Excerpt of Antiquity Calais Ascending Olympus

The following is an excerpt from Antiquity Calais Ascending Olympus, Copyright James F. Henry 2011, all rights reserved.

Antiquity and Gillian stayed on the sidelines, while Mundoo went out into the middle of a deserted street, with mansions lining both sides. Once he came to a stop, he closed his eyes and focused his energy. At first, the change came slowly, but gradually it became readily evident that his already gargantuan size was growing even larger. Nine feet, 10 feet, 15 feet and still growing, Mundoo finally stopped when he was taller than either of the mansions beside him, and he was as wide as the street he was standing upon.

“Zeuuuuuuuuus! This is Mundoo Asquith!” He boomed so loudly that windows in the mansions nearby shattered. Still, there was no sign of Zeus.

“Zeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus! I know you are here!” More windows shattered.

“Zeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus! Come to me or I will come to you!” Even more windows smashed, but before the shards hit the ground, a mansion down the street literally exploded, sending debris sailing through the air, causing Antiquity to create an energy force field around him and Gillian. Then, from out of the dust and rubble of the once grand mansion emerged Zeus, the King of the gods.

“Asquith! How dare you come to my domain and call me out after I made it quite clear that there would be no further communication between us!”

“That is unacceptable to me Zeus. You have no right or power to deny my request for a full council meeting. As a member of the Council, it is my right to call a full council meeting.”

“You have been expelled from the Council!” Zeus declared.

“Expelled? On what grounds?” Mundoo countered.

“On the grounds of insubordination!”

“Insubordination? I have not been insubordinate! All I have done is request a full meeting of the Council.”

“Yes, against my wishes. Therefore, you are insubordinate, and are no longer a member of the Council, by decree of the King of the gods, Lord Zeus.”

“Zeus, you know as well as I do that this King of the gods title you have adopted is nothing. Any power you have you received from the Creator, the true King of creation! And you apparently have forgotten that I work for the Creator. It would be a shame if the Creator stripped you of all your powers. How humiliating would it be for the great and mighty Zeus to be a lowly mortal.”

“Are you threatening me Asquith?”

“I am simply giving you a heads up what the consequences of your bad behavior could be, if you do not cool it, drop this macho King of the gods ego trip, and grant my request for a meeting of the full Council of the gods.”

That, apparently, was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, and Zeus bull rushed Mundoo. It should be noted that Zeus was every bit as massive as Mundoo, and when he hit him in his mid-section, the impact sent Mundoo flying backwards by about 50 feet. The impact of Mundoo slamming into the paved road sent shock waves throughout the houses nearby. Quickly Mundoo leaped to his feet and blasted Zeus with a highly concentrated energy form that glowed a vibrant blue. This sent Zeus flying backwards, and Mundoo began to run down the street toward him. Mundoo was bold, confident and even arrogant, as he charged at Zeus, who had been ruling the gods for thousands of years, simply because too many of the gods were afraid to challenge him. Mundoo was keenly aware that what he was doing here atop Olympus Mons in U12 would go down in the annals of mythology (somehow, even without witnesses, these things always find a way of getting out to the other gods in the community).

Before considering his place in mythological history, Mundoo should have remained focused on the job at hand. Zeus found sufficient strength to dispatch another energy shot at Mundoo, which sent him sailing backwards, shaking the ground when he landed.

This was all Antiquity could handle, as he turned to Gillian and said, “I am not leaving Mundoo hanging out to dry. You can stay or you can come, but I am going to help.”

“But Antiquity, this is Zeus we're talking about here!”

It mattered little to Antiquity who his opponent was. He and Mundoo had gone to war together against Leviathan Avalon, fought side by side against alien armies, so there was no way he was going to let him lose this battle with the likes of Zeus.

Once he was within range, Antiquity unleashed a barrage of energy directed at Zeus, who easily deflected each blast like a man would swat away a mosquito on Earth. Finally, Zeus decided he had seen enough from Antiquity, and he dispatched a much more powerful blast of his own on Antiquity, sending Antiquity flying through the air back where he came from in the first place. Gillian ran screaming, as she had started chasing Antiquity before the blast, and frantically patted him on the cheeks, saying, “Come on baby! Do not leave me alone here Antiquity! I love you too much to lose you this way!”

Suddenly an inspiration struck Gillian. She remembered how his simple touch in Mundoo's guest bedroom was sufficient to replenish her energy supplies and his. Instinctively, then, she did the only thing she could think to do and planted a long, passionate kiss on his lips. Instantly she felt the energy transferring from her body to his, but at the same time, with the strength of their love growing exponentially, she felt her own energy level actually increasing.

Mundoo, meanwhile, had managed to force Zeus into the ground. Zeus, however, pushed him away with his feet, not nearly as far as Antiquity had flown, but far enough for Mundoo – still more than 20 feet tall – to fall backwards, leaving yet another crater underneath him. Sunken into the ground, Mundoo was unable to physically get out of the crater to launch a counter offensive. His only option was to send out a blast of energy toward Zeus and hope that it would land somewhere important.

It did.

Just before Mundoo dispatched his blast, Zeus attempted to land a definitive blow by stomping on Mundoo's face. Instead, however, the blast of his energy hit Zeus in his mid-section, sending him flying into the air, then crashing to the ground.

Meanwhile, Antiquity and Gillian found their energy reserves fully replenished, and Antiquity decided it was time to rejoin the fray. Gillian, of course, tried to stop him, but to no avail. As Antiquity ran away, he yelled to her, “If this is the way he treats his friends, I don't want to see how he treats his enemies!”

As he ran down the street, Antiquity received a sudden, massive infusion of energy from above, expanding his energy reserves to a greater degree than he had experienced when battling Avalon at the Castle of Armageddon. As he ran down the street, it appeared that Zeus and Mundoo were fighting to a draw.

That is, of course, until Antiquity arrived at the scene and sent three highly focused blasts of energy that pummeled the self-proclaimed King of the gods into submission.

With Zeus flat on his back, Mundoo pinned him down with his powerful hands, holding his arms in check.

“Now! You will call a full meeting of the Council of the gods!” Mundoo declared as angrily as Antiquity had ever seen him.

With uncharacteristic humility and a touch of anxiety in his eyes, Zeus revealed, “I can not.”

Mundoo paused a moment and said, “What do you mean you can not?”

“I mean I can not. Avalon has been rounding up gods. He's got nearly all of us.”

“Do you mean to say that they're joining him willingly? Antiquity asked incredulously.

“Some are, of course. But many are simply vanishing. We can only assume that Avalon is trapping them somewhere.”

“So he's getting them both ways; if they help him, great for him. And if they won't help him, he is making for damned sure they don't help us. Mundoo, you may want to get off him.”

“Oh....Yeah,” Mundoo said, before shrinking down to his normal eight foot height.

Antiquity Calais Ascending Olympus is available for sale soon at Amazon.com, or through Full Moon Over Bunganut Publishing.