . so new, so exciting
Honestly, she didn’t mind how much the world had changed, not really. Her small part of it hadn’t been impacted all that badly, and the rest of it seemed to have been refreshed. What had once been a pleasant but slightly boring life had been spiced up. It was like she was watching the world’s greatest movie premiere of all time!
Of course, when a pair of angels descended to the pavement only a few dozen feet from her, along with a big globe of golden light containing some more indistinct figures, the movie experience suddenly became a lot more real.
At first, she’d thought that maybe it was just a remarkably vivid daydream, or that she’d nodded off while reading her magazine and she was dreaming for real. It was only when she dropped her magazine that it came home to her that this was happening.
She was suddenly paralysed by indecision. Should she run? Should she stay? There could be danger here, she was all too aware of how easily violence could follow the returned legends, the sort of violence that was only safe in a comic book. But . . . when would she have another chance like this? When would she be able to see angels with her own eyes?
Other people were reacting now, and she could see a knot of them starting to form at the edge of the park area. She noted that it seemed to be mainly made of men, which she supposed wasn’t too much of a surprise. The angel with the red wings looked like she should be sunning herself on a beach somewhere, given what she was wearing. The other one might be wearing more, but it didn’t do much to hide her looks. Avril might not think of herself as beautiful, but she knew she was pretty. Seeing these two now left her feeling intensely inadequate.
Even with that blow to her ego, it was still worth it to hang around and watch. There was something . . . electrifying to being here, to see it with her own eyes. Seeing people gathering, hearing the growing murmur of joined voices. Also, the angels didn’t seem to be stressed or ready to fight. So, this should be safe, right?
Any further thoughts that she might have had came to a screeching halt as the globe of light faded and revealed those within.
First to catch her eyes were the two women. Both of them were tall, really tall, especially the blonde one. Avril wasn’t quite sure but given then they towered over the angels by a full head, at least, she guessed they were well over six feet. On anyone else it might have looked unusual or out of place, but with these women . . .
If the angels had left her feeling a bit inadequate, then these two made Avril feel almost disfigured by comparison. To simply call them beautiful was an understatement of almost criminal proportions! Everything about them seemed perfect, their faces, their bodies, their hair, their very posture, all of it. Rather than them being too tall she felt as though it was her that was disgustingly stunted. Compared to them she was ugly, malformed, defective. They were perfection, while she was all too clearly marred to ever measure up.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
In some effort to preserve her crumbling self-image Avril looked away, turning her attention to the others in the park, trying to gauge their reactions to these . . . these paragons of beauty. She felt a small stab of petty vindication as she saw jealousy and dismay all too clear on the faces of many of the other women present. Knowing that she wasn’t the only one suffering a minor identity crisis helped soothe her damaged ego. Then she noticed how the men were acting and felt a touch of amused pity. Some were staring goggle-eyed, some with a stunned, almost bovine, expression of mindlessness as though their brains had shut down. Some were flushing bright red while others seemed to have paled impressively. One and all they looked as though they could have been hit in the face with a live fish and they wouldn’t have even noticed. Then she saw the expression on the faces of a few of them, and she felt her amusement wither into something . . . sour.
Their looks reminded her of the alcoholics she’d served when she’d worked at a bar. The ones that had been refused their tenth drink. The ones that had to be kicked out when they got desperate.
Now she was seeing that look again in the faces of these men as they saw the two women. There was a lust, a craving and need that was edging towards desperation far too quickly.
Of course, even this need was being tempered by fear and caution. Yes, those women were beautiful enough to make even a straight woman have some unexpected thoughts, but they were also just as intimidating. Just by looking at them, you could tell that they weren’t . . . normal. The air around them felt heavy, even from way over where Avril was still sitting. More than that though, everything about them seemed to be more, just more. It was as though there was too much of them there for the space they occupied, as though their tall forms were somehow the concentration of something that should have been a hundred times larger. The men and boys that looked on might be captivated, but some small primitive part of them still screamed at them not to put their heads into the tiger’s mouth.
Avril’s eyes returned to the . . . women? Goddesses? Angels without wings? She had no way of knowing what they were, only that they sure as hell weren’t regular mortals. Whatever the case, as she looked back at them her eyes were drawn to the last member of the small group.
The first thing she noticed was that it was another angel, those white wings were huge, bigger than those of the other two. The next thing she noticed was that unlike everyone else in the group, this was a guy. Sure, he was facing away from her, but she could tell by the set of his shoulders and what she could see of his hips. Well, it was either a guy or a really butch female angel. She was just having an internal chuckle at that thought when he turned, and she got a good look at his face.
If the women had brought her thoughts to a screeching halt, then the sight of this man caused her train of thought to fly off the rails, crash into an imaginary mountain and then explode in a massive fireball.
Avril didn’t think of herself as shallow, she wasn’t someone who just chased after someone just for their looks. Sure, she liked a handsome face as much as the next girl, but she’d always held a sort of lofty pity for those girls that lost their heads when faced with some pretty boy type
Such thoughts didn’t even raise a peep in her head as she gazed at that . . . that divine face.
Divine, that was a good word for it, beyond human, perfect, sculpted by the hands of the greatest god of all and then placed on a pedestal to be worshipped. Snowy white hair as radiant as his wings, dark tanned skin that shone with a smoothness and vitality no mortal could match, eyes the colour of molten gold. All of it served to frame and highlight features so fine and flawless that she could feel her heart ache just to look at them.
Before she knew it, she was on her feet, stumbling towards the group, her magazine dropped behind her. She didn’t have any real plan, she just wanted to be closer to him, to be able to get a better look. Already she could see the way his shirt was hugging muscles that stood out against the cloth in a manner that could only be called ‘delicious’. Every step closer seemed to bring some new, tantalising, detail into focus. Vaguely she was aware of other movement around her, but she paid it no mind.
All she cared about was the beautiful man before her.
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Setting down in the city port felt good. It had been about a month since I’d had to leave my home, but it seemed like so much longer. I’d gotten used to the wide-open fields surrounding the farmhouse, to the distant woods and the even wider-open sky. Of course, being stuck in the Sanctuary led to me feeling increasingly antsy as my wanderlust started to build. The new skyline, the new environment, something about it managed to scratch an itch that had been building.
“Hello. Could you direct us to the main police station?”
Hearing Joan asking the question in French brought me back to the present, a note of interest rising up in me as I noted I could understand her perfectly. There wasn’t even that weird translation effect that I’d had while talking to Etienne, that had been different. Back then I’d gotten the words through the link we’d shared they’d been in French, which I hadn’t understood. The meaning of each word had come through the link though, so even if I hadn’t understood I’d still known what he was saying.
Now . . . Did I know French? When had that happened? What was really shocking was just how natural it sounded. Over the last few weeks, I’d grown used to Joan peppering her words with some French here and there, but it wasn’t as though I’d understood it all. Most of it I’d gotten from context, nothing more. Or, at least, that’s what I’d thought. Had another ability been kicking in?
“Uuuuuh . . . urgmuum . . . uyumuhhuh!”
Or maybe not? I thought that I was clearly understanding French, but now all I could hear was gibberish coming out of the mouth of the guy Joan had asked. Was this new power on the fritz right after I got it?
“I . . . Uh . . . I . . . I . . . I know where! I . . . I go past it every day! I . . . I . . . Where is it?”
Or maybe the poor guy had just been reduced to mindless babbling when faced with my companions. It was a combination of besotted stupidity and absolute panic that would have been funny if I had seen it on a TV screen. In real life . . . there was something pitiable about it, but also something slightly disturbing.
“I KNOW WHERE IT IS!”
The guy Joan had asked was suddenly shoved to the side by someone else, someone whose smile had an edge of mania to it. His eyes were too wide, his expression too intense. He seems to be only just holding himself back from doing . . . something, his muscles twitching with pent-up energy.
“BACK OFF! I . . . I KNOW!”
The first man didn’t take the shove passively though, coming back as soon as he’d regained his balance, but that wasn’t until after he stumbled into someone else. That man had been in a daze as well, staring at Kali with a rather disturbing intensity, but as soon as he was jostled he seemed to snap out of it. Unfortunately, the first thing he did was to lunge towards us, uncaring of who he barrelled through. Those he disturbed seemed to snap back to reality as well and . . .
“Hey! HEY!!”
His lunge was brought short as he was grabbed from behind by one of the people he’d shoved. Without even taking his eyes off the dark-haired goddess the man lashed out, blindly swinging at whoever was holding him back. The blow was a glancing one, but it provoked a vicious response in return sending the two men sprawling.
Right into more of those that had been standing around in a daze.
I watched with a sort of horrified fascination as the whole thing went down like dominos one after another. Someone would be knocked back to reality, and then get dragged into the fight, which would in turn drag more people in and get bigger, then reach more people. What was even worse was the blindly aggressive and mindless way people were acting. More often than not they’d be focused on the women with me, at least until something got in their way, then they’d focus on getting rid of it with almost maniacal intensity.
It all happened so fast that I found myself stunned, unsure of what to do. Yes, I could have used my arcana TK to pull them apart, to stop the fights and settle things down, but I found myself stunned by the sudden intensity of it. I’m sure that if I’d had a few more seconds, then I would have pulled myself together and done something practical. However, I didn’t get those seconds.
“MARRY ME!!”
“NO! ME!!”
“I WANT YOUR BABIES!!”
The shouts came from the side and came so suddenly that I nearly jumped out of my skin. More shockingly, the voices were unmistakably feminine. I turned to face them, expecting to see some women focused on my companions. Internally I was feeling exasperation at the absurdity of the situation. Not just men besotted with them now, but women too.
Any such thoughts vanished from my mind as I turned . . . and realised that the women coming at us weren’t focused on my companions. Rather, I was the one they all had their eyes locked on.
I couldn’t quite put into words how I felt when I realised that every woman and girl in that knot of more than a dozen was staring at me with laser-focused amorous intent as they advanced. I mean, I was a straight guy who had a healthy interest in the fairer sex. Just like any other guy on the planet, I’d dreamt about what it would be like to have hordes of beautiful women go crazy over me. It was just the typical wild fantasy fuelled by teenage hormones and a lack of deep thought.
Facing that fantasy in reality . . . wasn’t quite as terrifying as facing Etienne’s monstrous form, but it did manage to rank pretty close behind it.
My shield came up before purely on reflex, larger and flatter than my normal globe, but covering a greater area. I just barely had enough presence of mind to make it softer than its normal glass-like strength. As the women ran into it, it was as though they'd hit a giant invisible pillow, their charge being robbed of any sort of momentum. For a moment the . . . lust? Hunger? Desperation? Whatever it was on their faces, was replaced with confusion. Then they started to push at the barrier, clawing at it. I was just lucky that they spread out along it, rather than pushing at each other
“Hey! HEY! LET ME THROUGH!”
“Please, please, please, please, PLEEAASSEEE!!!”
“ME! CHOOSE ME! ME! ME!!”
I just didn’t know how to handle this! Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a golden glow that I guessed meant Joan was using her power. Most likely she was putting up a barrier as well, and I hoped she was showing as much restraint as I was. In front the women pushed on, trying to reach through the barrier even as it held them back. It didn’t make my situation any easier though. I could keep holding them back, but that was all. How was I meant to fix this? What was I meant to do?!
“I’LL DO ANYTHING!”
Had that been a bra thrown at my shield?
“LOOK AT ME! I’M GORGEOUS!”
Was that guy stripping down and posing? Sure, he was in pretty good shape, but what the hell?! And who was he calling to? Me or the others?
“If . . . if you won’t look at me, I’ll . . . I WON’T WANT TO GO ON!!”
That last one was like a bucket of cold water to the face. Yeah, the mess was overwhelming, but there’d been a sort of mad humour to seeing so many people going nuts, and acting so crazy. Someone making a threat that sounded way too much like suicide, that killed any humour in the situation dead.
What could I do? What could I do?! My mind seemed to speed up as I mentally ran through options. Unfortunately, none of them were all that good. My magic was versatile but for a soft take-down of so many people? Not so much.
A taser, could that work? Use lightning, but not at full power, just enough to stun, not kill? Yeah, and how many people would I give a heart attack or some other health problem? God help me if I got some poor sod with a pacemaker. The same went for controlling air to choke them out, or water drowning them. With just one target I might be willing to risk it, but so many, not a chance. Grabbing them all with TK? Okay, that was a bit more of a viable option. The problem was that these weren’t logs or rocks. Yes, I had the power to grab that many targets and hold them in place, but with them wriggling around, trying to break free, would I be able to watch my strength? One mistake and I might end up breaking limbs and ribs as easily as I did twigs and plant stalks when practicing.
“Let me in! LET ME IN!!”
Damn it! Things were escalating quickly, the women held back by the shield were looking more desperate with every passing second.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT?! I’LL DO ANYTHING! ANYTHING!!”
And by the sounds of it, the men on the other side weren’t doing any better. I had to think of something soon or-
“Enough of this. *SLEEP!*”
The single word was infused with so much power that for a moment I felt my eyes go heavy. That was more than a little terrifying, considering that I instinctively knew that I hadn’t even been the target of the word’s power. What I’d felt was just the edge, the periphery of what it was capable of.
Then I saw what it was intended for. The women, who had only an instant before been shoving and clawing at my barrier as though the secret to eternal happiness was on the other side, blinked owlishly a couple of times, then half lay down, half collapsed in place. be it on grass or pavement, they all just settled down and conked out as though they’d gotten into bed after a long day’s work. Turning around I saw that the men were the same, all prone on the ground, eyes shut, breathing deep and regular.
The sudden shift was . . . jarring, to say the least. Only seconds ago, the situation had been tense, pressured, and almost overwhelming. Now, I could hear the sound of gentle snoring coming from several different directions, any hint of danger had vanished, and the adrenaline in my system didn’t have anything to burn itself out on.
“Wh . . . wha . . .”
I was going to blame my inability to form a coherent sentence on my body and mind still being too stuck in flight or fight mode. Without answering directly Athena stepped past me to take a look at the sleeping women, her every movement as confident and authoritative as a general strolling through an army base.
“Such a . . . lack of restraint or decorum.” She murmured, more to herself than to me. “When I last walked this plane mortals had better self-control in the face of divine beauty. They knew to kneel or to admire, not attempt to force their attentions upon the one they beheld. They are fortunate they do not face Hera or Aphrodite. In the face of such disrespect, neither of them would be as merciful as I have been.”
“Uuuh . . . what’d you do?” I finally managed to get out.
“A relatively simple spell,” Athena replied. “They shall rest in the domain of Hypnos for a short time, then awaken refreshed and unharmed.”
“I didn’t know you knew magic.” Sure, she might have the common suite of abilities, including the power of Punishment, but to the best of my knowledge, Athena hadn’t been depicted as being a sorceress of any sort.
“Though I do not claim to possess such mastery of the mystic arts as Hecate or Circe, I am the goddess of wisdom. Wisdom includes knowledge of the more shadowed arts, enough that such enchantments are well within my ability.”
She paused for a moment, looking at me.
“It shall certainly be a part of your education once we begin. You have shown acceptable skill in the wielding of the elements and the raw forces of the arcane, especially for one who is self-taught, but as of yet, you are unfamiliar with other aspects of magic use. The influencing of others, both in mind and body, is far more complex than the simple generation and manipulation of direct force. Still, as you can see, it can be quite useful.”
Wow! Suddenly I was looking at the Greek goddess in a whole new light. Sure, I’d known she was powerful and knowledgeable, and I’d even known she was going to teach me, but I’d just been thinking of that as an extension of what Joan and Hadriel had already been doing. They’d been helping me with the direct combat applications of what I was able to work out of my powers. That and drilling basic combat skills into me, like flight-based combat and how to throw a proper punch. From Athena I’d been expecting stuff like instruction on strategy and tactics, maybe some weapon training. The idea that she could help me with my magic hadn’t even crossed my mind, something that was proving to be quite the error it would seem.
“Okay, that’s something to look forward to. But right now . . . what are we going to do here?”
It had only been something like five minutes since we got here, at the absolute most. Things had gone from slow, to fast, to too fast, and back to slow.
“I believe I can tell you.”
The man who had approached us while I’d been distracted was quite clearly a policeman. He was dressed in a t-shirt due to the hot weather, but the tactical vest he wore over it had the word ‘police’ printed in white across it very clearly. He also had a gun, though it remained in its holster and the man was very pointedly not reaching for it. he was also addressing Joan, and quite pointedly not looking at anyone else. I could see a flush on his face, but he was managing to keep professional. It would seem that we’d found the police we were looking for, just not under the circumstances we would have preferred. Why couldn’t he have been here just a few minutes earlier?
“I think I’ll need you all to come with me.”
Oh yeah, things had not gone as planned.