House of Athena was once on the verge of collapse until its new owner, Ross Izeal, drew out its potential from the ashes. It now stands as a casino resort whose philanthropic leader donates to Deimos Library in dedication to the goddess of wisdom.
That night, Ross invited his buddies, along with a girl for each one, to celebrate another year of success in his penthouse. One of those buddies stood by the window, supposedly to watch the jet ski races in the amphitheater, and Izeal graciously adopted the neglected extra girl to his desk.
In truth, that buddy was lost in thought rather than watching the show. Did I do the right thing? Is it what He would want? Still, he was conscious enough to notice the window fogging up. As he was wondering what caused it, a little birdie landed on his shoulder.
Then the muzzle of a gun came out of the fog to kiss him on the nose. Flustered, he relented to the barrel that pushed him back. The rifle itself was revealed, then the man in shadowy armor holding it finally stepped forward. Three more men with identical weapons and armor stepped through the window before the others took notice. Izeal and the hostage were the only ones who didn’t jump and scream at shadows.
“Sorry,” said Izeal with his arm around the waist of the girl in his lap, “I’m gonna need you to make an appointment first.”
“You’re awfully calm about this,” a voice echoed in their heads, sending the rest into further panic.
“It may be hard for you to believe, but if you killed me, you’d be far worse off. So what do you want?”
“I’m looking for a very special hitman—” The hostage pulled the man’s rifle away with one hand and lunged with a bone claw. The hostage was slammed into the ground with a boot stomped on his arm and a barrel buried into the back of his skull. No. Not a boot. Atleast, not a normal one. It was hard as stone but, past the shadows, there was flesh.
“Philip!” one of the others cried out.
“So it’s Philip,” echoed the voice, “You seem new at this, so I’m not judging too hard. But now I’m wondering what got you into the game. Did your boss here put you up to it?”
“No,” Philip grunted before Izeal could respond, “I was on my own. No one else… had anything to do with it.”
“Oh really. Why'd you take a risk like killing a guy? You got someone else paying you?” The shadow leaned in, “did he steal your girl?” Philip rattled helplessly under the vice he was in.
“It’s nothing like that. You wouldn’t understand so just get it over with.”
“...try me,” the voice stated. Philip grit his teeth and clenched his fists.
“It’s about… about doing anything I can to protect what someone else built. To give back to someone who I’d be nothing without. So even if I risked my life, if I could be a hundredth of the hero he was...” Philip unclenched his fist, “What am I talking about? Saying it out loud now, it really does sound stupid…”
“...No. No, it doesn’t,” stated the voice. The shadow lifted his boot and gun from Philip’s back. The three other shadows dissipated. “Everyone besides Ross and Philip must leave. Now.”
With a motion from Ross, the others complied. They filed out of the room without hesitation and left the two alone with the strangers.
“I’m sorry for the scare,” another voice echoed as Philip was getting up. This one was recognized. Izeal jumped up from his chair and had to hold onto his desk. There was still a hint of doubt at what they were hearing, anxiety over what tricks this attacker was pulling; both fears were washed away when they saw who came through the fogged window. “But I had to take precautions, and you passed them,” said Deimos, “For now, Philip will have to go with my friend. Is that alright?”
Philip was still processing what was happening and responded late, “Oh! Uh, yeah, sure.”
“And I can trust that you will keep this a secret?”
“Y-yeah! Anything for you, s-sir,” Izeal stuttered.
“Thank you, you’ve always been good friends, both of you,” said Deimos. He went back through the window and disappeared. Philip went to follow until he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
“Um, sorry about just now. It was nothing personal, we just needed to test you. What you said, it really did speak to me… I’m Four-Leaf by the way!” Four-Leaf reached out for a handshake. Philip wondered when the terrifying specter within that armor was replaced with someone so bashful. He shook hands and followed Four-Leaf through the window.
They came out the other side through the glass of a patio door into a living room. The first thing that caught Philip’s eyes was a hippo skull that was mounted above the tv and overlaid on a cross of two weapons: a crescent ax and a sword with three sickles. Both sleek and ebon, seemingly carved from midnight. This must be the Deimos household. Philip came over when he had trouble at home, but the decor was the only familiar part of this place.
On the couch was a shirtless guy—a green protein shake in hand and metal feathered wings on his back—and a baggy-eyed girl—crouched with her feet on the seat. Lying down on the carpet in the center of the room was a large, curled-up animal that had a blue hide and bloody bat wings that obscured most of its body save for the spiked tail. Philip was suddenly irritated looking at it but the sensation went away when a beautiful woman in a nightgown appeared from the patio door which soon cleared of its fog. She took her seat on the armrest of the couch with the other strangers.
“Philip,” started Four-Leaf, “that’s Auntie Chen, she’s the one who creates our portals.”
“Hey hey,” the woman on the armrest smiled and curled her fingers.
“That’s Iron Angel. He can control the feathers in his wings.”
“Eyyy, show us your bones dude,” Angel said with finger guns. With a flick of his wrist, an ivory spike appeared, then disappeared the same way. “Sick. You’re lucky it comes out above the skin.”
“The little birdie you saw before is our psychic communicator. When he’s on your shoulder, you can talk with just your thoughts. She’s Lady Teumess, she can intercept radio waves,” the baggy-eyed girl merely flashed her palm, “and the big boy is Anthony the Chupacabra. He can go invisible!”
Anthony shifted his wings and turned his head, revealing bug eyes, razor teeth, and sharp claws, all as bloody as the wings. The beast's body melted out of sight, the only evidence of its existence being the impression on the carpet, then spurt back into existence.
Next to Philip, Four-Leaf peeled off his armor like he was molting a layer of skin. Gooey strands stretched between the armor and Leaf’s clothes. The shadows faded away and the flesh armor that felt hard as stone was clumped into a ball. He went over to Anthony to give him the ball to chew on while Leaf pet his head.
“What about you, uh, Four-Leaf, how does your mutation work?” asked Philip.
“It’s pretty much what you saw. I can make clones of myself along with whatever is on my body at the time. I can’t show it off; every time I make a clone, especially over three, it feels like my organs are being pulled out, so I avoid doing it too much.”
“That sounds horrible. Angel just mentioning the bone coming from inside was enough to make my skin crawl, you must be tough.”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t bear it before. It’s our Uncle who takes on the pain for me now. But we’ll get to that when you see him again.”
“So,” Auntie Chen crossed her legs and put her hands on her knees, “we still need to investigate your situation, but for now, you’re going to be staying here. Though, if we don’t like what we find, we won’t turn you over to the Pantheon or anything; you just won’t be given a choice in what to do.”
Philip looked around the room once more, “is everyone in the team a mutant?”
“Mutant is a derogatory term invented to other us, don’t use their word” intervened Teumess, “we have affinities.”
“Oh, uh, okay? I just want to say that if he is bringing… uh, ‘us’ together for something, then whatever it is, I’m all for it, and I’ll accept whatever place I have. Where is he by the way?”
“Oh, he already left to do his own business,” answered Auntie, “I am the real leader of this team. Your friend Tyler is just the mascot. He only went to you because he thought you’d accept if you saw him.”
“The real reason he had to come,” said Angel, “was because this one was too busy with her boys to do her job.” Auntie pinched Angel’s cheeks.
“You aren’t any better ya bronze incubus!”
“Bronze!? Now that’s taking it too far ya pedo hag!” Angel handed his smoothie to Teumess who went to the kitchen with it.
“Who are you calling a hag!?”
Auntie pulled Angel onto the floor and they started punching each other. With the blood and laughter coming from both of them, Philip couldn’t tell if they were really fighting. Teumess had to be the one to escort Philip down the hallway. She opened a door to a room that had a mattress on the floor and a closet that was empty save for some children’s storage bins.
“You’ll stay here for a while. If you were a good boy, then we’ll let you join the team. If you’re a bad boy, you’ll be sent to where the Pantheon won’t be on your tail but you’ll still work for us,” said Teumess. She went over to the children’s bins and hunched over to rummage through them.
“The Pantheon was after me?”
“Uh, yeah, they have cameras and drones literally everywhere, but I guess you civilians are so used to it you don’t even notice it anymore. Like animals that forget they’re in a pen. Kind of defeats the purpose at that point but that’s security theatre for you. Anyways, if Garrick got the report about an unusual cause of death, you’d be in Tartarus by now,” she stopped rummaging, straightened herself up, and put her hand to her heart, “Lucky for you, I intercepted the transmission so I am the one who saved you. No thanks are necessary, just letting you know who your hero is,” she went back to looking through the bin.
“Oh… kay. I know what I was saying earlier but, if you take me in, what are we going to be doing?” asked Philip. Teumess came to him with some kind of booklet in her hands.
“You already said it yourself. You wanted to be a hero. Consider this your first step.”
She held out a coloring book and a pack of crayons. Confused, he accepted it unconsciously. He wanted to ask her what it was for but she was already gone.