Chapter 1: In the Beginning

The young girl woke at the buzzing of the alarm clock as sunlight started to seep through the curtains in her room. She was still adjusting to the new house here in San Francisco. Running a brush through her blonde hair quickly, she walked down the stairs to the main kitchen of the house. At eleven years old, she was nearly a giant (beanpole) at five foot six inches.

A pretty woman of about thirty years was filling her glass with orange juice. "Sheila. Your physical trainer is ready for your morning jog." Lisa Henderson was a no-nonsense woman with darker hair, pale skin and a beauty mark on her left cheek. She was already dressed in a business suit for her day at the office.

"Yes, mother." Sheila noted that her younger brother was not up, though her father was probably in his office working on an affidavit for his law firm.

"You have orientation on Monday at the University. Your home work is on the counter and I expect you to finish up with a perfect grade. Miss Marples will be helping you after your run. Tell Anton that his own work is to be done before he leaves the house."

Sheila ate a heavy breakfast and was outside where her physical trainer was waiting in his own jogging outfit. This was a new trainer, as they had only been living in Berkeley for the last three weeks. Supposedly it was so she could go to the University of Berkeley, but that was something that her younger brother had been more interested in than herself. She was partially through her college education already.

The big, ex-marine named Philip Pollis started them off and kept a strict pace. The next hour passed in a blur as she struggled to work through a knotty problem in her advanced calculas while exercising. She waved her trainer goodbye and entered the back door.

"There you are, Sheila," her younger brother called out. He had dark, curly hair like his father. At ten years old, he was a good fives inches shorter than her. His dark eyes studied her sweat drenched form. "I'm glad I don't have to train as much as you do."

"No, you only have a half an hour jog." She drank a large glass of water when she heard a clicking at the porch door only five feet away. Hanging on the door handle was a very large, spotted owl. She spared her brother an incredulous look, but he was just as surprised as she. Tied it its leg was a thick and heavy package by leather straps.

"Someone must have decided that the Post Office wasn't good enough for their letter," Anton said snidely. "Harry Potter fan much?"

Carefully sliding opening the glass door she slipped the package from the leather straps. Once it was free, the owl flapped off, as if to say 'good riddance'. Her first name was written on the package in perfect calligraphic script. It was a solid package, covered in a heavy burlap. A kitchen knife soon had the thread holding it closed snipped, revealing a carved, wooden box with iconigraphs from ancient Greece upon showing a young girl with short blonde hair being gifted with two items by a woman with a helmet.

"Curiouser and curiouser," the young blonde girl said as she worked the cunning metal latch and opened the box. She picked up the enveloped of vellum and lifted it off the top, revealing a heavy hand pistol and a owl necklace of gold and silver, with amethyst eyes. "A gun? I suppose that could explain why it wasn't shipped through the Post Office."

"I don't recognize the make," Anton declared with the finality of a Call to Duty expert in weapons. "Fancy though."

"I've been invited to The Garden Court to learn of my past and my future. Reservations are for tonight, semi-formal dress is requested." Sheila was really looked at this strangely, as she had only only been to two formal dinners with her parents as part of their religious duties. For some reason, she was educated on the Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionist that her parents were part of, but had not actually joined them in many of their practices. Though there had been cryptic mentions that they had been members longer than that movement.

The door to the kitchen swung up. Miss Marples walked in. "Are you ready for your morning, Miss Henderson?"

"Sure."

The next two four hours were quite surprising, as Sheila easily blew through a weeks worth of homework in only a few hours. The concepts suddenly seemed simple and incredibly easy to grasp.

The tall and lanky form of the eleven year old nodded to the waiter that guided her back to a private room that could easily sit six. She had the carved, wooden box that she had been sent to her. She looked quite willowy and thin in her white dress with a blue-patterned edging, that had a fair resemblance to an ancient toga. The complicated, strapped sandals on her feet only extended that look. This was all something that her mother Lisa had insisted on quite strictly.

Across the table sat a woman with dark brown hair in ringlets and was wearing a very expensive, female Armani suit. Gray eyes studied her through a pair of designer glasses. "Sheila."

She nodded her head. "Hello. I take it you were the one that invited me here?"

"Yes, but first, let us sup."

A six course supper was brought in, fine of quality that lent an air of sophistication to the meal. Sheila fell into the older style mode like at the formal dinners that her parents sometimes had when they entertained important guests. Finally, after a dessert of chocolate cheesecake, the woman spoke.

"There are some very important matters that are coming to a head. I had planned to visit you in a few short years, but time has become of the essence. Great powers are on moving and and I can no longer wait." With a wave, the mystery woman made a crystal ball appear in front of her on the table.

The hackles on the back of Sheila's neck were standing up as she realized that it had no shadow and did not roll off the table. "What is that?"

Images appeared in the crystal ball. Ghosts, then one-eyed giants and a man that threw lightning.

"The gods and titans are moving. You are the daughter of a goddess, not Erwin and Lisa Henderson. Not yet a demigoddess, you only are at the potential of a heroine. You have been gifted with relics and set upon a destiny that is fraught with fate and misfortune. Do not ask who I am, for names have power. If you are as smart and quick of wit... you should have already guessed my identity," the gray-eyed woman said.

She tapped the wooden box, "You should keep your eyes and ears open for old things, as they have more power than you would believe. The relics within are gifts for you to use wisely." She suddenly looked to the door, drawing Sheila's attention there and away from herself.

By the time the young girl looked back, she found herself alone. If not for the empty plate on the far side, she would have thought that this was nothing but a strange dream.

"But what am I supposed to do?" she asked herself as she picked up her box with its items. She opened it again and took out the necklace, feeling it almost burn although it was definitely cool to the touch. She set it around her neck and clipped its sturdy little clasp. With that, she left to take a taxi back to her home.

Later that night Sheila had stared at her ceiling for hours, trying to figure out what was going on. So it was a jarring surprise when her alarm woke her up at dawn as a light drizzle was falling. It had not been a good night of sleep. Muzzily crawling out of bed and hitting the large button on her alarm clock, she headed to the bathroom.

The new door could stick and she tugged on it hard in a pique of frustration. The crack of snapping wood finished waking her up, as the door was ripped half off its top hinge. Still holding it by the door knob, she swung it around cautiously. It felt like she was waving a piece of cardboard, not a heavy door.

"Empirical evidence suggests that she was not just being insane last night." The young blonde set the door to the side.

Twenty minutes later, she was downstairs grabbing a quick bite to eat. It was Sunday, so the trainer had the day off. So only a light jog around the block and then back. She could feel the difference in speed as she started to run. She had been fairly fast before, if not breaking any records. Now she was easily a third faster than before.

She took a break in the shadows of the sunrise over by Galileo Academy of Science and Technology; her new school tomorrow. No one was about, so she set herself to time her running using the clock on her smart phone. At zero, she was off like the dasher she was, arms pumping rhythmically and with power. She was already certain that she was faster than before, but the young girl had been raised to always compete. With herself, her trainers and anyone.

Unknowingly, she tapped into her wellspring of divinity, her ichor; legend that flowed through her veins as she suddenly accelerated. She could feel the wind whipping through her short hair as she lapped the track in less than thirty seconds. With a burst of adrenaline, she took three loping steps and then leaped over the football field goal.

In a panic, she realized she had overshot greatly and landed on the roof of the school.

"Okay. That was cool." That had been exciting in a way nothing in her life had been before this.

Monday morning found Sheila running through her normal routine. A heavy exercise regime before seven o'clock and then studying Latin, Greek, ancient history and comparative religion until noon. Somehow, though, in just one weekend her ability to understand and retain information had increased radically.

"That's quite an improvement, Miss Henderson. Your retention has improved quite nicely and you are not struggling with the advanced concepts," Miss Marples said primly. While she was only forty, she seemed bound and determined to act older and more proper. "I'm sure your parents will be quite pleased when I inform them later."

"Of course, Miss Marples." Sheila finished up her home work and then pulled up her phone to start some research while waiting for lunch. Deft fingers set up a very advanced search into old antiquities.

A Professor Stanton was going to be unveiling several artifacts shortly at the University of Berkley from his dig in South America. He was going to be displaying them and the information about their complexity and design, which he was quoted as being 'ground breaking' in the article.

It wasn't until Friday, so she had some time to work on other angles. Like this mysterious vigilante in the Tenderloin who eye witnesses stated had leaped forty feet to escape a police dragnet.

Could this person be like her? Or was it something else?

The twenty-two year old woman parked her car in front of a random apartment complex, just off the road and so not too visible. She was wearing black clothing that tended to 'lots of pockets' along with an equipment belt that had a knife on it. Her dark hair was smoothed back and she was currently wearing sunglasses.

The area was riddled with five to twenty story tall apartments and tenements. Occasionally you could see a street walker trying to turn some tricks along side young teens that were probably in gangs and peddling various narcotics. Their phones would go off and they'd fade into the shadows just before a cop car could turn the corner.

The young policewoman bit back a snarl, even as she followed a group of peddlers deeper into the alleys.

"Jake, are you sure your friend is going to meet us? And he's willing to fix my busted Buick?" the leader of this group said.

"Yeah, he's good for it. Not part of Vinnie's chop shop, but does irregular work. As long as you pay him in something he can trade, he's good. Just don't get on his bad side. Bastard's big and tough and scary as all hell," the skinny black gang member said to his friend.

"What's his name?" the third member of the gang asked as he fiddled with his gold chains.

"Dolph. Big, big (did I mention big) white guy. Looks like he could eat a Tongan for breakfast, man. He just got suspended from his high school because he put one of the centers in the hospital with a broken shoulder."

They had been walking through several alleys until they got to a small, dingy field between two apartments. Several dead cars were on cinderblocks and there was a man at the end with a large tool box.

"Yo, Dolph! Good to see you, man!"

The big, scary teen nodded. "Marcus, right? You hooked me up with some custom rims a week ago."

Marcus nodded, flashing a gang sign to look wicked. "That's me, man. Da bomb. No problem with them? Or trying to sell them?"

"Nah, they're for my ride." He gave them a smile, but on his face it was more scary that endearing. There was nothing malformed, but somehow all the pieces that melded together formed something just on the bare edge of nightmares. He was huge, somehow looking even bigger than his six foot seven inches. His pale straw hair was jagged and unkempt. "Can we hurry this up? I've got some things to deal with at home." Like beating up his deadbeat father for keeping secrets.

"No problem. But did you know you have an admirer?" Marcus asked as he pulled out a pistol and pointed it at a partially hidden form in a shadow. "Whatcha doing there, you skinny white girl?"

"I was just trying to wait until you left," Sheila said as she stepped out of the shadows of the apartment building. She was already planning on leaping to a balcony thirty feet over her head, then to a different roof if this looked to turn worse.

"Gotta pay up, girl. And if you don't have any money, we get to beat you up." The multi-ethnic gang leader frowned as he studied her. "You got a pretty enough face, you make nice with me and I won't even charge you."

Another shadow was drifting much closer, unnoticed by everyone.

"Hey, she's just a kid," Dolph called out. "Let her beat pavement."

Marcus suddenly had the gun pointed at the big, white Caucasian. "I've got the gun, mutherfucker. That means I tell you what to do, not the other way around. White faggots think you can tell me what to do-"

Dolph looked ready to rip his head off with his bare hands. "You really don't want to make me angry, asshole."

A glint of silver flashed from a shadow and Marcus dropped his bloodied gun with a curse. "I'm gunna fuck you up!" he shouted at the darkness.

The big white-blond had enough of this and took action to reach out and pick up the six foot three Marcus right off the ground like he was only a fifty pound weakling... then head-butted him with enough force to crush his cheek-bone. "Racist bastard! Not so bold without your toy, are you?"

The figure that glided out of the darkness was covered in a Stygian darkness, marred only by a wicked looking silver and curved sickle in her hand. Her combat boot (size 9) smashed into thug #2 with a powerful kick, knocking him back an impressive fifteen feet.

"You know, I was only looking for one super-strong person, not two," the youngest person present said as she tackled the third thug in one low, twenty foot leap. She had her eyebrows scrunched in thought as she tried to determine what these strange, ephemeral scents and echoes of sound were almost telling her.

"You were looking for me?" Dolph asked in surprise.

"Actually, I think I was looking for her. If she's the vigilante that's been putting gang members in the hospital." Sheila had her thug in a full-Nelson to knock him out. "I guess you were just a bonus."

The big Aesir shrugged as he dropped the unconscious form of Marcus on the ground. "These punks were just pissing me off, don't really care about them otherwise."

The shadowy figure had finished knocking out the last member. She was staring at them through a darkness that veiled her face better than any mask could hope to do. "So you found me. As you aren't a cop, I assume you might have a special parent."

"Yeah, got an unwelcome greeting from my old woman. Found out she rules Hel. Literally. How about you two?" the big white guy asked.

"I was told not to use names, but I think there was this little famous city in Greece that's named for her," Sheila said as she studied the other woman. "Which hell, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Helheim. Wonder why she didn't say that to me?" he mused aloud.

Dana nodded finally. "My mother said something similar, though her symbol is similar to my sickle," she said as she reflected a bit of moonlight off of it. "I think that means we might be cousins."

"Greek? Interesting. I'm Sheila. I assume that wearing a mask means you don't want me to know who you are right now. Did they tell you that something big is coming up?"

"My mother did. Her brother had informed her of some scattered prophecies. Some monster is going to get loose and cause a lot of problems. And we were needed here." Dana quickly searched the thugs, divesting them of their loose cash. As far as she was concerned, they were donating to a just cause.

"Any leads on your side?" the youngest Scion asked.

"No. This is just personal," the Daughter of Artemis stated. "How about you, big guy?"

He almost smiled, which looked fairly horrible. "Nah. I mean, she just showed up last night and gave me my spear." He reached into the back of his car and pulled out an ornate spear of black iron, covered in Norse runes. "I haven't even figured out much other than I can see ghosts and I can bench-press a car."

"I've been visited for about three weeks. Which makes this," Dana said while gesturing at the crumpled form of the gang members, "much easier."

"I might have a lead," Sheila admitted finally. "A professor dug up something odd in South America and is going to display it. I think mother hinted that this might be an old thing with more power than we'd expect."

"Another relic? Like my Artemis's Gleaming Moonsilver," the daughter of Artemis said as she gestured with the silver sickle.

"It's this Friday. I'm trying to get an invitation. It's semi-formal, as it's catered. It's at the Pheobe A. Hearst Museum," Sheila explained.

"Sounds good to me. I'm not exactly looking forward to the world ending. Got my stuff in it," Dolph said with a truly frightening grin on his face. His laugh came across nastily, though it appeared he really didn't mean any harm in it.

"This Friday then. Let me give you my cell phone number," Sheila said as she reached into her pocket for her smart phone.

They both nodded at that.

Chapter 2: Meeting More Allies

Janeka Sophia White was fairly bored as she drove her rental car down the bustling roads of San Francisco. "Did you get your collar covered up, Tsukyo?" she asked her half-Japanese companion.

The young, sixteen year old teen grimaced, but nodded. "Yeah." He was not going to give up his collar, even if it looked slightly like something out of a bondage movie. "This is the place that your contacts in New York turned up?"

The almost obsidian-black eighteen year old nodded. "Don't feel right not being in my hoodie, but you can't go to this sort of event dress like that even if you do have more money than God."

The pair had met up about three weeks ago when dealing with some shadow ninja that were stealing artifacts from a warehouse. That had been a rather exciting event for her. The man that had visited her with almost buglike eyes had told her about her father

"Here we are. One museum for some 'awesome' unveiling," the young black woman said as she pulled into the parking lot across the street. She tugged her men's suit-coat into place as she stood up.

Tsukyo actually had cleaned up remarkably well. His thin, toned body and features made him look exotic; like some sort of budding model or actor.

Janeka's money had procured her an invitation, which let them past the rent-a-cops easily. A mini-lecture hall had been set up with tables near the front where Professor Stanton was shaking hands. But it was a thin, young girl that was ripping into another professor that caught their attention with the scene she was creating.

"-and using The Arts of Pompeii as a reference for your theory when Hamilton merely mentioned the possibility of Indo-European burial rites just shows your theory is looking for facts to fit it and not facts looking for explanation," Sheila was saying in a cold, hard tone. Call her a blonde bimbo? She would show him. "Your facts are tenuous, your theories are far-fetched and lacking of detail and veracity. I think that hardly anyone could take your theories seriously considering the lack of thought and work involved in them."

Professor Emil Hoone's face was going turgid as his dissertation was shot down in front of his peers. Even worse, she had been amazingly accurate. The young girl in the pale peach blouse and gray slacks had looked too pretty to be this smart so he had targeted her in his misanthropic way. "Why you little-"

"Emil, I think you should take a break before you find yourself in the social column," his old friend quickly interjected.

"Da-amn. I guess she pinned his ears back," Janeka said to Tsukyo in a faux whisper. "Guess she breaks that old stereotype on blondes something fierce." Her shit-eating grin met the startled (then cautious) look in the younger girl that was nearly her height. Dark chocolate eyes studied the girl closely, as she smelled just a hint of metaphorical hot olives upon her. A scion of the Dodekatheon too?

The half-Japanese scion of Susanoo just chuckled at that. "I think they are just about ready to start."

Everyone settled into the rows of seats. The ebon-skinned scion of Ares sat on the same row as the mystery blonde, but a very big white guy sat right next to the girl. Janeka's nose flared as she breathed in the scents of burning amber with just a hint of crackling lightning in the air. An Aesir? Curiouser and curiouser. In the background, Dana stood at the back of the small auditorium.

"Welcome!" Professor Stanton called out from the front of the room as he stood at the podium. "I know you are all curious about why you are here tonight. And no, there are no outlandish theories of aliens here. Just strange artifacts that do not fit any known theory." The balding professor pulled out a little remote control (and laser pointer) and turned on a screen. "This is the first artifact that I dug up at my new sight. Arrowheads, the clutter of history, don't you know." The crowd laughed appreciably at the pun.

Sheila was studying the decayed arrowhead and was frowning. His dig was in Peru, wasn't it?

"This little oddity was found in a quite old layer of sediment and ash that we had stipulated at about five to ten thousand years ago. Previously we had only found crude pottery that fit the ancient Nazca and their predecessors in the area-" the professor was nattering along when the doors slammed open.

Six men in combat fatigues and ski masks spread out, pointing shotguns and handguns at everyone.

"This is a robbery," the leader said in a bored tone as he walked up. As Professor Stanton stepped out from behind the podium, he shot him in the stomach. "No more heroics or we'll start to get... nasty."

"Where's the artifacts?" one of the gunmen complained.

Only Dana at the back of the room noted a quick glare from a dark-eyed Greek woman in the corner. But she was distracted by a scream as the wife of an old man clutched at him.

"You said we wouldn't get robbed," she sobbed.

"Shut up!" the leader shouted, turning and pointing the gun.

Silvery moonlight appeared in Dana's hand as she leaped forward, the sickle extending as a whip of cutting, razor metal. Two bullets whizzed past her as the gunman realized someone was actively fighting.

With a scream, almost all the patrons dove between seat.

Dolph, on the other hand, just flung the seat in front of him at the nearest gunmen, sending him staggering from having a metal chair broken on him. "Heh, guess this is that adventure she was promising."

The young half-Asian almost glided across the room and rabbit-punched a surprised bandit in the face. Luckily, he had twin backup as Sheila and Janeka had both pulled out pistols (out of thin air at that) and had started shooting. The booming sound of a .50 caliber hand cannon going off in Sheila's ear was nearly deafening, but the power it packed knocked one of the gunmen over in spite of his bullet-proof armor.

"Scrub this mission! Everyone evac!" the leader shouted.

Pistols and shotguns fired across the short range of the room as everyone fought to control the exits. Sheila suddenly dashed very fast past them in nearly a blur to cut them off. Dolph, on the other hand, simply grabbed one of the big men and tossed him in the way and nearly got shot for his efforts.

"Sorry," the young African-American called out, even as the daughter of Artemis left another slice that stopped one fellow finally.

Tsukyo was finding out that bullet-proof vests worked perfectly fine against fists and was seeing stars from being pistol-whipped by a thug.

The crowd decided to evacuate through the fire exits on the far side of the room, never wondering why the fire alarms did not go off.

The big Aesir did not care as he tried to grapple with the biggest remaining gunman to try and keep him from using his shotgun, but somehow failed to leverage his large strength effectively. The butt of the gun to his face just made him mad though and he decided to forgo grabbing him to just bury his fist in the thugs face.

The boom of Janeka's hand cannon sent the second to the last gunman staggering as he tried to hold in his life's blood through a gaping whole in his chest. Dana slid around behind the two last fighters and then in a flicker of motion, sliced open the last gunmen.

"Damn it," Sheila complained as she moved back around the hallway. "I had thought they had a get away vehicle ready, but I didn't see anything." She had over thought things.

"Well, I think our godly selves should vamoose as soon as we check out those artifacts. Is there a good place to meet around here?" the very young business woman said with a wide grin.

"And the professor!" Sheila was already running.

It was too late for Professor Stanton. The gut wound had been quite fatal, even if he had received prompt attention of a professional with medical equipment. Quickly scoping out the unusual statuette and papers, they followed everyone else out before the police could arrive.

"All this over a statue of a woman?" Tsukyo asked curiously.

"Later, man," the biggest scion called out. "I so don't need this on my records."

"According to Professor Stanton," Sheila said about two hours later in the back room of a bar that Dolph had nearly grown up in deeper in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco, "this is about ten thousand years old. Which is remarkably impossible."

Tsukyo's gray-blue eyes were focused on the half-naked woman carved out of a hard, white stone. "Why is that? It's just a statue." His physical appearance seemed almost unearthly in beauty, much like Dana and Dolph's looks made them stick out.

"Doesn't look nearly primitive enough," Janeka noted, her average features scrunched in concentration. "I remember reading about some of the oldest sculptures and stuff a few years ago when I was ditching class. Most stuff that is in that age looks much more simple." She was back in her habitual hoodie, emblazoned with 'Frak you!' on the front.

Dolph just shrugged, he seemingly rough hewn features unworried. "Not steel, so not my thing." Behind his hard, blue eyes though he vaguely remembered something similar in his own reading.

"It's almost post-classical Greek in composition, proportions and quality, but way too early. Stanton even had some of the detritus in one of the folds of the wavy clothing dated as closely as he could. It's older than the pyramids," the youngest scion stated as she read the reports.

"It's magical," Dana finally said as she studied it carefully. "I'm not sure what it does, but I think it might be a relic." Like her own mask and sickle that came from her mother. "And its important, something our parents wanted us here and involved." Her touch of the mysteries lent her voice a certain, deep weight of gravitus.

"Well, we have a location in Peru. That's a long flight there. And I think we might want to take some gear while we investigate," the scion of Ares said thoughtfully. Her eyes had noted that neither the large Aesir nor the other two girls seemed to have money. "I can see about hooking us up with a flight down there."

The half-Greek, half-Italian police woman nodded. "I can talk to Samantha about seeing the best way to get us in there. Luckily, their border security is a lot more lax than ours."

"I wonder if I'll be back before my suspension from school is up?" the biggest scion asked as he rubbed the edge of his almost half-formed features. "Eh, not like they even care about me anyways."

Dana just shook her head. "I'm going to be burning through my comp time something horrible. I need to get home, I have my shift soon." With that, she headed out, nodding to the barkeep.

Sheila managed to not blurt out about calling her parents. None of them seemed to have noticed (or cared) that she seemed younger than them all. "I should head out, too." Thank goodness for taxis.

"Come on, Tsukyo. Time to do some research and make some calls."

Adventure, Sheila thought to herself just three days later, was much more comfortable when read about and not experienced. The flight from Mexico to Peru was in the back of the old propeller-driven plane. It seemed she was not the most robust of the scions here, though that seemed to be the bailiwick of Dolph, Dana and Tsukyo who seemed to not be bothered at all. Even Janeka seemed a bit less bothered than her, though that could have just been a toughness of personality.

The old Lockheed L-188 Electra not really designed as a personnel carrier, but the owner and operator of this particular plane was really not that picky. And Janeka had definitely paid him well enough.

The street-savvy girl that grew up in Harlem was mentally going over her new 'band' of scions like she would any other business or technical problem with the ease of long practice of running her own company.

First you had the huge (and hugely muscled) Dolph Jorgensen. When he had shown up Wednesday looking like some sort of super-model, she had more than taken a double look. Somehow he had the ability to switch between a scarily fearsome horror and amazingly handsome. Probably something he got from his mother, the cold and cruel Queen of Helheim herself, Hel. He was carrying this huge spear, covered in runes. During their trip, he had figured out (with a bit of help from the two resident geeks; Janeka herself and Sheila) that you could hide it within shadows.

Then you had Dana Vitali. Her records were quite clean, but there were some rumors about her mortal family that definitely looked like they needed more investigation. She had a group of actual Amazons, sent to her by her mother. Each of the women looked like they could take just about anyone in their group on. Or at least go down trying.

Tsukyo Roberts was from upstate New York, where he had lived with his mother up until she had died a few years ago. An art major into dance and acting, he was on a scholarship to a major dance school. He had been very good looking before he had been visited by his father. Now it seemed like a ray of sunshine occasionally touched his skin in brilliance.

Lastly, Janeka's current headache. Little miss 'too tall' daughter of Athena. Seemed like an earnest enough kid. And was eleven damned years old. They were about equally fast, but the young blonde daughter of Athena (oh, yay) was actually slightly super-strong. And, she had to grudgingly admit, probably one of the few people that could keep up with her in a purely mental way. Getting some kid that young hurt or killed would have to damn her soul to some special place, as Reverend Samuels for her church back home would always say. He said a lot of things like that.

One of the muscle-bound Amazons sidled through the crates. "Pilot says we should be landing in about ten minutes and that we should tie our stuff down."

"Thanks, Samantha," the black teen replied. She had her cell phone out and was checking with her local contact to make sure their road rangers were ready by the time they landed.

The touchdown at the Maria Reiche Airport in the city of Nazca was only a little bumpy. Outside it was pretty cold, as it was in the middle of the winter months.

Janeka sighed as she started to talk rapid fire in Spanish (a heavy Harlem accent) to a fellow that was looking for his bribe to look the other way as they unloaded a whole bunch of crates. In her hoodie that said 'May the Farce be with you!' she looked very American.

Dolph seemed to not even notice it was cold, while Tsukyo and Dana merely seemed to think the cold was an inconvenience, unlike Sheila who was modestly freezing in her light jacket. She noted that Janeka seemed to be in the same boat as her, settling a jacket over her navy blue hoodie. "So the camp site is about a day's drive away?"

Janeka nodded as she took the driver's seat. "But tonight we have some rooms at the hotel at the edge of town."

Nazca seemed like many other South American cities, though for most them this was their first time outside the USA. The hotel was a fairly cheap row hotel. Dolph helped the Amazons load their packs into the rooms, then looked around.

"Well, I'm going to play tourist," the suddenly 'prettified' Aesir said. He looked a bit like a 'more real' Fabio Lanzoni at his prime.

"Sounds fun, man!" the half-Japanese scion said. "Being cooped up in that plane was so boring. I hope they have some sort of dance club or something."

"I'll tag along, if you don't mind guys," Dana said. Her Greek-Italian features actually made her fit in better than either of the two young teens.

"I've got some business stuff to deal with," Janeka admitted as she slipped out a sleek and very expensive notebook computer out. "The business won't run by itself."

The Amazons were busy checking their guns (which included several older M-16s) as they chatted among themselves.

Sheila slipped out, wanting to stretch her legs. It had been a couple of days since her last chance to exercise and she felt so sluggish. The cold left her breath leaving a foggy trail behind her as she ran for a few miles. About a mile and a half mile into her jog, she noticed she had picked up a tail. The somber Peruvian had a pistol under his jacket from the bulge. She stopped at a small cafe, pulling out a handy English to Spanish dictionary and tried to order a pastry. She had been working to learn the language as soon as she had heard where whey were headed.

"Your papers, please," the stern man in the short cropped hair said as he caught up to her.

Sheila had pocketed her book and in reasonable German, replied with, "Can I help you?" After a he repeated her question, she switched to Greek. "Hello? Do you speak Greek?"

"Miss, I know you can speak English," the Peruvian said in an angry tone.

"But you didn't ask me in English," she noted right back. "Is there something I can do to help you?" She tried to project earnest sincerity.

"Yes, you can hand over the artifact, chica. Then we don't have to worry about any problems from you Americans," he said with a nasty smile.

"Artifact?" she asked in fake confusion. She was not fooling anyone, as she was no actress.

He pulled out his snub-nosed revolver. "We'll see how you talk after some persuasion." He shouted something in Spanish to the waitress that sent her scurrying back away from the door. "Outside."

She was just walking out when she saw one of Dana's Amazons. She side-stepped out of the way as the blonde warrior woman stepped around the corner and punched the Peruvian gunmen in the face so hard he bounced his head off the side of the door frame.

"Sheesh. Can't keep you out of trouble. The combine said that you heroines could fall into trouble faster than bees to honey," the six foot one woman said. She quickly kicked the man three times. "Let's get out of here. Are you wearing your vest?"

"Yes. I was just getting some air. Someone really wants these relics."

"The gods just tell me what to do and I do it," the Amazon noted.

Upon their return, Janeka was not amused. Was this what her Gramma and Grandpa had gone through with her? "Why me?" she almost mocked herself.

"Fate, right?" Sheila replied cheekily.

"No more of that. You got it?" she warned.

The scions and Amazons had left very early in the morning, before daylight. The city of Nazca was actually on the southern end of the world famous desert that the Nazca line geoglyphs had made famous. Sheila was in the back in the middle because she was smaller than Tsukyo or the Amazon that was sitting next to the window. There was an e-book in her hands, paging through the Spanish language primer quickly, mouthing words to herself silently.

The blonde Amazon glanced over. "How long have you been studying that?"

"About three days," the girl admitted.

Outside, it was very cold and very still as the two range rovers drove through the darkness, following the map that Janeka and Dana had set up.

Janeka was drinking from her coffee mug, trying to keep awake. "It's quite a drive to an upper plateau."

Dolph, in the passenger front seat that he barely fit in, his knees jammed against the dash, was looking at some satellite photos. "These are really good pictures and only a few days old," he noted.

"A little bird happened to mention that a certain satellite was in position," Janeka said with a wide grin. Her features looked a lot like a younger Whoopi Goldberg.

"That must have been a neat trick to get past the security," Sheila mused as she continued her Spanish lessons.

The African-American snorted. "I wrote some of their best security before dear old dad's myrmidon showed up on my doorstep to drop in and tell me I'm the daughter of a war god. I used to be one of the best. Now I don't know anyone that can keep up with me when I'm doing computers." She down-shifted as she went around the corner on a switchback in the morning gloom.

The big, blonde Aesir nodded. "I was always bigger and stronger than most people. Now I can lift a truck up."

"Eye spy something that starts with an R," Janeka called out as she drove the lead rover.

The green and brown range rovers were pulled off the side of the cracked, dirt road.

Janeka was studying the camp at the edge of the valley. "That sure doesn't look like no one is there."

Sheila was studying the camp when her vision suddenly zoomed in. "Whoa, that was weird. Instant telescope. I don't quite have the right angle though. The curvature of the plain is blocking some of my view."

The daughter of Artemis raised an eyebrow at that. "I guess I've been focusing a bit too much on my... hunting skills, I guess you could call it." Her nose could track just about anything these days, but her eyes were only very keen. Out of curiosity, she had them tested and had 20/10 vision.

"Yeah, even with my improved peepers and these binoculars, not seeing a lot here," the daughter of Ares said with a shrug.

"Give me a big lift up, Dolph?" the shorter blonde asked him.

"Are you sure?" the big Aesir asked. He was pretty sure he could toss the girl a good fifty yards if he needed to.

She gave him a cute smile, though she had nothing compared to the two men in looks. "Just a toss up."

He gripped his hands into a make-shift stirrup and then helped her leg muscles push her into the sky. Sheila flew through the air easily up to a hundred feet up. She suddenly had a feeling that this was not the bright idea she had thought it was, though she did have a good snap-shot view of the camp and dig. As the ground zoomed towards her (with her stomach left far above) she desperately tried to roll as she hit the ground. Pain shot up her legs and across her shoulder, but she didn't think anything was broken.

"Ow."

Tsukyo and Janeka were over to her first. "You all right?" the dancer asked worriedly.

"Yeah, think I rolled just enough. Twisted my ankle a little bit. Let me mark what I saw on the map. There's a lot of guards though. And they aren't wearing the Peruvian army uniform. I think they are mercenaries."

"Sounds like it's time to plan a battle," the daughter of Ares said with a grin.

Dana's Amazon were leading the left flank of the attack around a short hill, while Dolph's Einherjar warriors of the dead that he had summoned from the earth itself, were tasked with going right up the center - as they were hard to permanently kill off. That left the rest of the Scions to try to sneak in close and then be heavy hitters when needed. Dana herself stayed roughly near her Amazons just in case of trouble. Gunfire was criss-crossing between the mercenaries and the Scion's band.

Sheila had discovered that her twisted ankle had actually healed up in just three hours. She had her pistol out as she glided along the ground. Dolph was in front, wearing a bulky bullet-proof jacket and Janeka was about thirty feet to her left and they were almost to the main tent when their plans hit a very major snag.

Something huge within the tent stood up and casually used a ten-foot long metal club with square spike to fling the tent away.

"Oh, shit," Dolph said as he suddenly danced backwards to avoid a smashing down-swing that left a three foot crater in the ground.

The nine foot tall Japanese ogre, an Oni, leered at him with a demonic smile and round cheeks. Tsukyo leaped and kicked him, but only bounced off the huge shoulder of green muscles.

"This might be a problem," the Amatsukami scion said as he danced around the two hundred pound metal staff Tetsubo that whizzed through the air.

Janeka's .454 Casull boomed again, actually injuring the Oni as he roared right back at her. He set out at a lumbering run towards the business woman when he finally noticed a heavy rumbling engine sound. With a ba-bump as the heavy and old SUV hit a divot, the scion of Artemis barely corrected just enough to run into the Oni at forty miles an hour.

This actually diverted him from the young black teen, as it appeared the mangled vehicle had annoyed the Japanese ogre. Janeka had kept firing even as Dana dove out of the black SUV. Tsukyo dashed up and punched the ogre, but he just wasn't strong enough to bludgeon such a powerful monster with his bare hands.

"Oh, this really sucks," he complained as he barely dodged the massive iron staff of the monster.

With a roar, Dolph slammed home the spear Hel had given him, opening a large gash with 'The Shovel' as he had taken to calling it. "Go down," he shouted.

Sheila had lined up a careful shot and with a much lighter crack, toppled the ogre... much to her surprise. "I think he was almost down," she said very obviously.

"Man, my party is a bunch of kill-stealers," Janeka joked with a huge smile.

"I think we are just about cleaned up here," Dana said carefully. "Wait, someone's getting away."

And indeed, off in the distance, a bare-chested man was running away quickly with a small crate in his hands. He leaped off a small cliff as black, shadowy wings erupted from his back, racing him off into the evening.

"Can anyone chase him?" the scion of Ares called out quickly as she tried to line up a shot with her Casull.

"Sorry, I've only figured out a bit of that sky stuff," Tsukyo said with a nervous twitter.

"I haven't even gotten that far," Sheila admitted. "I'm pretty much only able to diagnose physical ailments right now." She would have to fix that soon.

"Guys, this is weird. Is that a pyramid?" Dana called out as she peeled her shadow-mask from her face. Down in the bottom of the now uncovered pit was the gleaming top of a four-sided structure of the tip of a pyramid.

"What the hell? The Nazca didn't make buildings like that," Janeka said as she dashed up.

"It doesn't look like they've gotten very far. I wish we could tell how important this is," the young scion of Athena groused as she kicked the dirt with her the toes of her hiking boot.

Dolph just shrugged as he set The Shovel over his shoulder while Tsukyo looked on quite curiously.

It was the scion of Artemis that spoke finally. "I might be able to tell. Give me a minute to set up an oracle." The Greek-Italian was reaching into a pouch from her bones, another relic from her mother and imbued with the power of prophecy from her uncle Apollo.

Everyone watched her carefully as she rolled the bones on the hard earth. So they all saw the bones seemingly land randomly.

The dark-eyed Dana looked at them all. "This secret here could change the world." In her eyes, the actual word for secret in Greek had been formed by the bones, the word 'μυστικό'.

"Well, I'm all for uncovering secrets, but where?" the big Asgardian asked as he brushed the shoulder-length blond hair out of his face. The cold wind was mussing up the too-perfect hair a bit.

"North side? Astrologically, the great entrances to the pyramids were usually on the side that faced the sun. In Egypt, that was the south side-" Sheila explained her thoughts aloud.

Janeka nodded, her black dreadlocks swaying around. "But here in South America, the sun is on the north side. Makes sense."

"Easy enough to verify. I've been meaning to try this." With that, the big Aesir touched the ornate runic armband on his right bicep, then slammed the butt of The Shovel against the ground, feeling the Earth below him with something he had deciphered using a book of runes. "Got it, just like you guessed. It's quite a ways down, though. Are we going to be careful and do this like real archaeologists?" Dolph asked.

"Pretty sure that they were destroying everything in their haste," the son of Susanoo noted. "I bet that guy comes back with some of his buddies. Like those ninja we fought in New York. Right, Janeka?"

She frowned back at him, but nodded. That had been a bit hairy.

"Someone better get a lantern. Sounds like I'll be doing some serious digging," the big Aesir noted aloud.

"Got that covered, big guy," the effeminate half-Japanese stated as he started to glow with the soft brilliance of the sun as he touched the collar on his neck. Specifically the symbols of 太陽.

In fact, it ended up mostly being Dolph, Dana and Tsukyo doing the lion's share of the work. Sheila and Janeka chipped in, but the others were generally stronger and could work for hours without rest. It was in the early morning of the next day that they had dug down over seventy five feet. So they had set up a rope and other lanterns when Tsukyo's glow had faded.

They all shared a look at the massive doors, which had resisted all attempts by even Dolph to pry open. In fact, he had not even chipped the stone, much to his surprise.

"I wonder..." the youngest Scion said. She put her hand up against the doorway. Concentrating heavily, she forced legend and tried to control the doorway, like it was some sort of massive relic. And with that... the stone faded away, leaving open a ten foot tall and six foot wide entrance.

"Nice!" Janeka drawled out.

"I don't recognize these glyphs on the wall at all." Sheila was staring at row upon row of symbols along the top and bottom. The hackles on her neck was creeping up.

Now that everyone else was looking at them, neither could they. It looked like some sort of flowing, script of pictographs; elegant and concise.

"I think we found our Mystery," Dana noted dryly in an oblique tone.

Chapter 3: The Impossible Pyramid

They rested for a few hours, then set the Amazons and the re-exhumed Einherjar to guarding the camp again while they entered the entrance. Sheila was taking pictures with her smart phone every dozen feet or so. When she noticed Tsukyo's questioning glance, she said, "Just getting some research material. I already see some patterns."

Janeka aimed a high powered flashlight around the first anteroom. "Just an empty room, like at Khufu." The darkest-skinned scion shook her head at Sheila grabbing several more pictures of pictographs. She'd have to get a copy for her computer later. "Let's keep going.

Sheila stopped and looked back the way they had come, frowning slightly as she considered distances. She trotted to catch up to Dana, who raised an eyebrow at her. "Just thinking about something."

The corridor angled off to the left and came to another door.

"Ooh! Let me!" Tsukyo called out as he put his hand on the door to channel some legend into it.

This door vanished just as easily as the last one, leading into a circular room. Really, it was more of a vertical forty foot wide shaft that happened to have three foot ledge around most of it. They looked around, but there did not seem to be any other hallways.

"There are hand-holds cut into the shaft," Janeka noted as she tried to look down the shaft where there was a break in the walkway.

"Only a little climbing involved," Dana said with dry wit.

"Up or down?" Dolph asked.

With a flip of a coin, they decided to start climbing down. About two hundred feet down, the came across another tunnel that went off at a different (15 degree) angle, according to the mental map in Sheila's head.

"It looks similar to the tunnel we entered in," Dana called out. Her powers over Darkness allowed her to see in pitch blackness as easily as full daylight, something all the other scions were envying.

"Let's take a look then," the big Aesir said with grin on his face. He was obviously having too much fun at the challenge.

By the first anteroom, the temperature was dropping rapidly. Their breath was misting as they opened the second door to a wall of dark ice.

"I don't think we're equipped for that," the daughter of Artemis said as she tugged on her mask for a little bit more covering.

"I could go myself. For some reason, I'm not feeling this at all. Of course, Helheim is a place of utter cold so that isn't too surprising," the big blond, almost-giant said.

"Let's not pull any Scooby-Do antics and stay together. We can always come back," Janeka decided.

"Scooby-Do? Well, the idea is a good one. Splitting up just means we might get ambushed separately. Unless we are in a dire hurry?" the youngest scion noted aloud while looking slightly confused about the pop-culture reference.

Janeka was giving her an odd, piercing look but did not say anything. Her ears and nose were already freezing cold.

"No, not really," Dana said as she moved to close the door.

"Guess that's okay," the big Asgardian grumbled.

Tsukyo just shook his head at the big guy's antics. "I like the snow, but that looked way too cold for me."

Each tunnel they found at each new level down led to new areas. Next was a jungle up against the mountains, then the middle of a blazingly hot desert as the sun was setting.

"I think that was in Africa," Sheila muttered as she juggled hours and time-zones in her head.

Finally, at the bottom of the shaft (and nearly a thousand feet down) they reached the end. A larger tunnel led off directly to what Sheila was thinking of as 'north' though might not have been. Her ability to keep things in their place around her was taking a beating, as she was pretty sure that Euclidean geometry was being abrogated here in this place.

This did not leave to an anteroom, but a very large room with with an embossed map of the world with various locations laid out. Sheila started taking snapshots with her phone.

"I would just bet that these are all locations that you can travel to with those entrances," Janeka said as she considered things.

"It looks like we probably only saw about half of them. Which means the rest were up. That's a lot of climbing," Sheila said as she considered the matter.

"Why is there so much climbing?" Tsukyo asked the two 'brains' of the group.

Sheila and Janeka shared a quick glance at each other and a shrug.

"It may have to do with keeping the entrances far enough away that they don't interact," the youngest girl noted.

"And there's probably some damn elevator trick we haven't figured out." Janeka's arms were killing her so far. She was not looking forward to climbing back up.

Dana was kneeling over the area in North America that they all lived. "I think there's an exit near our home. I do wonder what the words say."

"Probably what level and who is in the area," Dolph noted casually. "At least that's what I'd put on a map next to a magical means of travelling to them."

"He's got a point," the young half-Japanese said in agreement, leaning his wiry and lithe form against the wall.

The last, larger hallway led to another door, covered in glyphs and figures. There was one other difference, it would not open, no matter how much they tried. In fact, Dolph could not even mar the surface of the strange stone it was made of.

"So I guess we've figured everything we can at this moment," Sheila mused aloud. "I think we need to work at cracking this code."

"And we can do that safely back home. Let's go get your minions-" Janeka said while quirking an eyebrow at Dolph and Dana.

Dana actually glared at the daughter of Ares for a long moment. But she could sense from the younger woman that it was all meant in jest.

"-and head home. I think I'll just pay for the cars as being lost. And we close this door," she explained her plan without pausing.

"Sounds like a plan."

Dolph jammed The Shovel into the earth in front of his Einherjar. "Return to the earth!" he ordered them in the morning light of the California mountains. His dead father, Sigurd Jorgensen, just glared at him as he was returned to Hel's halls. The other Einherjar left almost as reluctantly; they were a motley group that included a Teutonic knight, an ancient viking, a WWI airplane pilot and a SS officer that just glared at Janeka and Tsukyo spitefully.

"That's some messed up shit you have there, man," Janeka said bluntly. "GPS has our location nailed down though. We're in the mountains to the east by south-east of the San Francisco bay. Just above the Burnt Hills. Not much up here normally. Which I bet is why this place has never been seen."

"I see a hiker's trail, way down there. I'm more wondering how we are going to get down from this cut off ledge," the daughter of Artemis said, shading her dark eyes as she looked down the mountain.

Even Dana's Amazons looked a little disconcerted at the sheer cliff face.

Sheila's eyes were taking in everything, placing in its normal, 3D space location. "Actually, I think we can climb up there and then the path leads back down." She crouched down and then leaped forty feet straight up and twenty feet over.

"She's a regular jumping bean. Damn it, my arms are going to fall off at this rate," Janeka complained.

There was a path that was quite hidden, in fact Dolph, Tsukyo and the Amazons could not even see it at times. Only the three female scions could. Eventually they discovered that each had 'super' senses of some sort. Dana was nearly a blood-hound in tracking ability, Janeka was able to adjust her senses to infrared and such while Sheila had her telescopic senses.

It was mid-afternoon by the time they were in a van that Janeka had hired.

"I'm thinking I'll buy a cabin as near as I can get to there for a base camp. That way its easier for us to get around," the scion with the most money explained.

"Not a bad idea. I really want to explore more of that later." That had been quite exciting to the Aesir.

Sheila waved to others at the sidewalk as the van drove off. She walked up to the door and let herself in. The sounds of loud mayhem from the flatscreen TV was quite telling. "So that's homework, huh?"

Anton just about jumped out of his skin. He quickly adjusted to her presence. "Oh, hi Sheila. Back already?"

"That's right. Mother and Father are out, right? Then I should be able to shower and clean up."

She went through the four days of accumulated 'special' homework for Miss Marples and additional Spanish learning before she heard the sound of her (step?)father in the early evening. She closed up her computer notebook on her desk and slipped her e-reader into a pouch on her shorts. Then she walked down to the front room where Anton and her father were talking over his piles of homework.

"Ah, Sheila. Anton was saying you were home," Erwin said as he loosened his tie slightly. "Your back early from your adventure." Tall, dark and handsome were quite applicable to the nationally famous lawyer.

"You are really taking this whole thing rather well," she said, fishing for information.

"We were told about your mother when she brought you to us. In fact, she demanded that we raise you exactly as we have. Of course, you are supposed to have seven more years of getting ready. But not even a goddess can foresee everything. I'm not sure why she wanted you to join the navy. Nostalgia, perhaps." Erwin's voice was classically controlled and mellow as always.

"What are you talking about, dad?" Anton asked from where he was sitting on the couch.

"Sheila's... mother, that asked us to care for her as her foster parents. She is quite exacting on what she wanted. In repayment, she blessed our family greatly, as only the most powerful of goddesses can," the Sicilian said with a wide smile to his son.

"Dad... you aren't making a lot of sense," the ten year old said in confusion. "I thought Sheila was doing something for you?"

"No, she was doing the bidding of Wise Athena herself. Which reminds me, there are some ceremonies that we should make sure to enact," Erwin mused idly.

Sheila glared a bit. "She never mentioned her name, saying that they had a power in them. And you never wanted to include me before." In fact, she had wondered quite a bit why she had not been dragged to the different feasts at times.

"It would not have been exactly appropriate. In fact, the power of names might have been part of it. I'll have to think on that a bit." Erwin looked over at the click of the front door. "Ah, the love of my life!" He smiled grandly at his wife.

"A family pow-wow and I wasn't invited?" the thirty-six year old woman said with mock anger. She kissed her husband and then fussed with Anton's hair. "So what are we all gathered around for?"

Sheila's face was quite flat. "We were just discussing my differences. I'm going out." Again she was excluded.

"What is she talking about? Why is everyone making a fuss about her?" the ten-year old whined.

The young scion wheeled on him, tears in her eyes. "Isn't it obvious. I'm not your sister, I'm just a chore to be handed off because my real mother is too busy!"

"Sheila!" Lisa shouted in shock.

The young scion kicked through the wooden front door, sending shards of wood skidding down the sidewalk. It quite startled an old black man as the girl leaped the fence in a single bound and then started running down the street to try and outpace her tears.

Desperate anger at her parents that always had time to hug her brother fueled her desire... no her wish to go faster, to get away from her house. The ichor of the gods, her birthright answered as the world seemed to slow down around her as she sped past cars on the busy roads of San Francisco at such a pace that she was nearly just a blur of motion down Broad Street.

She happened to be heading east, so when she came to the end of the street, she cornered around a restaurant and then the to the bay, she took several steps on the edge of the water to get ready to leap and swim across when she realized she was moving so fast that the water was nearly solid. Even with her uncanny speed and physical deftness, she still nearly stumbled.

Narrowing her blue-green eyes, she got back into the rhythm, not realizing quite what a spectacle a running person at nearly a hundred and fifty miles per hour would make as a spray of water was left in her wake. It only took her just over ninety seconds to cross the bay and leap back up to the street level, leaving behind only a few people fast enough to try and snap a picture on their phones.

Finally a destination had occurred to her confused, angered mind. Snapshots of the trip in her perfect memory led her back down the freeways, then highways and side roads... and then finally off road and up a very hidden path.

Chest heaving from the exertion, she slumped against the closed doorway to the strange pyramid complex. "That was stupid," she said to no one in particular. She slammed a small fist against the ground, wincing at the pain. "But I guess I should have figured out a long time ago that I was not really their child."

She looked little like them, as they were all dark-haired and tanned quite easily. They were strict with Anton Pells Henderson, but did actually treat him more like a child. He had his friends and went to a private school. And they always had time for his recitals and to talk to his teachers in praise. He was their wonder child, even when he was years and years behind her in schooling.

But she had been mostly kept at their home, with private tutors that drilled her hard with only Sunday being a 'light study' day. The young girl had been allowed to pass her high school exams a year ago and had started to go to school at the University of Chicago.

But when Anton had evinced an interest in going to Berkeley, her parents had started the process of moving across country rather abruptly.

She hated them both for not being her real parents.

"Marcy Cartwright, huh?" Janeka said as she patted her tight braids somewhat dry. Her spider program had finished the mostly legal background check of the different member and left it in her email. Really, the only changes had been a note that Dolph would be allowed back in school on Monday and that Sheila's adoption papers had been found.

Her natural mother had an athletic and pretty woman that had died in childbirth in Chicago. No father was listed, but there was a name that was noted as fake, as no one in Pyrgetou, Greece existed... Oh, one of those.

That was when her phone rang with . "Yo, this is Janeka."

"He-llo," Dana called out as she finished fitting her utility and holster belt on over her uniform. "I just thought I'd let you know I just happened to be listening to the news when I happened to notice something that is probably important. It was kind of odd that it was on the news, but it jumped out at me in importance-"

"Out with it, woman," Janeka said with a laugh and smile on her face.

"Right," Dana said with a roll of her eyes. "There's a new project at the Berkeley Physics department that is just finishing being installed. Strange, high energy physics. Sorry I don't know more."

"It's your supernatural insights that helped us last time. Though I'm not exactly sure what high energy physics has to do with our world now a days." The African-American drummed her fingers on the little work desk next to her computer in the motel room. "Let me call the others and ask around."

It only took a moment to dial the number for the big Asgardian. "This is Dolph," he answered from under his car. He put the phone up to his ear and tried to hold it in place with his shoulder. He then casually held up the car an extra three inches while he tightened a screw on the frame assembly.

"Hey Dolph, this is Janeka. Dana just noted something odd in the news. Something over at the university here. Just really weird, as its in the physics department," the scion of Ares said as she was rapidly researching the project. "Probably ought to check it over the weekend."

"I doubt they are giving public tours, but it might not be a bad idea," he admitted aloud. "I'll talk to you tomorrow in the morning?"

"Sure," Janeka almost chirped out as she continued her online research.

The knock at her motel room door was quite loud and not like Tsukyo at all. The young scion of Ares went over to the door and stood on her tippy toes to peek through the peep hole, her pistol at the ready. "Great." She opened the door to the man standing there.

He was an unusual looking specimen, wearing a tan trenchcoat. "Greetings, daughter of Ares," the Myrmidon said even as he looked up and down the hall. "I have been sent with a missive from Zeus himself." His eyes looked flat, alien and unfriendly and showed his inhuman roots.

"What's my other grampa want?" the ebon-skinned teen asked with narrowed, angry eyes.

"The place... Nazca of Peru... is to be off limits. That past is forbidden knowledge. Thus I have passed the decree to you as dictated," the strangely alien being stated.

"What? Is this some ancient joke that no one wants to be unearthed? Like the goddesses making sure that Ares visited me without knowing I'm a girl?" the heroine demanded.

"No, this is a serious matter of the gods themselves. I have done my duty as I have been specifically dictated to do so," the servant of the god.

Janeka caught the reference and thought about the way she had been told to back off. Stay away from Nazca... but they didn't need to go there to investigate the place, did they? "Someone is tricky, cunning and deceptive... Ares did not send you, did he?"

"I am not allowed to inform you of whose orders I follow. I have to leave now," the being said, his black eyes blinking furiously.

"And that's the answer I was looking for. Thanks Ant-Man." Janeka closed the door, then walked back to her computer as she thought furiously. The King of Gods, Zeus himself, had ordered them away. But the person that delivered the message had twisted the message just enough that they could wiggle into continuing to investigate the abandoned place. "Hermes or Athena?" she wondered aloud. "Got to be Athena, as Hermes would just pop in and deliver the message himself. Which means she's the one behind dear old fucking dad not knowing I'm a boy, too. Bitch."

She tapped away for five minutes on her information gathering requests. (It wasn't hacking, these days. She was a respectable security consultant that even did business to the likes of the NSA and FBI. Nope, not hacking at all. Even if she just bypassed the login security of that server. She would just leave them a patch that fixed their hole.)

The fast patter of knocks on her door heralded the arrival of Tsukyo. As soon as the door was open, he was talking. "My father sent me a message. I mean, there I was, taking a shower when this water lady formed from the water. I was thinking, hey that's pretty cool and all when she started to tell me that I should avoid that secret place we uncovered in South America. Then she offered to spend the night and talk about my father, though I'm not sure how much talking we are-"

"Right, right. I just got told the same thing. Do you know anything about high energy physics? Or why some project at Berkeley of high energy physics is so important?" Janeka said, cutting him off quickly. Tsukyo could be a bit high strung at times.

"Um, no. I'm still in high school on that dance scholarship. Not a lot of sciences there, really," the handsome, younger teen asked. "What are we going to do about the message?"

"Not go back to Peru. It was too cold anyways," the normal, plain looking African-American said with a sloppy grin. "Exactly as they said, eh?"

"Why- Oh, I see. I think."

"Go back and entertain your Nereid friend that your father sent to visit you. I mean, you just left her alone and that might be considered rude, right?" she pointed out to him.

"Oh, right! Well, I'll talk to you later, Janeka!"

Janeka just shook her head as he closed the door behind him to go to his own room. She tapped another number on her phone. "Hey, Sheila. You sound a bit breathless."

"Yeah, I just went for a run after a fight with my family," the girl said as she sat against the door to the strange and hidden complex, high up on the cliffside of the mountain.

"Well, got a few things. You know of anything about a high energy physics project at Berkeley?" Janeka asked.

"I'm sure there are a few, but nothing ground breaking," the younger girl said as she shrugged.

"Huh. Dana said that she spotted something important and that it was a new project. Doesn't sound like you know anything about it either. Well, I think we are going to get a tour of the place tomorrow."

"I really don't remember anything like that when I researched Berkeley a couple of months ago. That's when I decided to continue on my structural engineering degree instead." Sheila was thinking furiously.

"Curious George is me, then," Janeka said as she used one of her Grampa White's favorite sayings without meaning to. "Another thing is that we are getting godly orders to not go back to Nazca and research that pyramid. In such a way that we just happen to be clear to research the actual complex. Just have to void that entrance in Peru."

"I haven't gotten a message like that-! Oh, here comes an owl." Sheila glared as she stood up, untying the envelope from the huge barn owl. "Thanks."

The owl hooted and she could have almost sworn that it had said goodbye. She scanned through the letter that essentially told her to not investigate the ruins they discovered in Peru and that all parties were being warned off. "Yeah, same message. Nothing about this entrance though."

"Methinks someone wants us to research this on the sly," Janeka said. "I wonder if that's like the language of the gods or something? That would be wicked if it was like the source code of reality."

Sheila was frowning. "How come I get the feeling we are being led around by the nose?"

"Considering I think my messenger was actually from your mother... You might be right. So I'll be by tomorrow to pick you up, 'kay?" Janeka disconnected as she started to dig into the mystery more.

Dolph was still working on his car two hours later. Ever since he had been visited by his mother, he had found he needed little sleep. And his 1969 Ford Mustang was his way of coping with issues that he did not want to deal with; like his father or being suspended from school.

"You going to stay under black and chrome monstrosity all night?" his father's danish-accented voice asked from the entrance to the garage, just like he always did-

The son of Hel slid out quickly and scrambled to his feet. "What the hell are you doing here? What if the neighbors saw you?"

"So? I have got a new shirt to cover the hole your mother made in chest. Other than being pale, they probably wouldn't notice jack and shit unless it was flung in their face." Sigurd sneered at his son that stood at least five inches taller than him already. "The Bitch sent me to deliver a message."

"Great. Even dead I can't get rid of you," Dolph grumbled aloud. "What's the message, father?"

"Stay the hell away from those ruins you found in Peru. Hel didn't like getting a direct order from Odin about it neither. So she took out her frustrations on me and then booted me back to the real word." The emaciated blond may have been handsome at one point, but he had let his body go to waste years ago. "Me, I say tread carefully. I don't think you have to be alive to do her bidding."

"Fine. What about this thing at Berkeley?" he demanded of his father.

"I'm just a messenger. What thing?" the Einherjar asked.

"Nevermind. You got some messages. I think your case worker called." Dolph sent him an evil look. "Of course, I could tell her that you are dead and can't get your check any more."

"Damn, how am I supposed to buy my beer?" the dead Norseman complained.

"You're dead... Actually, that's not much of a reason for us to not drink, is it?" The young Asgardian shook his head. This was taking some adjustment.

Sheila jogged back down the road just as the sun was setting. The front entrance of her house was boarded up, so she went to the back door. "Hello," she called out

"In here," Erwin called out from his office on the ground floor. He waited until she stuck her head around the corner. "You know that we were instructed not to give casual displays of affection for you?"

"Why not?" she snapped out, her old anger resurfacing.

"I believe it was a form of reinforcement so that you would put 110 % of your effort into your studies. Lisa also thinks it was to make it easier to convince you to join the Navy when you turned seventeen. Whatever it was, it worked better than it ever should have. You can't normally make geniuses, but Athena did with you." The lawyer nodded as he saw her start to think things through. "We do know that you were not supposed to be visited until you turned eighteen at the very earliest. So something is changing. Something urgent enough to disrupt her plan."

"I really don't like being treated like some... experiment," she groused. "But I think I would hate not being what I am though."

"Sheila," Erwin said slowly as he looked out the window. "You need to remember that you are not the only one being directed or manipulated here. Fifteen years ago, I could not imagine raising a child and not caring. Yet somehow I do not. At least not as much I think I should. Don't let your mother... Don't let Lisa know, though I bet she suspects."

"So we are all abnormal?" she asked carefully.

"Yes, though I think you scared your brother with your exit. Though for a divine tantrum, it was probably fairly low key," Erwin said with a grin.

"Ha!" She started to giggle and then waved. "I'm going to bed."

Chapter 4: Claws of the Crafter

Sheila looked over at the slightly changed look that Dana was wearing in the front seat of Dolph's car. She was sprawled out in the back seat of the car on the slightly faded leather, her feet barely fitting behind the driver's seat that was pushed all the way back. "Is that really necessary?"

"I'm a police officer. Getting arrested for trespass would be very bad, capiche?" the darker-haired Italian-Greek said over her shoulder.

"She's got a point. Me, I don't care about another problem with the police," Dolph said as drove his car though the pleasant university neighborhoods. "Already got a rap sheet."

"I wonder what that is like," the youngest scion mused to herself.

"I'm sure we'll get you arrested before too long. You are just lucky you are so young that they'll just stick you into Juvie," the big Asgardian said.

"Yeah, I'm the one that will get hammered for aiding and abetting minors in a crime," Dana said grumpily. She was just glad that she could get by with an hour or so of sleep a day.

"There's Janeka and Tsukyo," the driver said as he noted the two standing near a big white van. The black and chrome Mustang pulled into a parking lot and scritched to a halt. "Huh. Guess I should play with those brakes a bit more." He stepped out of the car and stretched. "Heya!"

"Hey big guy!" the half-Japanese scion called right back.

"I forgot to ask you, Dana, but did you get a cryptic warning..."

"...to not go back to Peru and dig up old secrets from my mother? Yeah. And Dolph and Sheila mentioned that on the drive over the Bay Bridge. I guess we just won't go back to Peru... to go back into that complex. Eh?" the slightly older woman said with a quirky grin.

"Exactly. But I think first we want to get a peek into the back area. There are three main entrances into the basement. It's not really a high security building." Janeka pulled out five swipe-cards that had circuit boards attached. "These are designed to counter the security at the doors. As long as you look like you are supposed to belong, most of the students and technicians will just ignore you."

Everyone crowded around the map to look it. Everyone memorized it to the best of their ability.

Tsukyo frowned. "I don't think that map's totally accurate, man. At least it doesn't match that building." He was studying the building.

Janeka frowned, then nodded. "Might be a travellers thing. Your dad is known to have some of that sort of stuff. Tsukyo and I will go in here, you three go in here. Avoid the main elevator and use the stairs right next to it."

"We'll just ignore the freight elevator?" Dolph asked.

"It's right in the view of the whole room," the scion of Ares explained. "Stairs should be a bit less conspicuous. Got some headsets that look like blue-tooth's for your phone. Everyone ready?" She handed out the micro-headsets.

At everyone's nod, they walked up to the main entrance and with a swipe, walked in like they owned the place. Dana led her group to the left, their feet treading softly. The big Asgardian felt a bit self-conscious as he tried to be as quiet as they seemed to be, the two almost gliding across the ground.

"Is that a Dodekatheon thing?" he complained.

"I think it's 'not a huge guy' thing. Of course, I think your are stronger than both of us combined," Dana noted as she spotted the elevator and the emergency stairs next to it. She walked over to a vending machine while two older technicians walked out of the elevator. She dropped in a couple of dollars and bought a candy bar.

"Clear, but someone is coming," Sheila whispered as she listened hard.

"Low voices only. Whispering carries further," the daughter of Artemis instructed. Another swipe of the programmed hacker card had them in the stairwell and taking the stairs down. Dana peeked through the window at the bottom door. "Bingo. Unless Berkeley Cal. added cyborg monsters to the facilty, that cyclops is our red herring." It was a huge room, at least thirty feet tall and more than sixty feet wide. Pipes and conduits hung from the wall and ceiling.

The Cyclops was wearing a leather apron and rough pants as it loaded a pallet with a few boxes and a crate. There was a strange electronic and clockwork crown attached to his head while both of his arms had been replaced with massive bronze and brass arms, powered by gears and pistons. With negligent strength, he loaded the pallet onto a hand-lift and then pulled it to the elevator.

"They are clearing out," Sheila realized. The rest of the room is empty.

Dana tapped her headphone. "Janeka, we need to capture that Cyclops and that pallet he's loading onto the elevator."

"Go!" the scion of Ares called out.

Both doors kicked open as the scions charged. Dolph had pulled out his spear already and roared out a challenge as he dashed forward. "Hiyahhh! Fight me!" he bellowed as he slammed his spear down on the Cyclop's armored bionic arm, denting it.

"Huuur-Click- Die!" the monster roared back. His massive, metal fist slammed home against the quickly raised spear, nearly buckling Dolph's knees and cracking the concrete beneath his feet. His second punch caught Dolph on the shoulder with a glancing blow, leaving a painful bruise.

Dana had slipped shadows over her face while pulling out her hand-sickle as she moved up, while Tsukyo charged forward and punched hard, thunder echoing through the building and knocking the Cyclops over three feet. Janeka's .454 Casull boomed almost as loud as the thunder the son of Susano-o was using with his fists, sending a spray of blood from a small wound.

Sheila was right behind Dolph, but leaped over and behind the cyclops. She grabbed the pallet lift-pull and was starting to pull it away from the elevator door when it dinged. "Uh oh."

So she was quite surprised when it opened to admit a stocky fellow of five foot ten. Under his suit, you got the impression of heavy muscles. "Hmm. It looks like some heroes managed to beat me here. I forgot how they always cropped up in the mortal world."

"I think I'll double that 'uh oh'," Sheila said to herself as she pulled out her pistol. "Who are you?"

"I thought you were a daughter of Athena? She must have been incredibly lax if the tale of Nephele and my infamy is not even told these days," the ancient Grecian said with a sneer.

The youngest scion's answer was to fire her pistol repeatedly, only to blink in shock as he blocked them with his forearm. She was just starting to step back when he flickered forward in a blur and punched her in the center of her chest. Pain exploded as she heard her her breast-bone seperate from her ribs and crack.

The Cyclops finally noted the new presence and immediately turned his back on the two scions. "Danger," it rumbled loudly. With a roar he charged and launched a punishing double-fisted hammer-punch at the much shorter man.

Sheila's left leg clipped the Cyclop's armored arm as she spun through the air and smashed against the wall. She was already unconscious as she sprawled bonelessly on the ground on broken limbs.

"Sheila!" Janeka shouted. She was suddenly snapping shots at the dark and dangerous stranger.

"Whoa, crap," Tsukyo said as he danced back.

"Hmm. One of the titanspawn Therosius's tribe. The missing brother that they had been yammering back. Interesting. Whatever is here is not being condoned by Zeus," the demigod said in bemusement as he blocked three punches from the Cyclops. "That makes me very curious."

"Dolph! Grab a crate and run," Janeka shouted loudly. "We need to get the hell out of here." She snapped off a careful shot at the deadly stranger, only to see him dodge the attack easily. "Shit."

The big Aesir almost snarled as he felt the urge to charge against the powerful newcomer and best him in personal combat. With a surge of will against the bloodlust rising in him, he turned and snatched the biggest crate and then started to run towards the stairs.

"She's dying," Dana said as she checked the young girl's vitals. "She's can't be dead- Wait, got it." She reached into one of the larger pockets on her cargo pants and pulled out the strange statue of Professor Stanton's Peruvian dig. "It's a healing relic. So maybe it can help."

The magic within the mysterious relic was alien and fought her. She bit her lip, drawing blood as she struggled to tame it. From a deep wellspring within her divine ichor, she managed to guide the torrent of healing energy. Bones realigned and knit together even as pulped organs became 'merely' bruised. The youngest scion started to breath raspily.

"Dana, move it or that guy is going to kill us all." Janeka just stared in awe as the demigod started to rip the Cyclop's arms off. "He's really Ixion? He's supposed to be trapped in the deepest pits of Tartarus."

Ixion snickered even as he stomped on the foot of the Cyclop's foot, pulping the limb. "Since you recognized me, I'll give you one chance to flee, little sister." His dark eyes gleamed in the shadows of the physics building's large basement. "Run."

"Do it! Let's get out of here," Janeka shouted even as she watched the demigod of artifice and betrayal rip the cyborged Cyclops to bits.

An hour later, they were parked back at Dolph's apartment above the little garage he worked in.

"Did you see what he was doing to the Cyclops? I was barely hurting it, even with my gauntlets," Tsukyo was complaining.

Dana was busy binding up Sheila's ribs. "You recognized him?" she asked the ebon-skinned scion of Ares.

"Yeah. Nephele was a trick copy of Hera that was used by Athena to prove that Ixion was a traitor. He's another child of Ares like me, but he was a kin slayer, lusted above his station and was supposedly bound in Tartarus on a spinning wheel of fire. He's a real piece of shit. Even the gods didn't like him," the business woman said. "And he's way way more powerful than us."

Janeka was currently going through the box of equipment they had found, which was quite high end in electronics and solid state electromagnetics.

"You don't think we could take him?" Dolph asked angrily. Somewhere during the drive, he had reverted to his terrifying visage to match his mood.

"If we had a plan and he is stupid enough to fall into a trap, we can take him. Lots of ifs and buts though. This is some really weird shit. I managed to recover some of the programming that they were using. I don't even understand the science behind what is going on. Quantum and Super-String physics. I think this might be a part of a super-collider. One that makes any mundane one look like a tinker toy." Janeka had her notebook computer now hooked up to one of the electronic controller boards.

"What does it mean though?" Dana asked.

"I don't know. Normal physics I can think through better than most anyone else I know. This stuff... it's super-science. Stuff that I don't think people would even be working on for decades. Maybe longer. Like Star Trek techno-babble shit."

That was when the youngest scion groaned on the table. "Uhhh," she said far too elequently. "What happened? I remember the guy in the suit and him punching me..."

"I'd say something about a glass jaw, but I think he was just strong enough that he could break any of us," Dana said with a smirk and ruffled her hair.

"-thought I was fast-" Sheila mumbled. "-not enough-" The pain was so intense that she could hardly even think.

"I didn't even see the punch he hit you with, but you bounced off a wall. Dana found out she can heal a bit with that statue we, uh, borrowed from Professor Stanton," Dolph said as he cracked his knuckles while thinking about this Ixion.

"You're going to have to heal the last of the bruises and cracked ribs on your own. I give it a week or so," the daughter of Artemis said as she fingered the edge of her shining, silvery sickle as dark thoughts of vengeance congealed in her mind.

Dolph's front door open with the jingle of keys. "You guys look like a sorry lot," Sigmund said as he walked in with a twenty-four pack of beer in his hands. "Hey, son. You might want to watch for the dead. Somone's disturbing things."

"What the $*% are you talking about?" the huge teen asked as he jumped out of his seat to loom over his dead father.

"Just a message from the bitch. She sounded a bit disappointed in you. I guess she expected you to defeat that last guy, even if he could have killed all of you easily," the Einherjar said with a nasty smirk. "I think if you die you just become another faceless minion of Hel instead of her favored son."

"That is not happening to me," the blond terror promised, clenching his massive hands so hard they creaked in fury.

Janeka frowned as her computer beeped at her. "Oh, crap." She was reading things rapidly. "Sheila, your mother's grave was robbed last night."

"-my what? When did Athena die?" Sheila slurred out as she tried to focus her bleary gaze.

"Nah, your mortal mother. The one that your step-parents adopted you from after she died in child-birth?" Janeka winced as she realized the girl had not know.

"Virgin goddesses adopt. Artemis explained that to me. It's all mystical and permanently binding," Dana explained seriously. "It's magic that only the gods know."

"Oh. Guess that makes sense," the youngest girl said woozily.

Sheila hobbled to the front door of her step-parents house. The very basic crutches had to be moved carefully not to catch on the sidewalk. She raised a bruised eyebrow at the heavier metal door and then fumbled for a minute to unlock the door with her keys.

She waved to Dana as she drove off in her sedan. Her cousin had waited long enough to make sure that she was actually inside the house. The sounds of gunfire and explosions was coming from the living room, so she assumed that Anton was playing one of his games.

The shout from the doorway was quite startling. "What the hell, Sheila? You look like you went three rounds with one of the Klitschko brothers," the dark-haired ten year old said.

"He actually only hit me once," she replied with a pained grin.

The game paused in the background as three other kids turned the corner. The two boys and the one girl stared at her in amazement.

"I see you have friends over," the young scion said inanely. "Hello. It looks worse than it is."

"Who did that to you?" the young girl asked who must have been a friend in the neighborhood.

"He didn't exactly give me his name. If you don't mind, going to my room to nap out.