Amaterasu

It all started when he tried to attack her with some sort of solar beam.

Apollo and Amaterasu had crossed each other in the forest, and when Apollo refused to compliment her the two began fighting. They didn't even notice when the arena changed around them and they were no longer in the forest, but instead some kind of heavily-populated park.

And then the solar beam thing happened.

"You dare attack me with my own power?" Amaterasu gasped.

Apollo raised his eyebrows. "Your power? Foolish woman, I am the god of the sun. It is my power."

He shot another solar beam at her, but she deflected it.

Amaterasu narrowed her perfect eyes at him. "Excuse you? You must be mistaken, for I am the goddess of the sun. What you're attempting to use against me is under my control, hence it cannot hurt me."

And so, because neither of their powers could work against the other, they resorted to hand-to-hand combat. As in, slapping each other.

"I'm the sun god!"

"No, I am!"

"No, I am!"

"No you're not, I am!"

It continued without halting until a wailing siren caught their attention. Two mortal police officers came over and arrested them, throwing them in the back of the police car. Amaterasu had attempted to slap one of the officers, but when she felt the stinging in her own cheek, she realized fighting their way out was not an option.

The two were taken to the mortal jail and thrown in a dark, damp cell. They glared at each other.

"This is definitely your fault," Apollo sighed.

"Is not!" Amaterasu responded.

"Is."

"Not."

"Is!"

"Not!"

"Is!"

"Not, now tell me I'm pretty!"

"No!"

They must have been locked there for several hours, because eventually the guards switched and told them it was time to quiet down because it would be lights-out in around twenty minutes. The fighting continued in whispers.

"We should be trying to get out of here, but all you care about is the fact that I won't compliment you!" Apollo hissed.

"Well then maybe you should just compliment me already. That or admit that your only an impostor and I'm the real sun god!"

Apollo shook his head, "I'm older."

"Well them clearly you're senile!" Amaterasu huffed. "But you want out of here, fine. I can get us out."

"How? We can't attack the mortals," Apollo pointed out. He leaned against the cell wall, arms crossed.

Amaterasu raised her head proudly. "Watch and learn, stupid impostor."

"Again, older," Apollo sighed. Amaterasu ignored him.

Amaterasu moved to the cell bars and waved out at the guard. "Excuse me? Hello there!" she called.

The guard, a younger man with close-cropped blond hair, walked over with a frown. "What do you want?"

"Hi, yes, I was wondering if you could let me out now?" Amaterasu smiled.

The guard laughed. "It's not that easy, sorry."

Amaterasu pouted. "But I have a concert to perform tomorrow, and I really need to be back at my hotel. My manager's probably worried sick," she lied.

The guard's laughter ceased and he studied her with a new curiosity. "A concert? You some type of pop star?"

Amaterasu rolled her eyes, "I'm not just some type of pop star, I'm one of the biggest international sensations of all time. Google me."

"Name?" the guard asked, pulling out his phone.

"Ama," she answered with a flick of her hair.

He entered the three letters into Google and his eyes widened. Hundreds of thousands of pictures, youtube videos, tweets, and tumblr pages appeared-- all fangirling about Amaterasu.

She smiled hautily.

The guard scrambled for the keys to her cell, apologizing repeatedly. "I am so so sorry Miss Ama, if I'd known you were so famous I never would have arrested you. Here in America we tend to let celebrities off with a warning, even if they commit a crime that would get a normal person locked in jail for months."

Amaterasu patted his head. "It's alright, Rob," she smiled, quickly reading his name badge. "I understand how stressful your job must be, I'm not angry."

Rob the police officer blushed as he opened the cell door and Amaterasu and Apollo exited, the latter glaring at the pop princess. "H-hey, could I possibly get your autograph?" Rob asked.

Amaterasu beamed at him. "Of course!" She pulled out the sharpie she always keeps handy and signed the pristine white sleeve of his uniform. "There you go."

Rob smiled stupidly. "Alright, you have a nice night Miss Ama."

Amaterasu winked at him before strutting from the prison, Apollo grumbling behind her.

"Quit being so smug," Apollo said. "I'm still the better sun god."

Amaterasu turned to him, a proud smile on her lips. "Fine, live in that delusion if you want. At least I'm still worshipped."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jade

This day is not going as I planned that it would. First I find myself in a big city that I don’t know my way around, and now this. People everywhere are stopping me to ask if I really am Jade Townsend. And I am, and so then they want a selfie with me. One or two of those is fine, but after what feels like the thousandth, I start to get tired. So I move on, and use my magic to alter my appearance. Fame may be fun, but it is also a fickle friend. I never realized I had this many fans. I am starting to realize what a big number two million is.

From there, it only goes downhill. After I get lost in the crowd, I run into the Erlking. Because this day couldn’t get any worse, he can somehow see through my glamour. And that’s just my luck right now. But for some reason, he feels the need to start duking it out in the middle of what I have now figured out is Los Angeles.

The plant wraps around my leg as I try and step towards him. It has a vice-like grip on my ankle, but I am able to shake it off with a little bit of fire magic. I realize that he has chosen the spot for our battle, like he knew I would be coming here. I am stuck in the middle of a park. So I start off running, to an area where there is a lot of concrete to level the playing field. (Both literally and figuratively.) But even as I start, he is already summoning up some more plants to try and kill me. Death would only make this day a whole crap ton worse, so I set a little brush fire in the grass to deter him. It won’t keep him long, but at least I can get a head start.

That head start ends up saving my life, because without it the Erlking would have caught up with me on a bridge. And that’s not where I want to fight. Too narrow for what I’m about to do, and it wouldn’t end well. But thanks to my lead, I am able to get to a wide open space and begin my transformation.

I am vulnerable during the transition stage, so I am hoping that he doesn’t get here fast enough to catch me then. And it seems that in this matter, if nothing else, lady luck is on my side today. I send up a silent prayer of thanks to Fortuna, and turn to face the bridge. I am ready to fight.

And it ends up being good that I am prepared, because the Erlking comes at me with guns blazing. Quite literally in this instance. He has taken a gun from a nearby policeman, who must have seen the fight and come after us. He shoots a few times at me, but after figuring out that my scales are impenetrable, he drops it and picks his staff back up. He takes a swing at me, but I dodge it easily. I take off, for once thankful for my dragon avatar. Then I dive back towards the earth, aiming for his face. The Erlking makes it out of my way in time, but he doesn’t see my next move coming. I breathe fire on him.

He catches quickly, and runs towards the water in an effort to live. Satisfied that he is dead, I mutate back into my human form and walk away. But it is then that I run into the policeman, who has his gun pointed at my face. “Hands up,” he calls at me. Then he pulls out a compact radio and talks into it. “I need backup by the Golden Gate Bridge as soon as possible.

Within minutes, I am surrounded by policemen. A few have pulled the Erlking out of the ocean, and are pushing him into a police car. This is just like what you’d see on one of those cop dramas, and I am not sure what to do.

“Get in, ma’am.” Another officer has escorted me to a car, and is trying to push me in too. I elbow him in the face, and for some reason I feel a sharp pain in my nose. Something wet trickles down my face. Some gets in my mouth, and I taste iron. Blood. Shit. I’ve heard about things like this before, where the damage done to one person is reflected upon another. That must be what this is. And if it is, then I’m screwed.

Less than five minutes later, we reach the police station. It is much duller than the shows lead you to believe, so I am sorely disappointed. The Erlking and I end up being locked in a cell near the front of the building until they decide what to do with us.

“Hello, police department. How may I help you?” The phone has started ringing in the atrium. The secretary picks it up and starts talking. “Okay, got it. Where is this?” She pauses to listen. “Alright. I’m going to be right there. Thank you for your call. Stay safe.”

She puts the phone down and stands up. “All hands on deck! There’s a robbery going on at the bank on 34th street. We need everyone there now. Go, go, go.” She runs upstairs to repeat her message as I watch all of the officers in the building run out to their cars. They peel away in the direction of the bank I passed on my walk earlier. The Erlking and I look at each other, and nod. Now is our chance.

“Just as I planned. Now, how do we get out?” I say this, and he responds with a confused look.

“You pulled this off? How?” He seems both astonished and impressed.

“Well, I had my phone with me when I got in the car, since they didn’t search me. I texted a few of my other friends who got stuck in here, and they said that they’d cause a distraction. Didn’t know it would be this drastic though.”

“That’s pretty resourceful. Now, how to get out?” I see the potted plant by the door, and then it hits me.

“You see that plant?” He nods. “Can you use it to grab that coffee cup over on the secretary’s desk?” He nods, and uses his nature magic to bring it over to me. I ease it through the bars, and grab it. “Okay, now I’m ready.”

“What are you going to use that for?” He seems confounded by the cup.

‘’Oh, I’m not going to use it.” I bring it to my lips and take a sip. “I just wanted coffee.” And then I throw it out of the cell. “Ew. Pumpkin spice. I hate pumpkin spice.”

“Okay, now that you’ve done that, we need to figure out a way to get out of here.” The Erlking gets on his knees and pushes his palms against the ground. He must be trying to summon some sort of plant or something, but it seems to be causing him immense pain. Finally, a small seedling shoots up from the cement.

“That’s it? What else you got?” He rolls his eyes at me as I say this. Then he pulls the small plant out of the ground and tosses it into the hallway. The plant slithers up the bars of our prison, and into the lock. I hear the clicking of the tumblers, and the door springs open after a few minutes. The Erlking jumps out into the hall, proud of his success. “You know we could have done this a lot easier? I had the key the whole time.”

“Wait... What? How’d you get that?” Once again, I have astounded him.

Oh, this? Not much. I just used some magic, a little bit of intellect, and something special I like to call…” I trail off.

“Well, what do you call it?”

“Oh, I call it ‘I saw her put it in the coffee cup before she left.’ Pretty cool, right?”

“Are you freaking kidding me? I spent all that time on it, and you had the key the whole time? Come on.”

“Don’t worry, Erl. Can I call you Erl? Okay, I will. You’ll become useful at some point, Erl. You actually were. Without you, I couldn’t have gotten that cup. And we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Just as I say these words, an alarm goes off. It is a shrill, piercing sound that fills the entire building. And it must be because we escaped.

Shit. Now what do we do? I look around, and see the doors slamming shut and locking. The computer controls the entire place. And now we’re locked in. For all my computer skills, I can’t hack to save my life.

I run down the rows of cells. “Is anyone here a hacker?” I ignore the calls of Erl claiming that he has it, because he clearly doesn’t. He’s just an old nature king, what could he know about computers? He barely knows how to screw in a lightbulb.

The cells fly by, until I hear one person shout out. “I can hack. What do you need?”

“Well, you see-“ Erl interrupts me once again.

“It’s done. Come take a look.” And just as he says, the alarms have stopped and everything is going back to normal. I run back up to the front of the building, and cast a quick memory spell as I go. The other prisoners won’t remember anything about this experience. And we can walk free.

Erl walks out the front door, and I am right behind him. “So where’d you learn to hack?”

“Just now… The only reason I actually knew how to do it is because there was a book about hacking in the desk drawer. It was easy enough. And now the security’s been wiped. We are good to go.”

“You know, Erl? I’m beginning to like you. So don’t do anything to mess that up. I’m going to regret having to kill you, if I end up taking over the world.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ko'lhamana

As sudden as blinking, the forest shifts dizzyingly into an alleyway. The world spins a bit and I brace myself against one wall to wait it out. As I try to catch my breath, something tugs at my hair.

“Is this natural or do you treat it with something?”

I turn and slap hands away. I brandish the gun at her. “Don’t touch my hair. Which one are you?”

She’s suddenly serious. “Persephone. I had allies but I’ve lost them somewhere.” She switches back to the perky smile. “Truce?”

“Fine.”

“No, wait—” She suddenly attacks.

“What the hell—?” I knock her back with the butt of the gun then swing it like a club. She screeches and jumps on me, literally on me, clawing at me and yanking my long hair. “God—damn it! You psychopath!”

With the demonic pixie still clambering at me like a crazed cat, I stumble backwards and end up landing on my back on the sidewalk. I try to use the gun to push her back as she tries to strangle me.

“Drop your weapon!”

I glance up at the police officers several yards off, pointing their pistols at us. “Get her off of me!”

“Ma’am are you all right? Did he attack you?”

“Yes, he did!” Persephone suddenly stops trying to strangle me and gets to her feet, stumbling as though weak with fear. She actually raised her hand to her forehead like she was a damsel in an old movie. “Thank goodness you were right here!”

“Cuff him!”

I grab the one man’s ankle as he approaches and pull it out from under him. He lands hard on the sidewalk. I spin around and come up on my knee, aim the rifle, and shoot. The second cop goes down. “Run!”

We take off down the street. I can already hear sirens and screaming behind us. We’ll never get away—Tonto and the May Queen running for their lives, toting an antique gun? We’re noticeable.

I spot a blinking sign advertising “A Costume for Any Queen” and nearly choke on my relief and excitement. “In here! In here, in here!” I grab her arm and drag her into the shop.

I grab the first costume I see on the rack. It’ll fit me, if it knows what’s good for it.

“Hey,” the boy behind the counter greets us cheerfully. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“I’m just looking for a costume for my new show. Can you get that wig down off the wall for me? Thanks, doll.”

“Sure thing.” He does a bit of a double take as he turns to get the hook to reach the wig in question. “I’m sorry…are you D’vine Intervention?”

I smile and lean on a rack. “Well…yes, I am.”

“Oh my god!” He starts to babble about seeing my show last spring—he fails to specify which, but I just smile and nod—and insists that my performance of “Love Game” was perfection itself. I know it was, but it’s always nice to hear it.

He unlocks a dressing room for me and I go in and change. I come out fully bedecked in Annie Oakley gear. I knock on the next door over. “You need help, honey?”

“Why don’t the pants have any butt?”

“Because they’re chaps, honey. Put the jeans on first…”

Ten minutes and a lot of smooth-talking later, Persephone and I emerge onto the street, a vision straight out of ‘Annie Get Your Gun.’

Police goes running past us, and only one has the balls to fling a slur at us as they go.

“Huh,” I say to Persephone as we walk in the opposite direction, “usually they’d frisk me for cocaine or something. I guess that’s progress?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yemeya

Day 3.  Yemeya still hadn't figured out where they were kept between battles.  It was a strange, sterile-white catacomb of a building that erased all sense of time and place, had no smell whatsoever, and gave her the strange feeling that the walls themselves were watching her every move.  Although she was exhausted, she was glad to move on to the next arena, just to get away from her inhospitable new “home”. Once again the gods and goddesses were funneled onto the intricate tapestry, which immediately materialized into their next combat zone.  A wave of anger flooded her mind.  A city??!!  Why the hell would they pick a city?!  No one seemed to notice, or at least care about, the oddly dressed characters that suddenly appeared in Times Square.  This isn't right!  Without a second thought, the gods dispersed and hid among the buildings and crowds of people.  Innocent people.

“Gods and goddesses!” Camazotz's voice pierced through the urban bustle.  Great… he's in my head now… the mortals continued about their busy day as if it were like any other.  “I'd like to make an announcement.  Just to…spice things up, if you will.  For this task you will be working with a partner.”  Yemeya immediately began scanning the crowd for Nyx.  “An assigned partner.”

You have got to be kidding me…

“Sup…” the apathetic greeting came from a scruffy, vagrant-like man, hands in his pockets and lips pulled casually to one side.  How in the gods' names did he make it past the first round??  “So…I guess we're like partners or something?  That's cool.  I'm Stericulius, god of…”

“Don't care.  Shut up and follow me.”  Grabbing him by the neck of his less-than-clean T-shirt, Yemeya dragged her new acquaintance away from the busy intersection and headed towards the closest park. “We need to get away from these people…and pray that the other gods do the same.”

“And, uh, you are…?”

“Dead, unless I can find some water.”  She tugged on the make-shift leash.  “Walk faster.  Or run…if you even possess that ability.”

“I'm sensing some hostility here.”  She paid him no attention.  Straight ahead, was a park…with a pond.  She let her partner go and ran towards the water, almost reaching its refreshing surface when a beam of agonizingly bright light stopped her in her tracks.  It blinded her eyes and burned her skin, making it impossible to see the water, let alone reach it.  She shaded her eyes, but it was no use…she was paralyzed.  “Aaaaaauuuuugggghhh!!”  A scream somewhere between pain and utter disgust accompanied the disintegration of the light.  Ugh!! What's that smell???  Soon, she regained her sight enough to see Stericulius standing triumphantly over the squirming body of Balder.  Still flickering and gagging, he managed to get to his feet and run feebly away.  “You're welcome.”

“Wait…so you're the god of…” Her last word was hindered by her breakfast trying to escape her stomach.  Stericulius gave a self-satisfied nod.  Yemeya rolled her eyes, “I had a feeling you were full of crap.”

“Hey…what's going on over…OH MY GOD!!  What is that smell?”  A blue-clad police officer walked in on the unorthodox scene.  Yemeya and Stericulius exchanged nervous glances.  “Well?  What is that?”

“Uh…hey, officer.”  Stericulius approached the stout little man, scratching his neck behind his long, mousy-brown hair.  “We…ah…well…I just…Man!  Whatever you do, do NOT get a hotdog from that stand over there.  Whoooweeee!  I just had enough gas to fuel a car for a week!!”  His phony story was followed by hysterical, immature laughter.

“Look, you two.  I don't know what kind of stuff you're getting into over here, but I'm gonna have to call it in.”  He mumbled something about trouble and drugs into his radio and once again fixed his suspicious glare on the two gods.

Yemeya approached him desperately, “No! You don't understand!  This isn't what it looks like, we're in the middle of something…”

“Hold it right there.”  The officer shakily pulled out his gun.  “Not another step!”  Great…now what?  Do we run?  Before she could answer, Stericulius took the liberty of doing it for her and took off deeper into the park.  She had no choice but to follow him.  What is it with cops and drugs anyways?  It's not like we're mass murderers or anything. God, I wish this was the sixties! 

“Okay.  I think we lost 'em.  Ha!”  Stericulius swatted the air jubilantly.  “Say, whitey, we make a pretty sweet team.”  Yeah…okay… Just as her ‘yeah okay’ was becoming less sarcastic, they found themselves surrounded by police cars.  Great…just…great…

Before they knew it, the two gods were locked behind bars in a cramped, unaccommodating cell.  Bunk beds, one toilet, and some graffiti.  “You know, whitey?  This ain't too bad."

“We're in prison.  There's a battle of apocalyptic proportions going on in the middle of New York City, and we're in prison!”

“Ever slept in a dumpster? Less spacious, but man, are they cozy.  Anyways, I've had enough fighting for one day.  I'm cool with just chillin' in here until the Fates come get us.”

“That's not the point.”  Yemeya mumbled.

“Huh?”

“I could care less about what happens in this stupid battle royal.  I just came here cause I was sick of where I was.  That's not the point.  Making a crowded city our battleground – it's not right.  I know they're just mortals, but…”

“But, you care what happens to 'em.”

“Yeah…”  Yemeya spat the word out between gritted teeth, “after everything they've done…to this world, to my people…to me, I can't help but…they're just stupid people.  They ain't done nothing to us, but forget about us, and that ain't their fault.  They only do what's right by them, they don't know any better.  I don't think that's reason enough to turn their world into our amphitheater.”

“Hmph.  I took you as a lot of things, whitey, but I didn't take you as a softy.”

“Having respect for life doesn't make you soft.”

“I guess you gotta point, bu- AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

“What?!”

“It flushed by itself!!  Okay, I feel you, let's get the crap out of here.”

The security was relatively low, meant for drunks and drugees, not gods, so escaping seemed feasible enough.  “I just need to get that guard near some water…” Yemeya thought out loud.

“Huh?  What guard?”  She nodded in the direction of their captor, more of a glorified janitor than a cop.

“Ahuh.  Watch this.  Diarrhea of god-like proportion in 3…2…1…”  The guard sat up in an urgent manner that didn't suit him at all and left the room with a half-squat-half-run-like motion.  “Have at him.” Stericulius grinned.  I can't believe It's come to this. Okay. Concentrate.  She followed the intricate pipes to the bathroom the cop had run into.  There was a loud explosion, and an almost equally loud shriek.  Water rushed from under the door, along with the cop's key ring.  Yemeya snatched them greedily and unlocked the door.  I can honestly say I've never done anything like that before.

“You know, Whitey, once you loosen up a little you aren't so bad.”  Streculius walked beside Yemeya (without being dragged this time), as they searched for any signs of an epic battle in the streets of New York.

“Can we please not talk about loosening up?” She said in her normal, I would kill you if it wasn't too much work tone, but added a reluctant grin at the end.  “You're not so bad either.  Once you get past the smell.”  The two gods chuckled.  Wow.  It's been a while since that happened.

“Hey.  Can you promise me something?”  He said, surprisingly serious.  “Promise me you'll win this thing.”

“What?”

“Congradulations!”  Once again Camazotz's omnipresent voice echoed in their heads.  “Those of you who can hear this have managed to survive your second task.  Report back to Times Square before sunset, and you will be taken back to the Fates.”

The sun was already sinking between the sky-scrapers, causing the whole city to burn with golden light.

“I'm lazy, not stupid.  There's no way I'm making it through this alive, but if anyone deserves all the power that winning this thing'll give 'em…it's you.”

Yemeya felt tears creeping up behind her eyes.  “It's getting late.  We should head back.”

This changes everything.  I actually want this now.