Children of the Gods: Arc 2 [Game/Closed]

[Green Shoes]

The doors to the monastery were large and foreboding, made of an old dark wood, polished with bronze. The building was made of dark stone, recently renovated to a high polish, and was flecked with hundreds of small windows, each flickering with the light of a fire. As Aria approached it, she could hear new moans of strife coming from the building, yelps of pain from living beings.

The doors opened and a tall man dressed in a purple robe stepped out. He had a short, trimmed beard and long, brown hair in ringlets. On his hands were numerous gold rings, and were stained with blood. Each step he took spread ivy across the ground. He seemed as surprised to see Aria as she was him.

"Oh? And who are you?"

Before she could move, ivy seized her and thorns pierced her skin. She could feel the raw and almost unlimited power of the God, and no longer had feeling in her body. She walked towards him against her will, and he led her inside. The monastery was overrun with ivy, vines spreading and writhing across marble floors and columns. All around him were swathes of women, with frenzied hair and wicked claws, all carrying equipment ranging from pots to knives to baskets.

Entering the main hall, Aria saw that the resident monks were penned in, hundreds of them, each being killed one by one and bled into clay pots by the women atop a high altar. A golden haired woman was bound to the floor by ivy, her appearance strikingly beautiful. A younger girl, no more than 16 sat atop her, armed with a spear and shield, looking incredibly bored.

Binding Aria upright against the wall, he looked at her curiously, her eyes catching the silver token hanging by a necklace.

"Who are you little one?"

 

[IFS]

"Absolutely beautiful. Venus herself would be green with envy. Now I must settle for being the less attractive of our pair."

"Haha, careful I hear she doesn't like unfavorable comparisons," Nicole replied, smiling at the exaggerated compliment.

The plane started to descend and she moved to look out the window, still impressed by how smooth the flight was. She looked down at the lights of the city below, normally she wouldn't have been able to tell one city from another simply by the lights, but there was one structure in the distance that she recognized if only from books and movies. Apollo spoke up, confirming her suspicions.

"Welcome to Paris, Nicole. Been before?"

"No, I'd never left the states before getting called off to Australia, always wanted to come though," she said as she continued to stare out of the window while the plane drew to a stop. It wasn't surprising to her that he chose to come here, given the cities reputation.

As she looked out the window she spotted a small wooden boat in the river by the runway, it was quite a pretty sight with its lights shining off the surface of the river. Is that Apollo's? The whole runway seems to belong to him if nothing else.

 

[Lunar Templar]

'that's not good' Aria though as she could hear the cry's of live subjects now, but before she could turn to leave, some one came out.

"Oh? And who are you?" a man in a purple robe asked seemingly surprised to see her, but give her no time to respond before the Ivy that over ran the place, and indeed fallowed his every step stung her, numbing her and robbing her of motor control as against her desires, she followed him in.

She could still look around a little, that was good. Monks being sacrificed and bleed into pots, who she assumed was Artemus, sitting on another, incredibly beautiful woman though she couldn't tell much more about her. Her 'tour' was cut short when he bound her to wall

"Who are you little one?"

He asked again, the light catching the silver token around his neck enough to notice, but both him, and 'Artemus' draw an exhausted sigh from her "Really ...? Two of you are here ... ugh ..." she said in a tone that denoted her displeasure with bumping into any deity, let alone two. Aria shook her and sighed a 'fine' "Aria Valentine, daughter of the Norse Goddess Freya, and kiddnappie sent to clean up Zeus's mess cause he can't seem to keep his own people in check" Aria snapped, with a mix of irritation and snark, though from her perspective, it was all true.

 

[hiei82]

"Seriously? Vera, can you look for Aria and Andrew." Prometheus said. He wasn't even finished speaking before she was out the door and searching. Because they needed speed and the ability to see her, Vera chose to take her Bird of Prey form; soaring on the wings to search out the missing members of their group.

Vera made wide circles in the search outward, hoping they were at least moderately close. It took a few minutes of constant flight before she caught sight of Andrew. Who was alone. "This day just gets better and better" she thought before diving down to the missing healer.

She landed in front of him - squawking to get his attention - then stayed there hoping Andrew would remember she could be a bird.

 

[DarkRawen]

"The odds are only better if we had equal ability's suited for the task at hand, and we don't, healing ability or not, your only going to be in the way, stay here, or go back and wait for the others."

With that, Aria teleported out of sight, into the monastery. Andrew groaned, Aria was too sure of that she knew what was going on, and obviously underestimating him. Honestly, at this point he was ready to let her do as she wanted, however, he knew that he had to do something. No one was going to die this time. As he was about to start running, he was approached by an abnormally large bird. It squawked at him.

Vera?

"Vera, that's you, right?" He remembered how she had appeared earlier, after all, he had been impressed with the form. "Listen, Aria went into the monastery by herself, I tried to talk her into not doing so, but she teleported, and I can't enter because of the gates. Can you check up on her? If you're here, that means the rest are here, right?" He didn't wait for an answer, just turned towards where the planned meeting point was.

"Be careful, she said there might be ghosts in there, and you don't want to attract unwanted attention, especially since they'll see you before you notice them. Just go check what's up, while I'm getting the others, Steven should be able to get the lock up."

It was their best bet, anyhow.

He started running, although he wasn't as adept a runner as Nicole or Vera, very far from it, Andrew still had the benefit of being a demigod, as well as the benefit of his naturally agile build, so his speed wasn't too bad. After running for a while, the items in his hands moving around as he did, he found the van, and opened the door, putting down the bag he had been carrying around and addressing Prometheus. He kept the bow, though, and he spoke, quickly, although his voice bore no sign of fear or panic.

"Aria went into the monastery because she heard some ghosts or something, and I think there might be trouble. I told Vera to check up on her, there's a locked gate so I couldn't enter myself. We need Steven to open that one." He noticed the new people, but he really didn't care right now. "We need to make sure neither of them get hurt, and we need to move now. It's easy enough to spot," he pointed towards it, "and I do think we'd get there faster with the van."

 

[hiei82]

"Vera, that's you, right?" Andrew said, earning a screech and a head nod. "Listen, Aria went into the monastery by herself, I tried to talk her into not doing so, but she teleported, and I can't enter because of the gates. Can you check up on her? If you're here, that means the rest are here, right? Be careful, she said there might be ghosts in there, and you don't want to attract unwanted attention, especially since they'll see you before you notice them. Just go check what's up, while I'm getting the others, Steven should be able to get the lock up." He said, before taking off toward the meeting spot.

Vera wasted no time taking off herself; launching into the air and making her way toward the monastery. Being as stealthy as a non-native falcon could be in a Russian metropolis, she flew toward the monastery; perching outside one of the tiny windows. She had to try several times before she could find a large enough window with a wide enough angle of view, but eventually she found a window which she could - hopefully - break and fly into if necessary.

From the window, Vera could make out Aria - bound in what appeared to be plant matter - with a bunch of sacrifices, monks, and at least two people who could be gods. Aria was speaking; though it was too far away for her to make out through the glass. Vera could only hope the same silence benefited her.

There she waited, watching what was going on below, her beak ready to crack the glass so she could fly in to the rescue of needed.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

"You handy in a pinch?"

Shiro nodded. "Hai... I mean, yes. I believe I can handle myself in a fight. He neglected to mention that he hadn't been in a fight bigger than a kendo duel, but hey, there was a first time for everything, right?

Speaking of which, one of the others suddenly turned into a bird and took off.

Well... There's something you don't see everyday...

 

[Green Shoes]

Prometheus almost laughed at Prails question as he hauled Andrew in and sped towards the monastery.

"Prail, I have no idea what we're going into. I know as much as you do. God damn, why would Aria do that?!"

Swinging his head at Shiro, he looked the youth up and down.nt
The sword certainly indicated some form of combat prowess, though the Titan couldn't be sure.

"You better hope so, friend."

Approaching the monastery, he intended to ram the gate. However, seeing the thick and heavy bars up close, bound by both bar and lock, made him think twice and slam on the brakes. He had faith in Steven anyway.

"Steven! Can you bust open the gate?!"

 

[Green Shoes]

Apollo tool her hand and lead her off the plane, fixing his tie as he did so.

"Glad I could bring you here then. I personally believe Paris is a city best viewed from the river. You're not afraid of boats, are you?"

His voice dropped slightly at the final word, hinting that he truly wanted to know. The pair walked towards the wooden boat, gently rocking on the river. On the prow was set up a tale fit for fine dining, with two dark wood chairs already pulled out. In the cabin, an old French man with bushy beard and eyebrows stepped out to greet the two.

"Ah, Monsieur Apollo! And who is this? Si Belle!"

He spoke enthusiastically with a broad smile and starsbin his eyes, eagerly kissing Nicole's cheeks and helping her aboard, settling her into one of the chairs.

Apollo produced a small bunch of notes and laid it in the mans hands.

"Elle est mon Ami, Peter. Once around the river?"

The man nodded and went back to the cabin, retrieving a large paddle and steppes out onto the furthest point of the boat. Pushing it away from the shore, they began almost silently floating downstream.

Apollo procured a bottle of champagne from underneath the table, pouring both their glasses before motioning to the lights of Paris.

"Paris is always so beautiful. I lived here for quite a while, but...things change. Nature of the world I suppose. That's why you're so lucky, Nicole. You get to male a difference, make a change, small or large. A change nonetheless..."

His gaze was no longer at Paris but fixed at Nicole, as if looking straight through her. A smartly dressed woman interrupted with a steaming plate of entrees - cold meats, crumbling cheeses, a light salad and, curiously, fresh olives. Apollo waved her away after she set it down on the table.

"Why did you want to come to Paris, Nicole? What is it that draws people here?"

 

[Green Shoes]

Dionysus spun and clapped, laughing heartily at Aria's joke. The youth remained entirely uninterested, even taking out a cell phone and aimlessly browsing.

The Mad God bounded up and tussled Aria's hair.

"Yes! Yes! That's what he does! I'm glad I'm not the only one. So afraid to risk his life, so terrified to step outside the bounds! But you! You're not afraid. A daughter of Freya, yet so opposed to me. Why do you fight me with those others? Why do you hunt me so?"

He scratched her neck with a nail, loosing a small amount of blood that he let pool in his hand, making a sad puppy expression. He took the blood and threw it into a small basket that was sitting upon the blood drenched altar.

"That ought to liven things up! I think that's enough!"

Everyone froze, and the women handed forth their jugs of blood and wine to the altar, where they were stacked precariously high. The youth put away her phone and took her place at his side, dragging the beauty behind her. The woman struggled and cried to no avail. Aria caught a glimpse of her face for a brief moment. It was near identical to the youths.

 

[Lunar Templar]

"Yes! Yes! That's what he does! I'm glad I'm not the only one. So afraid to risk his life, so terrified to step outside the bounds! But you! You're not afraid. A daughter of Freya, yet so opposed to me. Why do you fight me with those others? Why do you hunt me so?"

The surprise on Arias face was unmistakeable, she'd been expecting another minion or something, not Dio himself, and the surprise continued when he cut her neck, drawing a little bit of blood and threw it into a basket. She didn't feel like she was bleeding to death, so it must not have been a very deep cut, though she wondered what he meant by 'liven things up'. "Well, since they never told us why you suddenly took up mass murder as a hobby, so there's only two reason I want you dead, or stopped, ether really will get me what I want." Aria started "Firstly, two of my friends are dead now because of you and ... what ever your doing, The second is, you released the Serpent of Midgar and Fenrir right? Freya is the only living relative I have left I know about, and she has answers I need, so your endangering not just a family I've never know, but answers to questions I've had most my life, and if I need to go through you to get them, fine, all things considered, I stand to gain more of value then I'll lose."

Aria's tone the entire time speak was, oddly calm, given who she was face to face with, though her surprise earlier did not diminishing what ever 'fearlessness' Dio spoke of. "So why are you doing all this?"

 

[IFS]

"Glad I could bring you here then. I personally believe Paris is a city best viewed from the river. You're not afraid of boats, are you?"

"No of course not," Nicole replied as she let Apollo lead her outside to the boat "Seeing Paris from the river sounds very nice."

She could see that there was a table and chairs on the deck of the boat, dinner during a riverside tour of the city? That does sound really nice, romantic even. She felt rather hungry as well, not having had a chance to eat with all the days events.

A hairy Frenchman, apparently in charge of the boat, came out to greet them.

"Ah, Monsieur Apollo! And who is this? Si Belle!"

He kissed Nicole on each cheek, she had heard of it as a method of greeting but it still felt strange to her, she smiled at his compliment though and let him help her aboard and into one of the chairs.

"I'm Nicole," she said, about to ask the man's name when Apollo spoke.

"Elle est mon Ami, Peter. Once around the river?"

"It's very nice to meet you Peter," she said, trying to remember what french she knew "Je m'appelle Nicole."

The man headed into the cabin and retrieved a paddle, pushing them off and down the river slowly. Apollo retrieved a bottle of champagne and poured them each a glass, and motioned to the lights of the city.

"Paris is always so beautiful. I lived here for quite a while, but...things change. Nature of the world I suppose. That's why you're so lucky, Nicole. You get to make a difference, make a change, small or large. A change nonetheless..."

"I suppose so, I wish I didn't have to though," she said, looking down hesitantly at the glass, then up at Paris "It is a beautiful city, just like I'd always imagined it."

She took a careful sip of the champagne, the taste was strange to her not having drunk much in the past, but not unpleasant. Just don't drink too much, she reminded herself. She had just started to wonder what they might be eating when a woman emerged from the cabin carrying a plate full of various entrees, Nicole felt a pang of hunger at the sight of the food, it all looked quite delicious.

"Why did you want to come to Paris, Nicole? What is it that draws people here?"

Apollo said as the woman left, Nicole began to serve herself a plate of some of the food being careful to eat slowly and politely. She was quite hungry but couldn't help but feel that it would be wrong to just dig into the dishes, both for how good they looked and because she had no desire to get anything on her dress.

"I don't know, I've just always heard about how beautiful it is, of all the romance and history it has," she said "It seems like everyone wants to come here at least once."

She turned to look at Apollo, feeling his gaze on and through her, it felt like he was examining not just her appearance, but some other aspect of her as well. She wondered what he saw.

"What about you? Why did you decide to take me here?" she said with smile after swallowing another bite.

 

[DarkRawen]

"Prail, I have no idea what we're going into. I know as much as you do. God damn, why would Aria do that?!"

"She said it was because no one else would be able to handle a ghost," Andrew replied, regardless or not if Prometheus actually wanted that answer. "I tried to talk her out of it, said that if she had to go, she should bring both of us, but that it really wasn't a good idea. She just teleported inside instead, told me I was just going to be in the way either way."

He reported it in a dull tone, as if what she had said already had stopped interesting him. He supposed it didn't, whether or not she had insulted and underestimated him, disrespected him by not listening, or simply acted like a brat by going ahead on her own... it really didn't matter anymore. They quickly got there, with Prometheus apparently intending to ram the gates -at least if judging from his speed approaching it- was an idea Andrew was less than fond of, for several reasons. Luckily, the titan stopped, and turned to Steven, asking him to take care of it.

Who thought the old man would be useful for more than waiving around a gun and making bad decisions?

Honestly, Andrew didn't like admitting that. Steven had held him up against the van because of something he couldn't help, and did not try to hide or even contain his contempt for him. Andrew couldn't remember having wronged the guy either, so he had started to find his personality disagreeable, more than anyone else, he supposed. However, Steven was the only one who had a shot at getting the lock open, at least if the tactic was to be something else than "ram it with a sword", which could work, although it was unlikely it would. Perhaps one of the new people could do something about it, if Steven couldn't?

I just hope Aria was mistaken about everything, and that there's nothing at all there.

He wasn't going to spend time thinking about what he could have worded differently, not at all. But... had she been more happy to listen if he hadn't upset her earlier? Perhaps she would.

 

[hiei82]

Aria and the unknown enemies continued to speak for a while. Vera was content to watch while this happened. Aria was more then capable to taking care of herself and could likely get herself out of the situation as she needed. She could teleport after all. Plus, so long as they were speaking, it was giving them information for later - always helpful.

Then however, the god made the less than ideal move of taking some of Aria's blood and adding it to the mix for what Vera could only assume was sacrificial in nature. They piled the jugs of blood dangerously high upon the alter. Things were looking increasingly bad.

Vera took a glance around toward the front of the building. There, the rest of the group was valiantly working to get inside the monastery. They weren't far behind, but they were still behind. Her mind made up, Vera drew her head back, pointed her beak at the glass, and slammed forward with her Olympian strength.

Shards of glass rained into the monastery and the sound echoed through the chamber. With the forward force of the attack upon the glass, Vera flew into the chamber with all her strength. She could feel her face bleeding from the attack but paid it no heed; there were greater concerns.

She made a bee line for the alter, slamming into the jugs of blood with as much strength as her demigod form could muster, attempting to unbalance the jugs and cause them to fall upon the enemy gods. Disrupt the ritual: check. Hurt the gods: hopefully check. Cause a distraction for the group outside: check. Say something an action hero would say:...

"CAAAAAAAWWWWWWW"

Well... you can't win at everything.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

"Steven! Can you bust open the gate?!"

"Certainly," Steven said, getting out and grabbing the lock. It was a simple tumbler, the combination wouldn't be that difficult to crack. Using a few pieces of metal and a screw driver, Steven quickly unlocked the padlock, threw off the chains, and opened the gate.

Spoiler: OOC

So sorry guys, final week and all that has been sucking up all my time. X_X

 

[DarkRawen]

Steven managed to open the lock easily. While it was certainly impressive, Andrew didn't comment on it, just nodded in some sort of acknowledgement. He wondered if the best thing to do was to just run inside, or if they should plan. Then one of the new people -it seemed that was the help they had received from that contact of Hermes'- started running ahead, carrying her weapon akin to how a warrior would. Andrew decided to follow her, holding his bow and placing quiver on his back, leaving one arrow in his hand so he could arm the bow.

For some reason, this is giving me a bad feeling.

The sound of something breaking could be heard, and not far from the door, he started smelling... something. It smelled almost like iron.

Blood, is it?

Whose blood? If he could smell it, then it wasn't enough to be just Aria or Vera's. He headed inside and saw the cause... it was literally a bloody mess. He leaned down and soaked the tip of the arrow in the mess, before making it into a poison causing fatigue and pain, and aiming it at the first enemy he saw, a tall god with a purple robe. "Don't move," he said, as his eyes scanned the room. He saw Aria bound by ivy, and Vera in her bird-form- among broken pots and jugs of blood. There was another potential enemy, a young girl from the looks of it, and monks were being bled out. The room was filled with strange women, and he made note of that he should be wary of them. If Andrew hadn't been as apathetic as he was, he probably would have commented on how fucked up it was, or at least reacted to it.

Then again, I've seen similar things on this trip before.

He kept pointing his bow at the god, and added. "State your name. If you move, I'll hit you, and this arrow is poisoned." Andrew didn't add that there were several others on their way, he figured the god would just have to find out that on his own.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Arai heard a crash then saw a falcon dive bomb the stack of jars, and cawing 'heroically', since she figured it was Vera in her under used bird form, but before she could warn Vera about Dio, Andrew, and some one she'd never seen before burst

"SHOOT HIM!!! THAT'S DIO!!!" Aria shouted from her vine prison "And watch out for the vines! They have a toxin that lets him take control of your body!" Aria added, wanting to warn them about what had gotten her caught. Aria did have to sigh in relief though, If Andrew and Vera where here, so where the other, though she figured Prometheus would have a few choice words for her.

 

[Rogue Trooper]

Jonathan getting forcefully expelled from the old hag?s shack only served to increase his already high anger levels. When he first laid his eyes on Prometheus, Jonathan had to fight an unnatural urge to not punch the titan in the face. The titan wasn?t much to look at. In fact in Jonathan?s mind Prometheus looked like weakling and the fact that this runt of a Titan was responsible for his abduction only pissed Jonathan off the more he thought about it.

But despite his rage and need for blood lust, Jonathan stayed in the background, content to watch the actions of his fellow abductees and those of the Titan. When it was time to move out, Jonathan boarded the bus and took a seat at the back, still wanting to remain out of the way. His anger was still high and breaking noses for receiving a strange look wasn?t something he wanted to do, at least not yet.

?You handy in a pinch??

Cracking his knuckles Jonathan just nodded at the titan?s question. There wasn?t much to say, you can talk all you want but Jonathan knew that when the shit goes down, that?s when a persons fighting ability is properly tested.

The bus ride continued for a while and before long they had arrived at what appeared to be an old monastery. Jonathan got out of his seat and move to the front determined to get a better look at the old building. Obviously the building was old as hell, but what was more interesting was the overly large gate and the fact that it required Prail and Steven or some shit, to open the damn thing.

Jonathan just grunted at the scene and turned to Prometheus ?does it always require a small group of you to do basic tasks?? But before he gave the titan any chance to respond Jonathan spoke again hints of violence in his voice ?Tell yeah what, how about we all march up into that chapel, kill everything in our paths and rescue your fucktard of a friend. You save your friend I get to kill?names Jonathan by the way?.