Chapter 27 Vada
St. Louis
Adaela landed on her knees, screaming and pounding the concrete beneath her fists. I had no fucking idea what happened between the moments of me crossing through the portal and her crossing, but she came out screaming, “Close the fucking portal!”
I went to my knees to tug her close to me, but she gently pushed me away, tearing at her skin as if she couldn’t get whatever horror out of her mind.
“What happened? Adaela, are you okay?” I asked her, frantically checking her over as the portal guards rushed around us to halt the travel from the portal in both directions. We had a failsafe for a reason.
“I just watched Echidna get sliced in half by Typhon as I was stepping through the fucking portal. He knew we were there and waited until we were leaving to make his move.” She stood up, angrier than I’d ever seen her, and started pacing, her arms up, fingers entwined behind her head as she tried to get herself back together.
“He’s even more monstrous than I could have ever imagined, Vada. Fuck.”
“Fuck. We need to report this immediately,” I said, still standing back so she could pace. I started moving my weight from foot to foot, thinking.
Poe, Daedalus, Icarus, Loki, Valen, and Gon rushed toward us. “What happened?”
Adaela, struggling to get her emotions under control, gestured toward me to tell them the story. Everyone had different reactions ranging from going pale, still, or cursing. The ones who weren’t with us didn’t know, except that they heard Typhon was back on the loose.
“I need someone to take me to the bomb shelter now. Quick. I’m not sure I can hold back this power much longer,” Adaela said, sweating.
Daedalus grabbed her and launched into the sky, flying toward the bomb shelter located in one of the caves underneath the city.
It could withstand her powers, and I wanted to rush to be there with her, but alas, I could not.
I was torn between my duties now that we were back in St. Louis and helping Adaela through this.
I needed to help put out the fire here first.
“Let’s make our way somewhere secure,” I said to Valen.
“We have a lot to tell you guys, and it’s not going to be good.
” I shivered, the weather in St. Louis turning cold, and the clothing I wore was not made for it.
The sky was overcast and it smelled like it would snow soon.
I’d forgotten what that smelled like, and I couldn’t even stop to take it in.
We gathered in the conference room at the Pax building.
Someone must have called ahead, because every single faction was present.
Samael sat in my stead, Aibell in Adaela’s.
All the Fates were in the corner, including Baba Yaga, whose grim expression indicated just how bad this was.
I swiveled my head to see several of the Gods and Goddesses in the room, and multiple Elves including Phirem.
I was surprised to see them here, since they lived in Alfhame.
The tensions were high, and the claustrophobia from all the beings in the room was ramped up by the apprehension all of us were experiencing.
But, the more beings here, the better. It helped us to spread the word quicker.
I wasn’t a fan of public speaking, but Adaela needed me to step up, and so I would.
Flashbacks to the look of pure terror and devastation on her face when she crossed back in from the portal crossed my mind, and I steadied myself on the fact that she needed me right now.
“Thanks for being here,” I started. “We have figured out some of the clues, but we’re not out of the woods just yet. This is going to get worse before it even begins to get better.”
I swallowed a couple of times, pausing to give myself time to think.
The best course of action would be to just give them the facts without any fanfare.
I told them everything, including the long-held secret of Pandora’s Box.
There were shouts of outrage from dozens of people at that, and I held my hand up to stop the noise.
I waited for it to die down before I said, “You have to understand, Adaela’s powers are unmatched in many ways.
If you had a relic in your possession that you knew could potentially be the end of all worlds as we knew it, would you want that known?
Would you have been tempted to open it to see what was inside? ”
Folks quieted down then. There were some grumbles from the crowd as they came to terms with what I said.
I was ready to bolt out of the room when Daedalus walked in, discreetly giving me a thumbs up that Adaela had made it safely.
My racing heart calmed, and I took several deep breaths before asking if anyone had any questions.
“So, we know that Typhon is involved. Does anyone remember who he was aligned with before he went to Tartarus?” asked Ma’at.
Lachesis spoke up. “Typhon was aligned with Adaela’s father, along with Belial, Mammon, the Al Basty, the Wewe Gombel, and many other creatures with his end goals of domination.”
“Do we know where these individuals are nowadays?” asked Bram.
“No idea, but we’ll see if we can find out,” Clotho said, and the Fates moved to leave the room so they could do some research—possibly in the form of visions, now that they had something to go off.
“Does anyone know where Typhon was before he was relocated to Tartarus?” asked one of the Angels. I didn’t know their name, but they were in their Angel form of many wings and eyes.
I gave this one to Daedalus, who shrugged.
“Last I remember, he was in Corycus, Constantinople, now modern-day Turkey. He had a cave. I believe those caves are now called Cennet and Cehennem, or the Heaven and Hell caves. Zeus was responsible for that one, and I doubt he’d take our call.
The area once held Typhon for a time, before he was sent to Tartarus.
Once the Christians moved in, they made it a monastery.
I’m unsure if it’s still in use, but I wouldn’t put it past Typhon to have murdered the humans there to suit his needs for solitude.
What I’m not sure of is how he would manage to keep tourists away.
From what I hear, it’s a popular tourist destination now. ”
Checking with Mia, the human lead of the Pax, I asked, “Can you help us get access to this area? I’m not sure of what the protocol is outside of St. Louis.”
She raised her phone in the air. “I’m already on it.
Who is available to help us go check out the area?
I know Humans won’t stand a chance against Typhon.
Hell, we might not either.” Several beings raised their hands, offering up some of their guards for the cause.
I noticed one of Typhon’s sons raise his hand as well.
“I don’t recommend you go, Mothman. Your father is trying to murder all his children right now.
I think it’s best if we leave you protected.
I’m sorry for your loss, but your mother would have wanted this,” I told him, though I didn’t know that for sure.
Several others took his place from various factions.
“Until we mobilize and know what’s going on there, I think we’ve found as much information as we’re going to get for now. Is there anything else on the agenda?” Ma’at asked the room.
Everyone shook their heads, and the meeting adjourned. I left to go find Adaela.
I was directed by Daedalus to the caves under where the old Anheuser-Busch plant used to exist above.
In the nineteenth century, these caves were used to store their lagers for fermentation.
It was one of the biggest reasons why there was such a large German population in St. Louis during the Industrial Revolution.
Now, the caves were blocked off and warded to withstand powers of beings as strong as Adaela when they needed to blow off steam.
Adaela was throwing fists into a punching bag when I came down.
She was still significantly affected by what she saw as we left the portal.
I stood at the doorway for a bit, just observing her.
She was in just a bra and spandex shorts, sweat pouring down her body.
She was stunning like this. Every single muscle was in high definition as her skin flushed from working her body to exhaustion.
Her quads were activated, along with her core muscles as her lats, delts, and pecs flexed with her swings into the bag.
With how hard she was throwing her punches, I assumed the bag was magically reinforced.
The amount of sweat pouring off her body also concerned me, since the seal to her pouch could’ve been compromised, but still I watched her do her thing.
I walked further into the room, stomping my feet a bit so that she was aware someone was in the room with her.
Her body turned toward me, but there was no one fucking home behind her eyes.
She was deep in the throes of her power, and part of that scared me a bit.
However, she wouldn’t… no, couldn’t harm me.
As I made my way toward her, her shadows whipped out to stop me.
She wasn’t fucking around today. She was ready for war, and while it turned me the fuck on to see her at her darkest, my goal in coming down here was to prevent an all-out decimation of the city.
I was ready to go to war on her body, if that was what she needed.