Incident 27 (12 page)

However,
looks could be deceiving. As Arcturus explained before they left the cave, “MTI
is just a front for Zero Grade. Most of the offices aboveground are legitimate,
but what the public doesn’t know is that there’s an elaborate underground
facility here. Everything that goes on down there is completely off the record.
That’s why they won’t call the police when we attack them. They can’t risk
their secrets getting exposed.”

Ev
was the first to enter the building. The metal detectors immediately went off.
His chest began pounding. “We haven’t even brought the weapons in yet,” he
said, though not loudly enough for anyone else to hear.

Arcturus
strolled past him with the duffel bags. “These aren’t metal detectors. They’re
scanning for god-potential.”

The
lobby here was almost as nice as the main hall of House #4. A pair of elevators
sat behind a reception station. They were the clear kind that let you see
everything coming and going. 

The
receptionist, a petite young woman wearing a gray pantsuit and brown-rimmed
glasses, strolled up to them. Even though she seemed plain, she had a subtle
beauty. Her hair was in a chestnut bun. “I’m sorry, sirs, but you’ll have to
leave here.” She smiled sweetly as she said it.

“I’m
afraid we can’t do that. We have pressing business in the sublevels,” Arcturus
said.

She
closed her eyes and her smile broadened even further. Her saccharine sweetness
threatened to choke them. “Oh? That’s too bad. Well, for you, I mean. For me,
it’s pretty great.”

She
ripped the bun loose. Suddenly her hair became wild, almost alive. It snapped
at them, and Ev could see each thick strand had a mouth with sharp teeth.

“Dammit!”
Arcturus yelled. “It’s Medusa!”

“Ohhh?
You know about me. That’s so great! Then you know what I can do. I may not be a
full-fledged god, but I can certainly tear you limb from limb. And believe
me—I’m going to!”

“She’s
activated her powers. Ev, Maya—don’t look into her eyes.”

Ev
was busy dodging her snake-like hair. “Why not?”

“Just
don’t!”

Ev
didn’t know what was so dangerous about this manic woman, but Arcturus was dead
serious about her, so he decided to obey.

“You
don’t want to look into my eyes? Why noooooot?”

The
hair was now wrapped around Ev’s arms, sinking their teeth into his flesh. He
winced at the pain. Even if this Medusa wasn’t a proper god, she was still
dangerous.

“You
bitch! Get this crap off of me.”

Her
innocent smile never wavered. “Awwww, what’s the matter? Oh! You probably think
my hair is poisonous or something. Don’t worry; it’s not.”

Poisonous
or not, it was still a pain in the ass. “Good to know,” Ev grumbled.

A
pair of arrows flew through the air, severing the thick strands of hair holding
onto Ev. He ripped the remaining strands from his arm. Blood flowed from the
wound.

He
quickly redirected energy to heal. “Thanks, Maya.”

“Don’t
mention it. Now let’s take this psycho down.”

While
keeping her eyes down, she fired a volley of arrows at Medusa. The faux god
retracted all her hair and used it to form a shield, causing the projectiles to
bounce harmlessly off it.

“Uh-uh-uh!”
Medusa said, clicking her tongue and waving a finger at them. “I can’t have you
conjuring weapons in here. The higher-ups won’t like it. So…”

Her
hair exploded in all directions, enveloping the three intruders. Ev tried to
fight it, but it was like a steel sleeping bag; he couldn’t budge. Maya and
Arcturus found themselves in the same situation.

“This
is bad,” Arcturus said.

“Thank
you for pointing out the obvious,” Maya shot back.

Medusa
strolled nonchalantly over to Ev. He closed his eyes to keep from seeing hers.
His head was the only part of him not bound by hair. “Hey, now. It’s rude to
avoid eye contact with people you’ve just met. Look at me.”

Ev
shook his head. “No way.”

“I
said…” Strands shot up and bit into his eyelids. They lurched upward, forcing
his eyes open. More strands grabbed his head and forced him to turn towards
her.

“Look.
At. Me.”

Panic
shot through him as he found himself looking into her eyes. And…

…nothing
happened.

They
stared at each other for several moments. Finally, Medusa burst into laughter.
“You were so scared, silly boy!”

She
released his head and eyelids, leaving him bewildered. “W-What the hell…?”

Medusa
wandered over to Arcturus. “This is our first time meeting one another,
correct?”

“Yeah.”

“And
you only know me from the legends.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And
what do the legends say?”

“That
you freeze anyone who looks into your eyes.”

“Legends!”
She laughed maniacally. “Can’t trust ‘em. It’s true that I have the power to
freeze people, but it isn’t what you think.”

“Then
what is it?” Ev said.

Almost
instantly, he became aware of coldness in his body. It began in his
extremities, and then worked its way to his head and chest. He noticed Medusa’s
hair had become frosty and was emitting vapor. Realization hit him hard. “Your
hair freezes people—literally!”

“Correct!”
she cheered. “My hair maxes out to a temperature of negative two-thousand
degrees below zero, so don’t try fighting it. Even a god can’t resist this cold
for very long.”

“Sounds
like a perfect reason to fight it,” Ev said as he began struggling against his
cuticle coffin. Unfortunately, he soon realized Medusa was right. The cold
quickly sapped his strength. His body was going numb, and increasingly fewer
signals got through from his brain. His mental capacities diminished as well.

Medusa
loved every moment of this. The entire lobby was now covered in an ever-growing
sheet of ice, and vapor hung in the air like a chilly fog. “Did you know gods
can get hypothermia like everyone else? All it takes is for your core
temperature to drop a few measly degrees.” She gave them an exaggerated shrug.
“Mammals are certainly silly, aren’t they? You lose a few degrees, and next
thing you know, you’re shivering, you’ve got frostbite, you can’t think
straight, and your organs are shutting down. Bang! Bang! You’re dead. Or something
like that.”

“Big
deal,” Ev said. “I can just redirect my energy to raise my temperature back
up.”

She
made another exaggerated display, this time of stroking her chin as if doing some
serious thinking. “Hmmm, you couuuld do that. But that’s assuming you have the
proper training, your brain will respond to your commands, and you don’t
accidentally raise your temperature too much and cook yourself. It’s certainly
something to think about."

Dammit,
she was right. In his current condition, there was no way he could pull it off.
But there had to be
something
he could do.

Arcturus
suddenly spoke up. “Hey, b-bitch.”

“Ohhhh,
the mouth on this one. You can stay in time-out for a while.”

But
Arcturus wasn’t about to shut up. Despite the cold, he continued. “I…k-know
your story, woman. You…w-w-ere a maiden in Athena’s temple b-before Poseidon
r-raped you.”

In
an instant, she went from manic to enraged. “What?”

“I
said…you w-were raped by Poseidon in Athena’s t-temple. Your goddess decided to
mete out some p-punishment…but not to Poseidon. She punished
you
by
t-turning you into a m-monster. She s-sided with Poseidon. How does that m-make
you f-feel?”

She
stormed over to him and gripped his face with her hands. “It wasn’t my fault! I
didn’t do anything! How could I defend myself against a god, huh? Tell me!
Well? What are you waiting for?”

Without
warning, a flaming hand burst forth from the hair cocoon and lodged itself into
her chest. She stared down at it, dumbstruck.

“To
answer your question, I was waiting for my hand to get hot enough to burn
through your hair.”

Medusa’s
jaw hung open. After staring at him for a moment, she abruptly arched her head
back and began guffawing hysterically.

“W-What
the hell’s w-wrong with her?” Ev asked to no one in particular.

“N-Never
mind that. A-Arcturus, g-get us out here before we f-freeze to death,” Maya
said.

Arcturus
pulled his hand out of Medusa’s chest. She staggered back, still laughing as he
used his flaming hand to free himself from her hair. Finally she stopped and
fell backwards. She continued to stare at the ceiling with a look of pure joy
on her face.

After
Arcturus freed Ev and Maya, they paused to contemplate the twisted figure on
the floor. “Was what you said true? About her being raped by Poseidon?”

“She
confirmed it, didn’t she?”

“The
poor thing,” Maya said. “Even though she was the enemy, I feel sorry for her.”

“I’m
glad we took care of that guy,” Ev said.

Arcturus
nodded. “Some people deserve to die. Others don’t, but sometimes you have to
kill them anyway.”

Maya
looked at him suspiciously. “What does that mean?”

“It’s
personal. I’d rather not get into it right now.”

Ignoring
them, Ev continued to stare at Medusa’s corpse. “I know she was our enemy, but
I can’t help feel sorry for her.”

“Her
experience drove her insane,” Arcturus said. “You know what the most ludicrous
part of all this is? You already know Poseidon was part of Zero Grade, but what
you may not know is Athena is also one of them. She’s one of the Flawless Few.”

Maya
was the first to point out the obvious. “But that doesn’t make any sense! Why
would she continue to serve those who had destroyed her life?”

He
replied, “Funny thing about insanity—it doesn’t always make sense. My mother
stayed loyal to my father even after he beat her senselessly. Some people can’t
bring themselves to break their attachment to those who wrong them. That’s just
how humans are. And at our core, we
are
human.”

“Hey,
I just realized something. Where’s the security? Shouldn’t there be guards
here? The entire lobby freezes over and no one comes to check it out?” Ev said.

Arcturus
pointed at Medusa. “She
was
the security. You see, when we set off the
god alarm, it would have sent a signal to keep the mortal security guards away.
Zero Grade doesn’t want outsiders seeing something they shouldn’t. Medusa was
supposed to stop us before we did anything. But if you’re looking for action, don’t
worry; there will be plenty of guys trying to kill us once we get into the
sublevels.”

“All
right, well, take us down there,” Ev said.

“I’m
afraid it’s not that simple. We’re going to take the elevator shaft down, but I
don’t have clearance. And as soon as we enter the shaft, we’ll be inside the
God Dampener’s field.”

The
shaft? They weren’t taking the actual elevator?

“I just told you—I don’t have clearance. The only way to the sublevels is to
shimmy down the shaft. Now come one and help me with this.”

They
went over to the elevator and suited up with body armor that held many slots
for weapons and equipment. Arcturus then removed a pair of crowbars from the
duffle bags and handed one to Ev. Together they pried open the doors. Ev looked
into the shaft. “That’s gotta be at least ten floors down!”