The Underworld (The Atlas Series Book 3) (10 page)

Kala swam away from the XV-4250. Its dim lights cast barely a blip in her field of vision. One thing she did notice: the ship had stopped moving. The ocean currents buffeting it had ceased.

Oceanus knew the power-hitters were no longer inside.

Now that they were outside the ship, Kala swam past Derek and took the lead. Around her wrist was a holographic GPS marking the exact coordinates of where to enter the cave.

Glancing back at Zeus she noticed he had a thin layer of air around him like a second skin. Rotoph had the same and it made Kala wonder if it was some kind of spell she could perform for the future. Not that any of the gods were forthcoming on spilling trade secrets. Also, she’d learned that Atlas had been pretty much useless his entire life, so she wasn’t finding out much from culling through his memories, either.

Pulling out her gun was an odd sensation, being that she was underwater. Kala had used rifles that worked in water before, but never a handgun. And with Roberta’s extra mojo, she wondered what kind of effect it would have on a Titan. A small part of her wanted to test it out on Zeus just to make sure it worked, but she didn’t think the Olympian would appreciate it very much. Besides, Kala may actually need the guy, considering they were about to face the deity
the ocean
was named after.

As if on cue, Kala barely made out the dark swirling whirlpool heading straight toward her. Aiming her gun, she looked around trying to see any sign of Oceanus. Kala wasn’t exactly sure what to look for, but all the supernatural beings had appeared human, so she searched for some kind of human silhouette.

First things first, she had to avoid the cyclone of blackness about to swallow her whole.

In her mind she heard Zeus say:
Move aside and let me take care of my uncle.

Within Zeus’s bubble of air, lightning traveled up and down his body. He looked like an electric eel, but ten times more terrifying. The closer the whirlpool traveled the larger Zeus’s lightning bolts grew, until he lit up the blackness of the ocean within ten yards of where he swam.

The light helped Kala see her destination with the use of her holo-GPS. Only fifty feet away.

As much of a show as Zeus’s lightning was, the spinning chasm of water still drilled its way toward them.

Zeus slammed his entire body into the vortex. Lightning shattered the whirlpool to pieces.

A shock wave crashed into Kala and Derek and they were pushed farther away from their target.

Upon impact, Zeus’s lightning was snuffed out, leaving them in darkness once more.

Kala could hear Rotoph chanting in her head. He was using telepathy as well, to let her know when he broke the teleportation block. Since that was just the first of two spells that needed to be broken, Kala worried that – with Zeus busy occupying Oceanus – the protection spell might not be broken any time soon. And that was the most important to her, since she planned on entering the cave with the phase-suit.

Using the intercom system with Derek, Kala said, “I’ve got to help Zeus if he’s going to take that second spell down.”

Without hesitation Derek responded, “Let’s do it.”

Kala didn’t argue with him to save himself. She knew it was useless. Derek would use up every one of his immortal lives if it meant he could help. It was just who he was.

Swimming toward the newly generated sparks of lightning was the only way Kala could tell where Zeus was located.

Oceanus had all the advantages. He was a water god, at one with the ocean, able to control it to his will, while Kala was an ex-human, now second generation Titan, with some kind of earth-force Gaia mix in there. If anything would help her at the moment, it would be Gaia, but she had no idea how to tap into that part of herself.

So she swam blindly into the battle, gun ready, hopeful that the mixture of Roberta’s magic combined with the science of Turner’s technology would take out Oceanus long enough for Zeus to destroy the protection spell.

THWAP!

Kala flew back at least a hundred feet, faster than she thought was even possible considering she was underwater. It felt as if she had been hit by a wrecking ball straight to the chest. Unfortunately, the impact caused her to drop her glow stick, leaving her stuck in the blackness.

“I guess that was Oceanus,” she said through her com-link to Derek.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, can’t see anything, but hopefully I’m on my way back.” Kala tried to shake off the pain as she swam blindly back to the battle.

Zeus’s voice screamed in her head:
I said stay out of this! Go to the location and wait
!

Kala concentrated on Zeus and hoped he could hear her as she thought:
I need you to break that protection spell and you can’t do that if you’re fighting Uncle dickface
.

Radio silence on Zeus’s end.

Kala didn’t have the time to figure out if he heard her or not, she swam as fast as she could once she saw Derek’s light stick glowing in the distance.

Then she saw Oceanus.

He was enormous.

It was the first time Kala actually felt as if she was seeing a
Titan
. Well over the size of a house, Kala could only see the silhouette of the god. Definitely man-shaped on top, but instead of legs, he had a fish tail. She could only imagine what Derek must be thinking. Two former soldiers staring at a gigantic merman. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so terrifying.

Quickly joining Derek’s side she ordered, “If you can, get behind him. We’ll try out these guns of Turner’s.”

“Copy.” He swam away, carrying out Kala’s orders.

A lightning bolt hit Oceanus in the eye, but he batted it away like it was a pesky fly. As the lighting flared again, Kala made out Zeus in the near distance. He looked tiny compared to the Titan but, to give him his credit, he held his own.

No time like the present. Kala unloaded her entire clip of bullets into the god. She could feel more than see Derek doing the same from behind Oceanus.

The Titan reeled back, causing an enormous wave of force that pushed Zeus and Kala backward.

Zeus’s angry voice screamed in her head:
I told you to stay out of it!

She called back in her mind:
At least it did something.

The god’s tone was dismissive:
It won’t last. The ocean is his domain. He can recharge in a matter of seconds.
Then he sounded at a loss:
I’m not strong enough to defeat him. Not in his territory.

Which is why Cronus had him here as a guard dog. Only Poseidon had a fighting chance and he was imprisoned in the Underworld.

Zeus was right. Kala could make out the shadow of Oceanus swimming toward her, free of the temporary sting of bullets and charging at her with a vengeance.

Oceanus’s voice reached her mind. It was deep and powerful, giving her goose bumps even under her phase-suit.
Cronus warned me about you, Kala Hicks, skinwalker of Atlas and devourer of gods.

The way he said
skinwalker
made Kala shiver. He didn’t speak like the other Titans and Olympians she’d met so far. Being in the ocean away from man had made him distant, detached from humanity. Oceanus didn’t see Kala as Atlas as the others did, he saw her as a meat-suit that encased a Titan. She accessed as much as she could about Oceanus from Atlas’s memories and could find only one thing…

Fear.

Atlas was terrified of him.

Like Atlas, Oceanus had switched to the Olympians side in the first war. After both wars Atlas received disdain and dismissiveness from both the Olympians and the Titans, whereas Oceanus was still feared by all. He was a recluse who drew his power from the biggest entity on the planet: water.

Kala spoke to him through telepathy:
Let me through to Hades. I won’t fail my mission.

His voice raked on her every nerve as he said:
What do I care if
your
world ends? The ocean will always remain. The human scourge will finally be eradicated.

Not to be dramatic or anything.

A blast of water shot Kala back, farther from her destination and nearly shoving her oxygen mouthpiece into her jaw.

Lightning bolts slammed into Oceanus from Zeus, but it didn’t even make Oceanus budge at this point. He was absorbing the lightning now, turning it into energy.

Kala yelled at Zeus in her head:
How the hell do we get rid of this guy?

Zeus sounded just as exasperated:
If I knew that I would be doing it! This is why I said we needed Poseidon!

Well, we don’t have Poseidon!
Kala shouted the obvious. Then she signaled her com, “Derek, you still breathing?”

“Not a scratch. Guess I’m not considered a threat. I’m out of bullets though, not that they did much good.” Derek’s voice was soothing in the chaotic darkness.

“Copy. How close are you to the cave location?” Kala glanced down at her holo-GPS. She was at least a half a mile away at this point.

“Right above it. Rotoph is still working his mojo. I’m just a lookout at this point.”

“Just stay there and do what you can. Hopefully, we can – ” Kala began.

Kala was interrupted by Oceanus’s open-hand to her chest. The fact that his hand was the size of her body propelled Kala even farther from Hades’s location.

And Ouch!

Lights flared from behind Oceanus, and it wasn’t Zeus’s lightning.

It was…

Lasers.

The XV-4250 apparently had some firepower and was using it on the Titan.

Talan’s voice sounded in her head:
Not sure how much longer we can stall him, but you should swim back to the location.

Instead of relief, Kala only felt dread as Oceanus went after the ship.

She screamed at Talan:
That’s Derek’s only ride home!

He can’t die, Kala. He’ll be okay.

He
can
die, over and over and over. He just keeps coming back to life and he’ll drown a thousand times over before he gets to safety!
Kala’s mind reeled at the thought of her best friend being tortured for days by an endless cycle of drowning, then waking up only to drown again.

She couldn’t let that happen.

Kala
wouldn’t
let that happen.

The fury in her grew, so intense that Kala was beginning to lose herself again. To the rage. To the fear.

To Gaia.

And the voice that came from deep within her, projected itself with searing rage into Oceanus’s head:
If you draw your power from the water, then I will take the ocean away from you!

Kala shot her hands out and swirling tornadoes of air formed from her palms. Bigger and bigger the cyclones grew until the water began to push away and form a cavern of air.

The light from the XV-4250 gave an eerie cast to Oceanus’s face as he stopped his pursuit of the ship and turned to see the spectacle Kala was creating.

It was exactly what she needed.

Kala pushed her cyclones even farther, surrounding Oceanus, pulling him into the stadium-sized cavern of air she had created.

In just seconds, he was cut off from the water. From his power.

And Kala had created the domain Zeus would need to defeat his uncle.

Air.

Zeus’s face lit up at the terror he saw in Oceanus, now on the muddy ocean floor with Kala and Zeus.

The Olympian spoke to Oceanus, but Kala could hear him, too:
You’re going to wish she had consumed you.

Zeus threw a raging boulder of lightning at Oceanus and it hit with frightening impact. It was as if Zeus had thrown a toaster into a bathtub and Oceanus was frying. Kala could see every detail as the glow from the Titan’s electrocution lit the entire area. Oceanus couldn’t move, his bluish skin rattled and spasmed as each shock to his system brought him more pain. Finally, the Titan lay on the ground, motionless.

Oceanus looked like a large beached whale under a dome of black water.

Kala’s mind slowly became her own again and she expanded her field of air to include the entrance to Hades’s cave.

Unzipping her phase-suit hood, Kala spit out her oxygen mouthpiece and turned to Zeus. “Take down that protection spell.”

Zeus didn’t argue.

Kala could see in his eyes that he feared her.

Good.

Chapter Eight

Kala ran over the rocks and mud to Derek and Rotoph and the XV-4250 that had landed next to them.

By the time she reached them Rotoph had completed breaking the teleportation block. “Now Zeus and I can take down the protection spell together.” He stared up at Zeus, who had just joined them.