Chapter One-Of Gods and Mortals His heart was racing, mouth dry, body covered in heated sweat despite the cold night air. And his eye's, so wild and frightened. How long had it been for the young otter named Clark? How long since his life-long kept secret had been found out, and his world of relative peace and happiness thrown into chaos. It had not even been two days. He had a stable job; he even had been promoted with a pay raise. His relationship with his girlfriend of 5 years was perfect in his eyes; he had even been going to ask her to marry him. The ring was still clenched in his left hand. He thought that while he didn't have the best life, it was still a good life. Then they came, they knew everything, and now everything was gone. They even revealed it all, in front of her. At first she didn't believe. After all, such things, such people did not exist. Then they went to harsher methods. She was at gunpoint, he had no choice. He never liked it. His parents never even knew about it. It felt like, some horrible disease, a curse. He could remember the day it first appeared. He had just celebrated his 13th birthday. It had been a nice birthday. He was home alone, mom and dad out with friends. He was just doing the chores, mowing the lawn. Then the local headaches for him showed up. He was their favorite punching bag. But this time they had weapons. Bats, one of them even had a lead pipe. They had always gotten away with trouble, their parent's being most of the elite in their small city. He was frightened, frightened beyond all belief at what they were going to do. He had tripped over a pile of baseball sized rocks dug out from the front lawn to make way for planting a tree and some bushes. The leader of that small gang raised the lead pipe. Then from out of nowhere, one of the rocks just, flew right up from the ground, smashing against the leader's face. He nearly died, and they all saw how. While their parents didn't believe the flying part, they still blamed the otter and his parent's. And from then on, amongst his school peers, he was the freak boy. He didn't gain a single real friend in that city till he moved away for college, away from those who were close to knowing. But they knew, the business men. At first, he tried to ignore them. But then they started calling him at home and on his cell. One of them even tried to corner him as he was leaving work one night. They didn't like being ignored. So they came to him where he couldn't run away. They held her at gunpoint, and made him reveal what he was to her. He thought he could save her, he wanted to get her away. But they must have anticipated. At the last second, the large kitchen knife meant for her captor's arm, found itself buried within her chest. They tossed her down, like some poor rag doll. She was still alive, and she looked at him, and the light within her eyes faded forever. So here he was, lightly clothed body sticky with the sweat of fear and shock. Spot's of her blood upon his shirt, his face. The business men, several of them, still standing before him. Their cold and calculating eyes fixated on him, the gunman who held her still armed. It was as if time had frozen for a moment. Then, he spoke. He recognized the voice, the one who had kept calling. He was a fairly short male. A badger, some grey in his fur, probably middle aged now. Clad in the outfit one would expect an office manager to wear. He took a step forward, and a light, casual smile came to his face as he spoke. "Well that was quite the slip up, wouldn't you say Clark? And I thought you two had a good relationship going too." The otter blinked, and looked directly at the badger, sadness and hate comingling within his eyes. The badger kept his smile, "It's like I tried to tell you Clark. You're a dangerous person. But if you come with us, perhaps we can put those abilities of yours to proper use." It was these words, that made the otter growl. "Proper use? Look what you, and this damn curse cost me. I loved her." He yelled every word, as if wanting to alert someone, anyone outside this apartment. "Just what kind of use do you think I am suited for? I'll they've ever done is hurt people." He then opened his left paw, and stared sadly at the ring that he could never give away now. "I'm not letting them, myself, hurt anyone ever again. I'll be damned if I let you." And with a blink of their eyes, the gun flew from the one individual's hand. Clark caught, held it up to the side of his head. They rushed forward, tried to stop him. But with a simple squeeze, it all went dark, forever. The badger sighed, as the body fell to the ground in a heap. He walked over to the fresh corpse, kneeled down and shook his head in annoyance. A voice of one of the other's in the room spoke up in a casual, yet obviously respectful tone, "Course of action, sir?" The badger stood, took a cigarette from his pocket along with a match as he responded, "Get the cleanup crews. Get a sample of his DNA, but leave the body. Bullet took out a good chunk of the brain so the rest is all useless. We make it look like he killed the girlfriend then committed suicide, no one will be any the wiser. The stupid bastard," he said, glancing back at the dead otter, looking into those life-less eyes. "Some folks are just too stupid to see a good thing when it knocks on their door." Taking a small puff on the cigarette, the badger turned, and began to leave, leaving his subordinates to the rest. The next assignment was most likely already on his desk. Where am I? That was the question plaguing the young male bat. All around him, was what he could only describe as a swirling darkness. He felt cold and hot at the same time, his body was naked and shaking. As if he could feel something, bad coming closer and closer. All of a sudden, he felt as though his entire body was being pulled by some intense force. And in a heartbeat, all had changed. He was looking upon a mountain, a great mountain. It looked like it stretched up into heaven itself. It took him a second, but then he recognized, from pictures in his old geography classes. This place, this mountain, it was Mount Olympus. As he came to grasp this, the same force seemed to take him again, but this time, he flew up, straight up. Above him, the darkest storm clouds he had ever laid eyes upon were rushing to meet him. He closed his eyes as he flew through, and above them. But when he opened his eyes, he wished he had remained in those clouds. He was staring at the mountains peak. But what had his full attention, was the enormous structure, floating above the peak. It resembled the ancient structure known as the Parthenon, but it was, evil looking. The columns had carved into them, horrific images of terrifying serpents. Littered about the entrance, were dead and decaying bodies in twisted heaps. He wanted to scream, but then something else caught his attention, something moving towards him from within the structure. At first glance, the male thought it to be the spitting image of the ancient Greek god, Zeus. A wise yet mighty lion of great power, yet what emerged was horrifying. It was a lion, massive form seemed to spark with the signature bolts of lightning. But it's face was twisted into an evil smile, it's muzzle and teeth dripping with fresh blood. It's eye's were even the color of blood, pupil less. In one paw, it carried a bolt of black lightning. In the other, the living body of a young female, a very frightened reptile. The bat was transfixed in horror, as the lion god lifted her, the female pleading for mercy, crying. The lion just growled with that twisted smile, and in a flash, it's teeth had literally ripped open her neck, blood spurting all over the evil god. Now, the bat did scream in horror. When he did, it was as if the lion finally noticed him. And when he did, he laughed. The black lightning was raised, and with another laugh from the god, was hurled with mighty force. The bat raised his arms in a futile attempt to defend. And then nothing happened, not even a sound. When he opened his eyes, a very new sight greeted the young male. He was standing in a desert, the sun shining high overhead. And before him, was a very familiar object. Rising high above him, was one of the great pyramids of Egypt. How did he get here, he wondered. But suddenly, new events happened. Everything suddenly became, shaded. At first he thought it was a passing cloud, but when he looked upwards, the answer was vastly different than what he had guessed. It was an eclipse, a total eclipse of the sun. Before he could process this, the ground began to shake violently, like an earthquake. The pyramid before him, began to crumble at the top, cracks appearing in its frame. Suddenly, the very top of the structure seemed to explode from the inside, and something emerged. Slowly, as if it could go no faster, a great figure emerged. Blinded for a moment by swirling sand, the giant figure seemed to resemble, a falcon. He only knew of one being in Egyptian culture associated with the falcon, the god named Ra. But to his horror, as before, the god before him did not resemble the ones in the pictures and stories. Instead, it's eyes too were pupil less and blood red. It's feathers disheveled upon it's body, which was thinner than the last ones, yet seemed to be just as powerful. It's beak too was covered in blood, so too was its feathered hands. It suddenly gave a piercing call, so loud the earth shook. The bat covered his ears, his yells of pain drowned out, it felt like his head was going to explode. It stopped, the bat still feeling a powerful, migraine like pain in his head. When he looked up, the eye's of this, nightmare were upon him. It too, smiled a twisted smile, and before he could speak to it, its beak opened, and from it shot forth a sort of swirling stream of fire. The heat was already intense, and the fire was quickly descending upon the bat. Another scream left him, his throat hurt a little, and his eyes clenched shut. Again, nothing happened. And again, when his eyes opened, the scenery had changed drastically. Where before there was desert, now there was forest. A small clearing he stood within, and all around were mighty, ancient look tree's. And all around, was snow. Pure white snow, covered the trees and ground, falling lightly in the air. In the distance were snow covered mountains. He wondered, was it over? As this question emerged, he felt the ground shake, then stop. Another shake, then another. Then his ears processed the sound and his mind the shaking, they were footsteps, gigantic footsteps. Then he heard them, trees falling heavily behind him. When he turned, as a part of him expected, a horrific figure met his eyes. He knew this one too, Odin, lord of the Norse gods. A gigantic bear, brown fur covered titanic muscled body. Yet there was horror. The same blood red eyes, sharp teeth shined with blood. One paw carried an evil looking weapon. A gigantic club, the bashing end of it covered in protruding jagged spikes. In the other, a large goblet, and dripping from it, gallons upon gallons of fresh blood. The bear saw the frightened bat, that had fallen onto his knees in the snow. With a mocking laugh, the bear gulped down the contents of the goblet, then smiled that same smile it's, brethren had. It began to raise the club. The bat didn't care, this was maddening. He just wanted this to stop. And as the club came swinging down, he did not look away. A gasp escaped as he suddenly sat up, his half naked body covered in a cold sweat. He quickly looked around. He was lying on his bed, in his bedroom on the second story of the house he and his family lived in. Lying open on his lap, was a book entitled, "God's of the Ancient World." He sighed heavily, it had all been a horrible dream. At least, he prayed it was just that. It had felt, so real to him. He jumped suddenly as a knock came to his door, his mother's voice sounding through it. "Gabriel, dinner time. Are you awake sweetie?" He let out a silent sigh as he responded, "Yeah mom, be down in a minute." As he heard the footsteps echoing away, he sighed again. Just a dream brought upon by too much studying and all nighters for his classes. He closed the book, setting it down. "Mid-terms cannot end soon enough." He said, as he put on a shirt, heading downstairs to join his family. At a location known only to a select few, in a darkened room, the only light being soft lamps here and there, three shadowed figures gathered around a circular sort of table. The right most figure spoke first, "Best make this quick gentlemen, I've a meeting with the primary share holder's at four and I don't want to hear them complain about me being late." "You always were the impatient one," responded the left most figure. "I felt you needed informing that while we unfortunately lost the telekinetic in upstate Washington, we have found another currently residing within Las Vegas. You may also be interested in knowing, we have strong reason to believe we are on the verge of finding a new elemental." "Interesting," said the right most again, "It's been a long time since one of those popped up. Make sure to keep the men on the ready with this one. It was at this moment, the middle figure of the three finally spoke. "All right gentlemen, now that that is taken care of. On to other matters. It appears our, old friends, in the underground have started stirring up trouble again. Recruiting more to their side. If our plans are to succeed, we must find them, and kill every last one of them." At these words, the other two nodded slowly. Outside, the night sky was blocked by dark clouds that had been gathering all day, and the storm was ready to begin.