How to Date a Superhero Ch. 10

To Apollo's naked eye, Hermes simply seemed to vanish.

He ran fast, as fast as he'd ever run before, covering miles of the charred obsidian ground in a split second. On Earth, and in Olympus, Hermes was always bound by the laws of physics. If he ran too fast he was in danger of igniting the very air around him from the friction of his movement. But the laws of Hades were different and Hermes quickly sensed he could move faster in his uncle's realm than other places.

It took him seven seconds to locate Pluto's castle and another half second to completely search its innards. Pluto's servants and soldiers were oblivious to his presence, unable to detect something moving too quickly. Once he had determined Penelope was not in the castle, Hermes overheard a servant saying the 'mortals had fled'. He was momentarily confused by the plural reference but had to assume the servant was talking about Penelope. He decided to try a systematic search.

Hermes envisioned a clock with Pluto's castle at its center. He ran due north, or the twelve o'clock position, for several thousand miles, and then returned. That took him ten seconds. Once back at the castle he ran straight out towards the one o'clock position for roughly the same distance, before once again returning. Then the two o'clock, followed by the three o'clock position, canvassing the foreboding landscape for any sign of Penelope.

He found Jordan roughly a minute later, standing on a flat plateau in the middle of a vast mountain range. "You look out of place," Hermes smiled at Jordan in her virginal white gown.

Jordan gasped. To her eyes, Hermes seemed to appear out of thin air, "Who are you?"

"My name is Hermes," he bowed politely, "Son of Zeus and messenger of Olympus."

"Are you dead?" Jordan wondered, confused by the sudden appearance of a Greek god.

"Unfortunately, yes. But I am hoping it is a temporary affliction. This may sound strange, but is there any chance you might know a young lady by the name of Penelope Swann? She's a feisty little blonde who can fly and juggle boulders."

"Yes!" Jordan replied excitedly, "She's my roommate! I mean, she was my roommate, before we died."

"Interesting," Hermes mused, "And how is it you are here?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out myself. I don't even remember dying."

Hermes grinned, "No, my dear - I am wondering how it is you are standing alone in the middle of this mountain range."

"Oh!" Jordan approached him, "I was with MG... Penelope, we were trying to find a river and a boat to get out of this hellhole when we saw a bunch of demons flying that way." She pointed, "Penelope flew after them to see what was up. Hopefully she's back soon. Are you here to help us?"

"I am," Hermes inclined his head, "My brother Apollo is here as well."

Jordan looked hopeful, "Apollo is here?"

=======

Amidst a sea of snarling, gnashing, and clawing demons a continuous flash of bright silver shined like a beacon of carnage. Apollo's quicksilver spear, a magical construct crafted by Hephaestus himself, fed on demonic flesh with unrivaled hunger.

Covered in the blood and ichor of his enemies, Apollo wielded his weapon with the ferocity of a man possessed by pure rage, "COME, DEMONS! RUSH TO APOLLO AND FIND THY TRUE DEATH!!"

Demons howled in pain at the spear's terrible bite, discovering too late that the weapon had been enchanted specifically to combat their ilk. Apollo skewered them two at a time with each thrust. With every swing the spear's sharp head tore the flesh from a half dozen enemies at a time. Whenever Apollo threw it to impale a flying demon, it magically returned to his hand ready to slay more of the hoard.

But Apollo was only one man and the demons seemed limitless. Without a sun to fuel his strength, Apollo felt his limbs begin to tire and weaken. The enchanted spear gave him a clear advantage, however Apollo knew it was only a matter of time before simple numbers would overwhelm him. His armors, along with his natural invulnerability, protected him from most of the demon's blows, but like his strength Apollo's invulnerability needed the light of the sun to replenish it. Hundreds of dead foes lay in his wake, but thousands more poured towards the battle. When Apollo felled one, two more entered the fray to take its place. He didn't know how long he could maintain his pace of war before his godly power ran out. Minutes? Hours?

"Die!" he screamed, stabbing a demon through its chest while choking the life from another, "Know that Apollo is thy doom, fiends!"

Swinging his spear in a massive 360 degree arc, Apollo cleared enough space around himself on the battlefield to catch his breath for a short moment. His rest was quickly upset as a literal wave of demons rose into the air before him, threatening to fall on his position and consume him. The hoard moved as one, as though possessed by a collective mind, in an attempt to overwhelm the sun god.

Apollo lifted his spear into the air, its quicksilver surface flaring brilliantly, and roared in defiance towards his impending defeat.

But then, impossibly, a streak of crimson shot through the air and blasted through the wave of demons like a comet. The formation crumbled quickly against the attack and suddenly the tide of battle had turned.

Mega-Girl didn't have an enchanted weapon made by the blacksmith of the gods, she only had her fists, but the demons quickly learned they were equally as dangerous. Mega-Girl did not share Apollo's weakness and let loose the full power of her considerable strength. Demon bodies tumbled through the air as she threw opponents out of her way, punching and kicking any others who got too close. She was simply too strong, too powerful, and too invulnerable for the demon soldiers to stop.

Inspired by the appearance of his beloved Penelope, Apollo re-entered the fray. The two heroes, bolstered by the presence of each other, became almost unstoppable. Their enemies parted before their respective paths as Apollo and Mega-Girl fought towards one another, the army of demons temporarily fleeing to regroup.

It took only a few moments before the two warriors fought their way to one another and enjoyed a temporary respite on the battlefield. The corpses of a thousand demons lay littered around them, and thousands more circled in the air above them in what could almost be described as a holding pattern, but for a moment they were alone.

"Apollo!" Mega-Girl threw her arms around his neck, heedless of the demonic gore covering Apollo's form. She pressed her lips against his, kissing him with a passion fueled by adrenaline and hope, "I can't believe you're here! I can't believe you came for me."

Apollo clasped her form to his tightly, "I would rather die a thousand deaths than live another day without thee."

"But how?" she hugged him, "How is it you're here?"

"Hercules killed me," Apollo answered.

"What!?"

"Worry not," Apollo was still breathing heavily, "I asked him to do it."

"You died to come here?" Mega-Girl sounded amazed, "You literally died for me? To save me?"

Apollo wiped a leather bracer across his face, smearing sweat and blood across his forehead, "Aye, though it is you who has saved me. I am weakening by the second, Penelope." He looked up at the demons, who appeared to be reforming as they flew and circled, regrouping for another battle, "We don't have long before this battle will begin anew. We must away to the River Styx and be gone from this wretched place."

"I can't leave without Jordan," Mega-Girl let go of him, ready to act.

Apollo looked confused, "Thy roommate is here?"

Mega-Girl nodded, "Long story. I left her on a mountain, a couple hundred miles from here. Should only take me a few minutes to fetch her."

"Hermes as well," Apollo mentioned.

"Hermes is here? He died too?"

"Aye, he insisted on escorting me."

"Where is he?"

"Looking for you."

"Fear not," a voice sounded from behind the pair as Hermes suddenly appeared with Jordan riding piggy-back; her arms clung around his neck, "As usual, I have managed to run everyone's errands."

"That was incredible!" Jordan sounded delighted as she hopped off Hermes' back, "I never imagined what it would be like to move so fast!" She looked around the battlefield at the demonic corpses littering the ground, "Holy shit, what happened here?"

"Hermes!" Mega-Girl ran to him and gave the curly-haired god a massive hug.

Hermes chuckled at the gesture and hugged her back, "It is good to see you too, child."

"It is time to leave," Apollo broke the tender moment, "Pluto's forces will re-engage us soon."

Hermes glanced upwards to the gathering demons. They reminded him of buzzards circling a dying man in the desert, "I agree."

"Do you two have a way out of here?" Jordan sounded hopeful.

"We need to get back to the river," Hermes explained, "And Charon, whom we made a bargain with. But that demon army is likely to follow and make things rather difficult for us."

"Pluto has yet to show himself as well," Apollo warned forebodingly.

"Can you teleport?" Mega-Girl asked Apollo.

He nodded.

"Then go," she ordered, "Take Jordan and Hermes to the river and make your arrangements with the boat guy. I'll deal with this army as well as Pluto."

"No," Apollo shook his head firmly, "I will not leave thee."

"Hermes can't carry you both and you need to move fast to outpace any of Pluto's forces who pursue. Don't worry; I'll get there as soon as I can - as soon as I take out as many of these fuckers as I can."

"MG," Jordan pleaded, "Apollo can teleport all of us, let's just go. Please, what you're talking about... it's suicide."

Mega-Girl balled her fist into her other palm and cracked her knuckles, "You guys are going to have to trust me. I need to make sure this ends here. I don't want Pluto ever coming after either of us again, so I'm going to send him a message. One he can't refuse."

"Nay!" Apollo refused, unable to accept parting ways with Mega-Girl so soon after their reunion.

"Brother," Hermes laid a hand on Apollo's shoulder, "Remember what I told you and Hercules? I trust her ability to fight her way back to us. You must trust her."

Mega-Girl lifted her hands to cup Apollo's cheeks and kissed him again, "Go - get Jordan and your brother to safety. Be a hero, Apollo, and let me be the ferocious one this time. Let me be the lioness."

Jordan watched them kiss, "I thought you two broke up?"

Apollo still seemed hesitant.

"I'll meet you at the river," Mega-Girl assured him, "I won't be long."

Apollo finally relented and turned to collect Hermes and Jordan at his sides, "I will give chase if you fail to fulfill thy promise."

Mega-Girl nodded.

Jordan gave her best friend a quick hug before moving to Apollo, "Good luck, MG."

"Godspeed," was Hermes' only words.

A flash of light preceded their departure and then Mega-Girl was alone. Her expression steeled, her fists balled, and she looked up at the circling demons, "All right you hell-spawned sons of bitches, let's see what you've got."

She took off into the air like a bullet, aiming her flight towards Pluto's castle. Mega-Girl had failed to mention to the others that she had sensed something about Hades that gave her the advantage. Not knowing why, she felt as though the realm itself was somehow catering to her. Mega-Girl first noticed it in Pluto's castle when she found herself suddenly dressed in her costume and her hair had grown out to her preferred length. She speculated that it was because she didn't belong, she was a mortal in a place where only gods belonged. It felt to her as though the very nature of Hades itself wanted her to leave and was subtly helping her.

Mega-Girl prayed she was right and picked up speed. The demon throng gave chase, moving as a flock to follow, like a sea of leathery black blotting the red sky behind her.

=======

Charon was waiting on the bank of the River Styx, its blackened waters flowing behind him, when the air sizzled and flashed from Apollo's teleportation. His expressionless form didn't appear to react towards the arrival of Apollo, Hermes, and Jordan in any way.

Jordan saw the skeletal boatman and stuck close to Hermes, "What the heck is that?"

"A liche," Hermes answered simply, "Many powerful sorcerers choose an eternity of undeath as a way of maintaining their power or wealth, unable to give up the things they achieved in life. Charon has served Pluto for as long as I can remember, so he is very ancient and likely very powerful."

"Can we trust him?" Jordan murmured, hoping Charon couldn't overhear.

"We're about to find out," Hermes replied.

The three approached Charon and the small wooden boat tethered to shore behind him.

"I see you have found your mortal," Charon hissed, "But not without strife; you are covered with the blood of your enemies, Apollo."

"We have found a mortal," Hermes clarified, "We're waiting on one more."

"The bargain was for three," Charon reminded.

"We need to alter the bargain," Apollo growled, reaching towards the spear at his back.

"Calm yourself, sun god. Both of your mortals do not belong in Hades and the realm itself protests their presence. I will ferry the four of you through the dimensional barrier... once I have the conduit."

Apollo looked to Hermes.

Withdrawing the spherical marble from his pocket Hermes lamented, "I hate to part with it. I just obtained it."

"It is of no use to you here," Charon spoke without emotion, "and without it you may never leave."

Hermes sighed, "Then I suppose it is fulfilling its purpose."

Jordan watched the conversation quietly, amazed by the calm of her companions in the face of their current situation. Gods were talking to a skeleton, in another dimension, and they were all dead. The situation was far over her head and Jordan realized the only reason she was even there was because she happened to be the roommate of a superhero. In that surreal moment on the bank of the Styx, Jordan thought of Travis; she suddenly understood why he didn't want to date Penelope after finding out she was Mega-Girl. Travis had said he wanted a normal life, without the potential of a superhero's enemies threatening harm at every turn. Somehow he knew the chaotic life of a costumed crime-fighter would eventually intrude on any normalcy, a lesson Jordan had to die in order to learn.

If they made it back, Jordan silently wondered if she would be able to continue playing her role of 'Harbinger'.

=======

When Pluto's massive black castle appeared on the horizon, Mega-Girl stretched her fists forward and accelerated past any speed she had ever achieved. It was as though Hades was fueling her power and she felt stronger and faster than ever before. Gritting her teeth, she lowered the elevation of her flight to skim the surface of the ground. A plume of black dust was kicked up behind by the air-displacement of her speed, like a jet-fighter skimming over water.

The demon throng giving chase was far behind, unable to keep pace. But they saw, and eventually heard (as sound travels slower), the first impact. Mega-Girl hit the castle with the power of a meteor, shattering its obsidian walls, careening through its innards, and blasting out the other side. After circling around, she hit it again. Each impact thundered through the air like an explosion, causing the entire structure to shudder.

Demons and human servants alike fled from the building, running out doors and jumping out of balconies, thinking they were under attack. They were, but not by any army or siege catapults - but by a 5'7" pissed-off blonde.

Blasting through the castle for the third time brought down several support walls and nearly half of the massive building collapsed upon itself, a plume of dust and debris rising high into the red sky. Mega-Girl yelled in triumph as she circled around again but then an eldritch bolt of magical energy struck, stunning and felling her to the ground several hundred yards from the collapsing castle.

"Enough!" Pluto growled angrily, able to fly as well and landing nearby, "Stupid cow! Your insolence has cost me greatly."

Mega-Girl shook the cobwebs from her head and regained her feet to face the Lord of Hades.

"You and your friends have made a valiant effort, but there is no escape from my realm. Even now, so close to freedom, you will find your efforts have all been for naught. Soon you will be my wife and the heads of Hermes and mighty Apollo will decorate the halls of my castle."

Mega-Girl wiped her face with the back of a hand, clearing dust and dirt away from her mouth, "Your castle is rubble, you son of a bitch."

"Castles can be rebuilt," Pluto chuckled humorlessly, "Now, I would like to introduce you to my favorite pet."

A growling sound was the first hint of its presence and Mega-Girl turned towards the noise. Through the fog and dust stepped a massive creature, nearly thirty feet tall. A hellhound with three heads, the paws of a lion, a serpent's tail, and a slithering mane of a thousand snakes.

"You've got to be shitting me," Mega-Girl's fists balled, "You're sending giant dog-things after me, now?"

"Cerberus!" Pluto ordered, "Teach my fiancé some obedience."

The giant hellhound lunged forward, snarling out an echoing bark and spitting fire. The flames singed Mega-Girl's costume but she was otherwise unharmed when Cerberus tried to bite her with teeth a foot long. Mega-Girl deftly side-stepped the attack and leveled a punch on the hound's snout, causing the head to reel back and yelp.

But Cerberus had two other heads.

Both of them nipped and bit towards Mega-Girl, forcing her to dodge and roll away. She scrambled to her feet and tried to fly upwards out of its reach, but Cerberus snatched her out of mid-air with a paw and batted her back to the ground.

On her back, Mega-Girl had to kick at the hound's snapping jaws to keep them at bay, but she didn't account for its serpent mane. One of the snakes spit a glob of poison at her, giving Mega-Girl a mouthful of the foul substance. She spit and coughed it out, but the distraction gave Cerberus the opening it needed and the middle of three heads snatched Mega-Girl up into its jaws and swallowed her whole.

Pluto laughed, "That should teach her some humility!"

Two of Cerberus' heads howled in triumph, but the one that swallowed Mega-Girl seemed ill. It whimpered and yelped, the hound momentarily staggered by something.

"What is it my pet?" Pluto watched it stumble and fall. He startled when a red-gloved fist suddenly erupted from Cerberus' belly.

In a gruesome exit, Mega-Girl ripped the animal's flesh and crawled from its innards. She was unharmed but covered with the gore from her efforts.

"That was really gross," she noted dryly, wiping blood and ichor away from her eyes.

Pluto was furious, "You dare!?" He thrust both arms forward and hurled his eldritch energy towards Mega-Girl, a beam of crackling magic that blasted her off her feet once more. Pluto's magic wasn't like any physical force and Mega-Girl's invulnerability wasn't as effective against it.

When she tried to get up, Pluto hit her again.

The agony was almost unbearable as the crackling energy battered Mega-Girl's petite frame, but she refused to succumb. There would be no rescue, she knew. The World League would not show up to save the day, Apollo was drained of much of his strength, and Mega-Girl was on her own.

Or so she thought.

Once again she felt an unearthly energy fill her body as Hades fueled her strength, rejecting its Lord and his unholy plan. Slowly, Mega-Girl pushed herself to her hands and knees in an attempt to stand. Pluto screamed in anger, sensing his realm was aiding Mega-Girl's resistance to his eldritch blasts.