Chosen By Olympus

Thin streams of light filtered in threw the crack in the thick curtains on to the floor of the bedroom, almost reaching its occupant in their mass of tangled blankets. But they didn’t need the light to wake them, they never slept well anyway. The fact they had slept till nine was a surprise to even her, she must have passed out again. She groaned as she fought with the covers, she was stiff and her mind hazy. Too much had gone on lately, to many messages needing sent all over 2 dimensions. She swung her legs over the side of the tall bed and rubbed her face, struggling to convince herself that getting up was important. The only real reason she woke up at all was the tugging feeling of her messenger bag telling her that she had work. Sometimes it was worse than an alarm clock.

She scooted off the bed an floated over to the bathroom mirror. Slept in yesterday’s cloths, bags under her blue eyes, and her dark red pixycut hair was a mess and needed a wash. Yep, just another typical morning as Hermes. She showered, dressed, and looked at the clock, 9:30 AM, she was getting a late start today. Zeus must have decided that she needed to sleep again, normally work started around 7. Hermes put her visor on and ran her fingers through her hair to straighten it, time to see what the big deal was in the bag. She opened it up and found a stack of 6 letters from Zeus, must be important that they go now rather than waiting for her to be briefed. It was uncommon for the boss man to not tell her about what was going on face to face. One was addressed to her, which was even more bizarre. Hermes never received anything, unless it was a note taped to her head from Apollo saying to stop passing out in the reckroom. She ripped it open,

Hermes,
I know I told you a while back to let Athena have a few days to adjust, but it appears that things are becoming more complicated. I have given you a stack of letters to deliver, each addressed to a champion I need on hand in Olympus for the time being. There wasn’t enough time to inform you of all this in person for I have left to check the pit. I trust you can gather them before I get back. I will give you more information as it comes.
                                                                                           Zeus

First stop, Alex? That was odd, normally champions got top priority, but something big must have happened to have to call on Alex as well. Artemis, Athena, Ares, and Apollo were the rest. Why everyone had to have an A name was beyond her, maybe this was the A team or something. Hermes giggled at her joke and slung the bag over her shoulder. She would start with Alex, she would be easier to convince than the others and she needed to manage her time well. Other gods were trying to get her attention too, she could feel it, but Zeus got top priority. If other gods were along the way than ok, but right now she was busy.

She jumped out the window and teleported, feeling the shock of going from about 75 degrees to the arctic tundra. Hermes gasped, feeling like the wind was knocked out of her. Coughing as she tried to wrap herself tighter in her little jacket for warmth she looked around for Alex. Her powers were really accurate at landing her close to, if not exactly where the god was. “ALEX!!! Y-OU’VE G-GOT MAIL!!!” Hermes shivered, she wished she had been more awake when she had decided to go here first, she would have put on more layers.

Alex laughed, the sound metallic inside the helmet she wore.  With a strong kick, she flipped over one swinging club, just to kick off of a second club and land gracefully in the snow.  The giants roared, each twelve feet hunks of meat and muscle.  Normally the giants in these woods and mountains knew better than to cross their boundaries.  The treaties she had put into place stated that so long as they kept to their lands anyone who entered was free game.  But these two…they were far out of their lands.  The last thing Alex needed was for them to stumble upon some of the more defenseless charges under the woods she watched over.

Alex drew back on the bow in her hands and without taking thought to her aim she fired.  A roar and a whoosh had her flipping sideways out of the way of a swinging fist.  The bow in her hands seemed to hum as another arrow was knocked and drawn back before she ever landed.  This one she did aim, releasing it and felling one of the giants.  The mountain pawed at its eye for a moment before with a whine flopping sideways, kicking up snow everywhere.  A bloodcurdling roar came from the throat of the second giant and sent a chill down the person’s spine.  “Ah shite…”  She murmured, “Did’ja hav’ to go and bloodrage?  Jus’ makin’ it worse on ya.”  Her drawl was inherited, changed with the curse.  As her gender changed, her accent changed a bi-product of her tongue altering along with everything else.

“ALEX!!! Y-OU’VE G-GOT MAIL!!!”  A voice screamed out and Alex’s blood went cold.  An enraged giant she could handle, a pack of yeti’s she could handle.  Hell even the ice elementals were things she had fought and killed over a dozen times.  But that voice could only be Hermes.  And her time could not have been worse.  Especially since it attracted the attention of the enrage giant.

Giants don’t often form bonds with each other, but when they did it was the most dangerous.  You fell one, and the other enrages becoming more dangerous, faster, stronger, and more cunning.  But mostly, an enraged giant only wishes to destroy life around it.  And with a defenseless person standing with her back to the giant.  Well.  That was too easy to ignore.  With a roar it lifted its club, and swung down with all its might.

Alex cursed, dropping the bow and drawing her knives.  She dipped into the reserves of strength that let her fight and challenge the gods while being herself a demi-god.  As power and energy filled her limbs she ran, crossing the distance to stand between the giant and Hermes.  Her knives crossed, one behind the other, each as long as her forearm and with those simple weapons she caught the heavy blow from the club, blocking it and stopping it.  The force of the hit blew snow in every direction.  Her limbs shook inside the armor she wore as the giant bore down with its club.  “Hermes you fast idiot…get…back.”  Before she finished speaking she was moving, forcing the club back much to the surprise of the giant.

It didn’t have a chance, while she had been playing before and dodging hits and swings.  Now she had something to protect and wasn’t in the mood for games.  It didn’t take long before the giant collapsed, blood staining the snow and the figure in armor.  With a flick of the wrist, Alex flicked off the blood from her knives and then slid them into their sheaths with a finality.  Her armor was made mostly of leather, with a few metal plates embedded in it to protect important areas.  It was thick, and just bulky enough that the gender of its wearer could never be known, but it moved easily aiding the natural grace of its wearer.  Straps at the waist held two sheaths containing her hunting knives, blades long as her forearms and slightly curved, coming to wicked points.  Across her back was a quiver of arrows, with dark feathers with red along the edge.  Around her forearms themselves were bracers that had throwing knives strapped in, ready to be drawn and thrown.  On her thighs were similar weapons, and going diagonally down her back was a sword, the hilt extending over right shoulder, the blade nearly half a foot down from her left hip.  The bow, discarded onto the snow was retrieved where she checked its thick curve for damage before keeping it within her grip as she approached Hermes, tugging off her helmet to release dark hair the curled at her ears and neck, just long enough to nearly get into her eyes, and a face that was hard to place the gender of.

“What on earth am I gonna do wit’cha Hermes.”  Alex sighed before cracking into a broad grin.  “Welcome to the north, now what can I do for ya?”  Without any visible signal, two giant wolves padded out of the woods and joined their mistress on either side, one sitting down, the other slightly transparent remaining standing.  A cry of an eagle high above was also heard as her companions and pets came to check on her and the interesting appearance of Hermes.

Hermes blinked a few times in shock. Why was it always so dangerous out here? Dangerous and cold. “I-I’ve got a l-letter from Zeus.” She rummaged in her bag for the stack of letters. Hermes cursed that she didn’t make sure it was still on top before the jump here, this looked so unprofessional. Pulling out the stack of letters, her hands shaking from all the shivering, she finally found the right one and handed it to its owner. “It seems im-portant that you come a-as soon as possible. Ze-Zeus needs you there, m-more monsters or Ti-tans or some-thing.” Hermes threw the rest of the letters back in the bag and started rubbing her arms to try and generate heat. Her outfit was not made for the frozen north, and her damp hair was not helping at all. She prayed that she wouldn’t get sick, she didn’t have time to be sick. "Y-ou should think about living s-somewhere warmer."

Alex ripped open the letter and swore colorfully in over a dozen languages, some of which were long since forgotten. "I'll show up to the meeting." She promised before looking at the girl. "Go on Hermes, before you freeze to death...and you know why I can't leave." She set her helmet on the tangible wolfs head who didn't even seem to care at having a heavy helmet resting on it. Alex reached over and patted Hermes on the shoulder with her free hand. "It was good to see ya, though next time. Ya should dress warmer."

Hermes stuck out her tong, “I j-just woke up, cut me some sl-slack.” If she had known that the north was on the itinerary of the day she would have at least dried her hair, maybe even put on some real gloves rather than fingerless. The invitation to leave was all the encouragement Hermes needed. She smiled, “You could if you wanted, I-I’m sure she wouldn’t mi-nd, I know I wouldn’t.” Hermes was staring to think her hair was becoming a block of ice as they spoke. Normally she would have stayed a little longer and offered Alex a ride to Olympus, but she was just too cold to stay any longer or even think of that. If Alex needed her she knew how to reach her. Hermes patted the wolves on the head then disappeared, reappearing in a nice public bathroom. She went to the hand dryer and turned it on, just sitting in the warm air for a while. This was so demeaning, but at least Washington wasn’t under a foot of snow and trying to kill her.

Once she regained feeling in her entire body, she stepped out into an very clean lab/office area. Everyone was dressed in business attire and it just felt like an over pompous working environment. She couldn’t imagine working here, she couldn’t imagine wanting to even visit long, but this place just screamed Athena. Hermes scanned the area for a moment. People were starting to staring at her, but that was probably just cause they didn’t see her come in or something. People were weird about that sometimes. She looked around for the new Athena, then made her way across the office to a lady that was buried in her work. Hermes started to grin mischievously, talking to noobys was one of the highlights of being the messenger. They were always so impressed with how cool she was and all the knowledge she could give to them. Hermes jumped up and sat on the desk, sitting on some of the paper work, “Hello Athena, pleasure to finally meet you, though I wish you had picked somewhere more fun to work. Everyone here looks like they got a stick up their butt and a permanent scowl.” Hermes started kicking her dangling feet like a small child as she waited expectantly for the questions, grinning the whole time.

Cassidy woke early in the morning, as usual, to her alarm clock. She pressed the off button and stood, refusing to ever hit the snooze button. Early to bed, early to rise made one healthy, wealthy, and wise after all. She fondly recalled her old mortal friend, Benjamin Franklin. She shook her head as she noticed the blend between herself and Athena again, sending her light brown locks fluttering about. Technically they were the same being, but Cassidy liked to think she still maintained her original identity as well.

She dressed herself in her normal work wear, a pin striped power suit, applying her makeup quickly and skillfully in the bathroom mirror. It complimented her stormy eyes nicely, making her look professional and subtly intimidating. As she ate her breakfast she pondered what her responsibilities would be. Tensions were high, she knew that much, but she had no knowledge of what could come of it. At any rate a champion like her would be a target of many creatures. She shrugged, cleaning her dirty dishes and quickly putting them away, and packed her briefcase for the day. With that she turned off the light and left.

The walk to her work place was quick but chilly. Fall mornings in D.C. were famously breezy and almost cold; she shuddered to think of what winter would be like. The snow storms on the east coast always made the news. After berating herself for such a nonsensical train of thought she picked up her pace, her heels clicking on the sidewalk. When she made it to her work place she passed her I.D. badge past a bar code scanner outside of a door, causing the telltale click of an electronic lock disengaging. She pulled the door open and strode inside purposefully. Her desk, neat and organized as ever, sat waiting for her. Cassidy sat in her comfortable office chair and got to work. She was happy to lose herself in the problems and paperwork, allowing her mind time to rest. She worked through the morning relentlessly.

Then she noticed some of her coworkers losing their standard work rhythm and whispering to one another. She noticed approaching footsteps- foreign but slightly familiar- and decided to feign a lack of notice. Then someone sat on her desk, wearing the most ridiculous outfit she had seen in a long time. Cassidy looked up at the newcomer, a fairly young girl. Hermes, she noted. Another reminder of her merge with the goddess. She waited with a straight face as Hermes spoke. "Hello Athena, pleasure to finally meet you, though I wish you had picked somewhere more fun to work. Everyone here looks like they got a stick up their butt and a permanent scowl." The grin on her face bordered on ridiculousness, in Cassidy's opinion, but a part of her still wanted to return the grin with equal ridiculousness.

She kept her face straight as she replied, "It's about job security, Hermes. Now I'll ask you to deliver what you were sent to give me and go as soon as you are able. This is a fairly high security work area, for your information. Sensitive documents and such." With that Cassidy raised her eyebrows slightly, adding a touch of finality to her statement. Perhaps that would throw her cocky messenger out of her cocky and easy-going rhythm.

Hermes chuckled as she rummaged through her bag, “High security eh, I got in here without a problem, and I think the metal staff would be classified as a weapon.” Hermes was less amused than she had hoped, Athena recognized her right off the bat, ending any and all shenanigans right then and there. Sometimes, if its not a merge, Hermes got to have a little fun with the new champions, flaunt her powers and the like. Athena never seemed to let Hermes have the chance. “See you have picked yet another stick in the mud Athena, or do you turn them into that when you merge." Hermes teased, smiling at the new champion, "next time you should let me pick.” She pulled out the letter with Athena written on the back and handed it over. “Here is your sensitive document, from the boss man himself.”

Cassidy nodded and took the letter, recognizing that she meant Zeus. After such a short time she was being called out? It had to be something big if she wouldn't be given time to adjust to the merge. Slipping it under a paper on her desk, she looked back up at Hermes. "It isn't your business who gets chosen. Now I would advise that you leave soon, security has been called," she finished, looking back down at her papers. As an afterthought she looked back up. "Oh, thank you for the delivery Hermes. But I hope you know this means I will have to resign and find a new job now." It was true, she would have to relocate. Not that she minded much, explaining such a long and inevitable absence while trying to hold a job would be difficult. It was for the best, really. Cassidy actually looked forward to meeting the other champions, since Hermes was the only one she had directly interacted with in the last fifty years.

“But I haven’t even done anything this time, security always over reacts.” Hermes huffed and jumped down from the desk. “It’s not like I’m a shady individual.” Hermes turned to go back into the bathroom, assuming that teleporting here would set off even more alarms. “It was good talking with you again, I assume you know how to get ahold of me if you need me.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw some guard looking men rounding the corner into this office area. Hermes smiled, it was time to screw with some mortals. She laughed as she made a mad dash for the bathrooms. She could hear them start to run after her, but she knew by the time they came in after her she would be long gone. She flung open the door and ducked behind it out of view before teleporting away to the recroom in Olympus. Poor Athena, or Cassidy was it? Hermes didn’t know what this champion wished to be called yet, but whoever they were, they had a lot of explaining to do to the higher ups.

Hermes snatched one of the sandwiches out of the fridge. She knew it had a name on the bag, but meh, missing breakfast gave her top priority over this sandwiches former owner. While wolfing down the sandwich, she used her free hand to pull out the last letters. Apollo, Artemis, and Ares were who was left. Hard to say who to go to next. Artemis, or Ellena as she demanded to be called, would be fun. Hermes couldn’t quite figure out if Ellena liked her or not. Apollo was probably doing something stupid nearby, so he would be last just so Hermes could mess with him later. Ares… Would be get his eventually. She felt a tug that someone needed something, but not just the normal tug. It was Zeus, his felt different than the other ones. Hermes shoved what was left of the sandwich in her mouth, trying to finish it quickly. Then excitedly teleported away.

“Boss man! It’s been a…” her smiled dropped when she saw that it was just one of the satyrs that worked for Zeus. The satyr scoffed, “Sorry to disappoint Hermes, but I do have…” He had started to hold out a letter for her and she snatched it up before he finished talking, “Thanks.” It was to Alex, something must have stirred up again, things were getting difficult. Monsters were rising everywhere, which meant  had to be everywhere at the same time all the time. It was just a piece of paper, so it was easy to glance over and read. Apparently on the northern borders of Olympus, three Harpies were giving the guard grief. Hermes sighed, and tucked it into her pocket. “Anything else from him?” the satyr shrugged, “Not that I  know of Hermes, that’s all i got.” Hermes nodded and was about to go to Alex, when she felt a tug again. It was one of the other champions, Athena maybe? She nodded her goodbys to the satyr and disappeared.

Cassidy sighed as Hermes ran away, security guards hot on her tail. That messenger caused so much more trouble than she knew, and eventually it would catch up with her. But Cassidy did find herself suppressing a smile. Before her merge with Athena she had been quite fond of pranks. That had diminished, but it didn't stop her from enjoying the effects of a good one. Or realizing that those guards needed to lighten up. She had let the corners of her mouth turn upward slightly in amusement when a sound made her flinch. "Allaway," a man's voice thundered through the office space. She stood and looked at the director, standing outside of his office. His suit was impeccably pressed as always, but his perfectly bald head did nothing for his looks. Neither did the angry scowl he directed at her; it just made his dark eyes look darker and a little beady. "Yes, sir?" she hesitantly replied, knowing just how much trouble she was in. Best case scenario, she would lose her job without a major investigation. But that was nearly impossible. Her fears were confirmed when he opened the office door and said flatly, "We need to discuss this. Now." She sighed a little and walked into his office.

The director closed the door behind her and sat down at his desk; he didn't offer her a seat. She didn't take one. They waited in their respective positions of sitting and standing for a few tense moments before he finally spoke. "Care to explain what just happened, Allaway?" he asked, using her last name to address her. To save the time making excuses she just shook her head and answered, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, sir." He raised an eyebrow as if to say 'oh really?' and waited for her to continue. She sighed slightly. Way too many sighs for one day, she reflected, and said, "I can assure you there is no threat to security whatsoever, and that the girl happened to appear at a very inopportune time. I am prepared to resign to save the investigation into the matter and the possible scandal that would ensue if this went public." He raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. "And what reason in the world would I have to believe that?" She leveled her gaze with his, hoping she could convince him not to investigate. It would be difficult for her and quite a waste of time for them both. "The fact that the girl appeared from nowhere and disappeared without a trace isn't enough to convince you?"

The director's mouth hung slightly opened for a moment, then nodded. "Well... Fine. As long as none of this goes public, or happens again, I will allow you to resign without any problems. The badge, please," he finished, holding out his hand. She unclipped it from her suit and put it in his hand. "I'll leave my briefcase of files here. No secret leaves this building, except for what is in my brain. And I don't have many of those, since the passwords will be changed soon, without a doubt." He put the badge in a drawer and locked it. "You'll be escorted off of the premises... And we'll be conducting an investigation into this. So for your sake, hope nothing comes of it."

"It won't," Cassidy said coolly but firmly, leaning on a wall. They waited in tense silence for the guards to arrive. The moments were tense and silent, both during her wait and short walk out of the building. Even after the door closed behind her she could feel their wary gazes on her back.

She quickly returned to her apartment, empty handed, and decided she was ready to appear before Zeus. she changed into more comfortable shoes- black flats instead of dressy pumps- and made sure she was ready to leave. Her place was neat and clean, and the rent had been paid in advance for a whole year. Her affairs were in order, since she had planned for such an eventuality. With a last look around she summoned Hermes.

Hermes appeared in the apartment floating right in front of Athena with her usual cocky grin. “Why hello there, long time no see.” Hermes looked around, quickly fluttering around the apartment. “Nice place, very clean.” She would pick up something, examine in for a brief second then place it back and look at the next thing. Poking pictures, moving books, playing with knickknacks. “Soooo whats up? How’d the firing go?”

Cassidy closed her eyes, trying to reign in her building irritation with the combined events of the day. "Rather well, I suppose. He didn't ask many questions and let me go rather quietly. But I think he will have my home investigated, so I would appreciate it if you didn't leave any signs of disturbing things." She opened her eyes and gently pushed a picture frame back into its place with one finger, feeling a pang of emotion that she quickly buried when she saw which picture it was. Quickly looking up at Hermes, she continued, "I figured I would read that letter on the way home, and you would be the easiest way to get to Olympus."

“Ah, you needed a lift. Why didn’t you say so sooner? I could have saved you the trouble of dealing with being fired.” Hermes sat down the book she had been messing with and zipped over to Athena. “Any specific location or just the...” she felt a tug, the letter needed delivered and then one of the other champions was calling her. “On second thought, I will just drop you off in the main hall and you can ask one of the satyrs or something for directions.” With that Hermes took her wrist and teleported the two of them into the grand entrance of Olympus Center. This was the grand building that was both the main governing buildings on the first two floors, then above was all the champions places. It was their home, work, armory, and general hideaway for the champions when they needed it.

Hermes had taken them to the entrance of the Champions section of the building. The walls were marble with a gold trim and ionic columns that lined the hall. At the front of the hall was a large desk staffed with a few people typing away and answering phones. A small gold chandeliers were lined with candles with little balls of light instead of fire. Even the god part of Hermes never got use to the shear splendor of the place, it was amazing, and Hermes always got to live and work here. “Well, this is your stop, thank you for flying air Hermes.”

She nodded her goodbye and teleported away to where the tug was. The morning had started slow, but it was picking up to the normal load. She made a quick stop in Bermuda to pick up some reports from Poseidon, but that didn’t take more than a minute to pick those up and leave. She put them into her bag and went to Alex. “My aren’t you popular today, got another Memo for ya. Apparently some harpies are causing problems.”

Alex was resting under the shelter of a tree a small fire burning in front of her. "I figured you would have learned by now that you should dress warmer, and to knock before you come." Her tone was teasing and she gestured to the fire with one hand while the other was held out for the delivery. She had just undergone her change and so the area around her smelled strongly of magic. She was now He and it had left her slightly dizzy though it wouldn't show.

The wolves of hers were circling the camp, sniffing at the ground and pawing up mounds of snow to the icy permafrost below. But with Hermes now here they came to sniff at her and then to settle around Alex.

Hermes huffed, “My hairs dry this time. And i never really knock, knocking is for people who have time to waist waiting.” She handed the letter over, it mainly just said where the problem was and that there were harpies. Hermes tried to pet the wolves as the sniffed her and moved around, “I want a puppy, I think that would be fun. But apparently I don’t get nice things, all the other gods have pets, but I don’t get even a fish… wait, you changed since the last time, you ok?” it had taken Hermes a second to notice that that had happened. That was quick, or was it just that Hermes showed up at just the right times for it? who knew. Hermes floated around the fire to stay warm, she felt the tug from the letters still in her bag and sighed, they could wait two seconds.

"Dizzy. It will pass." He replied with a wave of his hand. He read over the letter then sighed. "I can take care of this, but it will delay me from showing up. Ah Zeus..." He let out a string of curses and slid to his feet in a graceful motion.

"I have to take care of this quickly, and you have other letters to deliver Hermes. Plus...fighting was never your strong suit, so go on." Alex told the flying goddess, eyes gaining an excited gleam as they always did when a fight was about to happen.

“Sure you don’t want me to give you a lift? I can get you a little closer, get a good jump on em.” Hermes wanted to help, she knew she was practically useless in a fight except for running distraction. But that would be useless against these ones. “I could also grab Athena, she’s in Olympus now.” She hovered a little closer to the fire, the wind not being kind to her.

"Positive, I would rather not worry that my favorite flyer was turning into a cute Popsicle while I was off having fun. Go on, It won't take me long to get there and take care of this." He replied, with a wave of his hand. "And I would rather not get help from Athena, it is going to be difficult enough showing up to Olympus when...well...you know."

Hermes couldn’t help but grin, “You’re just say’n sweet stuff to get me to leave, but I’ll take it. And just as a heads up, she will be there latter, but she isn’t there now.” Before she left, she pet one of the wolves once more, ruffling its head and giggled, “Their so fluffy! Ok, I can leave now before they get angry and eat me or something.” with that she teleported yet again, but this time to a school. This was where her sassy friend was. It appeared to be a passing period or something cause everybody was everywhere. Elena was at her locker with one other girl, chatting away. Hermes made her way over, everyone was looking at her funny for some reason, and leaned against the locker next to hers. “Hello there my friend, fancy running into you here.” She crossed her arms and waited for Elenas retort. There always was one, and normally it was about her clothing.

Alex shook his head and limbered up his bow, checking to make sure that it was strung right and that the sinew was warm and ready to be drawn. It had been to get Hermes to leave, but hey, not many people came to visit and whose to say Alex couldn't flirt a little bit. A grin crossed his face but it faded as he remembered what he had once had. "Time to go." He murmured to the wolves, who looked at her knowingly.

Hermes scoffed, “My threads are amazing, yall are just jealous. “ Hermes ran a hand through her hair and put the other on her hip, “I mean, I understand entirely, not everyone can be as Fabulous as the great Hermes.” She chuckled, Elena was more or less dressed for a business meeting or fancy dinner party, probably the latter. She wore a mint color shirt and a faux white leather jacket over it, dark skinny jeans, and silver heels. Heels? That didn’t seem like something fun to wear an entire day anywhere, their mere invention puzzled Hermes. But Elena seemed to wear them everywhere. Hermes grinned, “But I’m afraid I didn’t come here to help the general populous gain a better understanding of awesomeness, I came to deliver this.” she dug around in her bag and realized that the paperwork she had picked up had gotten knocked loose and was now a mess, burying any form of organization she had. She rummaged around trying to find it, hoping she didn’t look to silly doing so, till finally finding the one marked for Elena and Artemis and held it out to her.

Cassidy looked around the ornate building, drinking in the beauty for the first time with her mortal eyes. She sighed softly, trying to forget business for once in her champion life before trying to recall a mental map of the place. As she turned down a hallway she looked around some more. Green vines clung to the gold-trimmed pillars around Demeter's office, grape vines similarly grew close to Dionysus's place. She kept walking, her heels still clicking softly on the polished marble in the otherwise silent hallway. She reflected again that the place was very beautiful.

Then, around the office where the candle light orbs seemed to glow a little brighter, the door opened. Her insufferable younger brother Apollo walked out of the door. He was wearing some casual jeans with a red jacket lined with gold flecks in the shape of fire, with the trim extending up the sleeves. She suppressed the urge to turn around or ignore him completely, knowing he would only get satisfaction from that. She stopped and looked at him, waiting for him to make some scalding remark about her champion choice this time.

He snapped a small book in his hand closed saying, "Hey sis, been a while. You look as mildly annoyed as always, how ya been?" He put the book in his pocket, leveling her with a slightly frustrated expression. "I have been doing well. And the merge went well, thank you for asking," she replied with a straight expression, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Are you irritated with mortal literature and poetry again?" He huffed and crossed his arms. "I honestly think they never recovered from the Dark Ages, their poetry just keeps getting worse. But something tells me my battle-ready sister wasn't brought here to talk about how the mortals have become lyrically challenged."

Cassidy gently clasped her hands behind her back. "Of course not. Have you had your nose in so many books that you aren't aware of the growing problem?" she retorted. Of course she would never admit to him that she loved losing herself in philosophical works and literary classics, but that was only in times of peace. When duty called and unrest grew she was always there to take up her mantle as goddess of battle strategy. She realized that she was acting fully like Athena at that point, and decided to go with it, exploring the new facets of her mind. Her personality hadn't changed much in the first place, but in the face of her new seriousness Cassidy tried her best to hold onto her love of fun. And that would definitely involve messing with Apollo.

He chuckled. "Nah, I'm fully aware of the craziness going on. Though I didn't think it was getting worse, my little bro hasn't told me anything since last night, and that wasn't informative and didn't last long due to her passing out." Hermes then, Cassidy thought. She replied, "Well it is getting worse. And that is why I've chosen a new champion. But I suppose it always has been your inclination to sit around writing poetry instead of taking action." She finished with a smirk, knowing that jibe would annoy him.

Without missing a beat he answered, "I've been working for about a year longer than you have, no biggie or anything." He raised his hands in defense and continued, "Actually on my way to finish some paperwork on the manticore I dealt with earlier this morning. Ya need to pick up your game sis, unless you want to borrow my book an just tend to the library." Cassidy felt the embers of irritation building within her, so she attempted her own retort. "You stick to your poetry. One manticore is nothing to me, and it still wouldn't be. The merge was nearly flawless, and it affects nothing." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I have told you not to doubt my abilities before, right Apollo?" He smirked and retorted, "Oh I have no doubt that your bookkeeping abilities are great, but there's a battle going on and the first thing you do is come and sass your little brother, who has currently been working harder than you for the past year, rather than go and find out how to help?" Cassidy narrowed her eyes slightly, refusing to let him get any satisfaction out of her irritation. "If you need me sis, I will be doin' my job." He nodded a swift goodbye and sidestepped around her, walking away.

Athena walked on, simmering, until she reached her office. As she walked inside and closed the door softly, she muttered, "Ignoramus." Arrogant and irritating, that was all he was. She didn't bother to correct his final comment when she had not been referring to record keeping. If he had forgotten that she was the goddess of battle strategy he was in for quite a shock. All he needed to learn was respect for his older sister. She had never been a child, and a child was all he was. Realizing she was quite riled up she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming herself. Nothing could get done without a cool head. She sat down in the chair of her neatly organized desk, getting to work.

Hermes waved after Cynelle, she seemed nice, then turned to Elena. “Yes, a meeting. Zeus seems to be gathering up champions to have on hand at the moment, and you made the team.” She refastened her bag, but froze when she felt a tug, then another. The requests were stacking. She always hated it when several people needed her at the same time, and she couldn’t really sort if it were something important or not. Sighing, she sealed it and straightened up, “So is there anything you need to pick up before we go? Anywhere we need to stop by, because this may be a while and I need to do some work.” Another tug, this one from Zeus. It was probably for more paper work or some kind of brief for the A team.