Chapter 1

Far above the heavens, on the top of a mountain known as Olympia, a council of the gods was taking place and the issue was of utmost importance.

“...Tell me why, Jupiter! Why is this necessary?” A sobbing Diana, goddess of the moon and wildlife, cried, clutching her firstborn protectively to her bosom. The white haired child in her arms merely whimpered and grasped his mother tighter.

“I’m sorry, Diana. But... They have escaped...” Jupiter, King of the Gods, replied, looking very serious.

“The Titans? Can we not just as easily lock them away again? Surely we don’t need to reincarnate our children as humans to protect them from weaklings like the Titans?” Diana said incredulously.

“It is not the Titans... Much, much worse than the Titans...”

Realization dawned on the moon goddess, “You... You can’t possibly mean-!”

“Yes... It appears that the Maelai have returned. And they are most vengeful. For their own safety, these young ones must not be known about-” At this, a sob escaped the lips of another young goddess in the shadows, Proserpine, the Queen of the Underworld, who was standing next to her dark husband, Pluto. She, too, was clutching a babe in her arms.

“Is... Is this the only way?” She managed to say through a constricted throat.

“I am afraid so...” Jupiter replied sullenly, looking sadly at his own wife and sister, Juno, whom he loved very much even if he was unfaithful. She, too, held a very young girl in her arms.

“Please, brother. If we must do this, let us not send them into humanity without a fighting chance.” Pluto beseeched.

Jupiter thought about this, before replying, “...Very well. What do you suggest?”

“This.” Pluto replied, kissing his own daughter on the forehead before sending her down to await being reincarnated. A warm, maroon glow enveloped and merged with her. Then she was gone.

“...Very well...” Jupiter repeated and did the same with his daughter. The rest of the gods and goddesses kissed their own children goodbye with tears in their eyes and sat down again.

“Well,” Jupiter said after awhile, “Now what to do about the Maelai...”

“KYM NAOMI NADINE OSVITCH!” A voice boomed from downstairs, “You are in SO much trouble! Get your butt down here right NOW!”

“What’d I do this time?” Kym replied in annoyance as she made her way downstairs.

“You know EXACTLY what you did! You nearly gave poor Fran a heart attack, putting that scorpion in her underwear drawer! It could have stung her! She could have DIED!”

“Oh, that.” Kym replied, unsuccessfully trying to hide her satisfied grin and her all too obvious snickering.

“That is IT! I have HAD it! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!” The woman, Mrs. Geri Jones, screamed, nearly pulling out her hair.

Kym just smiled good-naturedly, and took her already packed suitcases out of the closet, before going back upstairs for a brief minute and returning with a black scorpion on her shoulder.

She then turned to the woman with a fake hurt expression on her face and said, “Well, Mrs. Jones... These last...” She looked at her watch and sniffed melodramatically for good measure, “...Five days, twenty-two hours and seventeen minutes in your home has been the most...” Kym let the dramatic expression fade, “BORING experience of my life.”

Mrs. Jones sputtered in disbelief, and Kym smirked.

“That having been said... Buh-bye.” She said with a dismissing ‘ta-ta to you’ wave of her hand, and walked out the door.

It was already late when she walked out the door, around Ten-thirty, actually. But it was still relatively warm, around the middle of August, so Kym wasn’t at all cold.

“If I just keep walking around town a cop will eventually pick me up thinking I’m a male prostitute... Again.” She said grinning at her scorpion, who she had affectionately named, ‘Pacho.’ She herself was about five feet eleven inches tall, with neck-length, dirty blonde hair and greenish-blue eyes. She was White, and wore pair of boys jeans, a baggy boys t-shirt and a pair of black sneakers.

“Then we’ll be back at the social securities headquarters in no time flat...” She said and grinned even bigger, “Man, three foster homes in two months? That’s gotta be a record...”

“Jesus, Kym... Three homes in two months? I think that’s a record!” Mr. Garcia, Kym’s social worker, said with a frown

Kym whispered an, “I told you so.” To Pacho, who was now resting happily on her head.

“You can’t just keep getting yourself kicked out of every home you don’t like! These people take you in out of the goodness of their hearts-!” He started, but Kym cut him off.

“Oh, yeah, right. And the tax deduction is just a nice bonus to the overwhelming joy they feel in taking care of a little angel like me.” Kym scoffed, her voice oozing with sarcasm.

“Well, maybe if you didn’t put scorpions,” He started, looking pointedly at Pacho, “In peoples underwear drawers-or toasters-or, good lord, boxes of TAMPONS?!” At this, Kym couldn’t help but laugh.

“This is no laughing matter Kym. I can’t just keep finding you new homes every time you don’t like one!”

“It’s not the homes I dislike, it’s the inhabitances.” Kym argued.

“Regardless, you’ve still got about three years before you can get your own house, so until then you gotta make do with what I can find you.” Mr. Garcia replied, looking as if he were on the verge of an aneurysm.

“Look, if you can find me a home that isn’t inhabited by a bunch of crazy, bible-thumping idiots, Veggie-worshipping freaks of nature, or people who perpetually carry bamboo sticks halfway up their arse, then I’d be more than happy to rid a burden like myself from you forever.” Kym said, quite seriously.

Without even arguing about her not being a burden, Mr. Garcia just looked intently at her for several seconds before holding out his right hand, “Deal.”

Kym smirked and shook his outstretched hand, before heading towards the door. It opened before she had even fully reached it. A tall, black boy, of about sixteen to seventeen years of age, pushed his way past her, into the room. An almost burning sensation shot through the both of them the second they made physical contact. They turned around and glared at each other, oblivious to everyone and everything else in the room. They immediately knew that from that day forth, they did NOT like each other.

They didn’t know why. It certainly wasn’t because of race; Kym hated everyone equally, regardless of the color of their skin. It wasn’t because of gender-well, maybe just a little-And it wasn’t because of anything else that made a bit of sense in Kym’s mind... As a matter of fact, Kym just didn’t like him because he was...

“Stupid Fire Punk...” Kym muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. Fire? That didn’t make sense...?

“Water Know-it-all.” He shot back. That made even less sense...

But of course, Kym couldn’t help but reply, “Go to hell!”

“I’ll be waiting...” The boy said, smirking. Kym, infuriated, marched outside of the building to get some fresh air.

“Stupid flaming bastard... What does FIRE have to do with anything?!” Kym yelled at herself. She decided that she was definitely going insane and therefore needed a really hot, double shot, cappuccino to pour down her pants. Normally, she liked a little insanity at this time of night, but suddenly hating people because of an element wasn’t normal, even by her standards.

And those said standards we’re about as low as they could get. Anything that was capable of feeding itself and paying the bill afterwards was dateable. Although, a good, conversationalist was preferred. Ha. Like there were many of THOSE in L.A. Kym kept walking down towards the Starbucks a few blocks away, too caught up in thought to watch where she was going. And because this was Los Angeles, California and not Monday, Oklahoma, the inevitable happened. She was hit by a car.

Hit by a bus, to be specific. She barely even saw it before she was hit by it, and the second she was hit by said bus, it felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of freezing water on her. That, or she had fallen into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. ...Wait, she had definitely fallen in some kind of ocean... No, there was a current, and a fast one at that. It was a river. But before she could inquire anymore about said river, she felt a bony hand grab her by the scruff of her neck and pull her onto a small boat.

“Gah, you ‘ave ‘orrible aim, ya know that, Lil’ Miss?” A youthful voice said to her.

Youthful, with a thick Scottish accent. Kym looked up at the voice’s owner.

It was a skeleton, wearing a black robe that covered everything except his head. He’d pulled the hood back. “What, no flying ice cream cones playing poker? Jeez, my trips are sure getting pretty normal nowadays...”

“Er...” Apparently the skeleton didn’t quite know what to say to that.

“Great, now I’m confusing my own self-induced delusions... Jeez, what am I, an inbred Texan?!” She yelled at no one in particular.

“...Perhaps I should ‘splain just what goin’ on ‘ere...” The skeleton said, looking pretty perplexed.

“You do that.”

“Well, first of all, you’re not an inbred Texan. You’re an inbred Olympian-” Kym snorted with held back laughter at this, but the skeleton continued, “You’re the long-lost daughter of Proserpine and Pluto. And I’m yer faithful servant, Charon.”

At this, Kym started laughing openly, “Forget what I said earlier! This is funnier than watching a drunk trip over himself! Inbred? Man, I knew I was screwed up, but this is just squicky!”

Charon simply shook his head... Er... Skull, and rubbed his temples with his boney metacarpals.

“...Why... Why dun I jus’ show ya, then?” He sighed at last, still shaking his head.

Charon picked up a long oar pointed at the other side of the boat. “Oh, and yer little friend is righ’ there.” And sure enough, Pacho was there. Kym picked him up and placed him on her shoulder, then looked down at the river as Charon began to row. There was no water, just a bunch of gray, translucent bodies that screamed and moaned at her. Kym decided this wasn’t a pleasant sight, so she focused her attention instead on the random man who was getting ripped to shreds by a vicious, three headed dog. Kym briefly wondered if she should help him or not, but after thinking about it for three seconds, she decided that if he was getting ripped to shreds by a rabid, three headed dog, it was his problem and not hers.

Soon the boat stopped at the water’s edge and Kym looked around. Ahead of her was a huge, iron door. About thirteen feet tall and six feet wide. Charon helped her out of the boat and then rushed ahead to open the door for her. When he did, Kym could see into the monstrous room. It was huge, and definitely not as dark and bleak as Kym had thought it would be. The walls were adorned with gold, and covered in jewels, and ahead of them stood two thrones with two occupancies.

On the left sat a man, with chin length coal black hair, pale complexion, and almost black eyes. He wore a cadet blue toga and was at least seven feet tall. (For those of you who are having trouble imagining this, just picture Alan Rickman, dressed as Severus Snape, in a toga, okay?)

Next to him, on the right, sat a woman. She had golden blonde hair that went halfway down her back, greenish-blue eyes and a normal complexion; Not too pale, not tanned. She wore a light, mint green toga, was about six feet tall and had a wreath of dead flowers in her hair.

And next to the two of them, standing, was the boy from earlier who had called her the ‘Water-know-it-all.’

“What are YOU doing here?” She growled, but he just remained silent, although there was a trace of a smirk on his otherwise apathetic face.

“Welcome, Kym. Tell me, how do you like the throne room?” The tall man asked, interrupting her. At this the blonde lady sitting by him sighed and shook her head. A silent, ‘Not this again.’ If she ever saw one.

“Uh... Well, it’s okay, but I prefer silver, myself.”

The man immediately snapped his fingers as Kym said this and a scroll and quill pen appeared out of nowhere. He started scribbling haphazardly all over the parchment, whilst muttering to himself as he wrote it down, “Likes... Silver... Better... Got it.”

“Well, lets get started, shall we? First of all, pinch yourself.” He said after putting away the parchment and quill.

Huh. Kym hadn’t even thought to do that. She was so sure she was just high on her own insanity and played along so far. She held her finger out to Pacho and said, “Just pretend it’s Britney Spears.” And, almost nodding, Pacho obeyed and pinched the finger with his long, sharp pincers. Kym muttered several curse words under her breath that shall not be said aloud because the author is too freaking lazy to bother thinking them up, and Pacho released her slightly bleeding fingers. ‘Shouldn’t have said Britney Spears...’ Kym thought to herself.

Wait a minute. PainNot a dreamAliveThis is really happening?!

“Whoa... Okay, big guy, care to inform me on some of the details?” Well, she was taking this relatively well...

“First let me introduce us. I am Pluto, god of the dead. And this is my wife, Proserpine, Queen of the Underworld. And you... Are our daughter.”

“Bullshit.” Apparently not well enough...

At this Proserpine frowned whilst Pluto grinned proudly.

“That’s the Scorpion nature, alright.” The black boy beside them finally said, “Please, Princess Kym, let me introduce myself as well. I am Akia-!” But before he could finish, Kym had socked him in the face.

“Call me ‘Princess’ again, and you find that ulna over there,” Kym pointed to the said bone, “Halfway up your arse, got it?”

Akia growled for a minute, before smirking again and replying, “Of course... Your Highness.” Kym pulled back her fist again, but Pluto caught it.

“No more of that. As much as I am glad to see that my daughter has a good fighting spirit, now is not the time. We still have much to discuss. Charon, if you would be so kind as to let Ms. Griffin inside?” To this, Charon mumbled an “Of course, my Liege.” And headed over to the door, to let in the girl who was waiting outside. She was very tanned, with stormy blue eyes, long, brown hair pulled back into a simple braid, and was about 5’9.

Charon motioned to the girl and said to Kym, "Lil' Miss, I'd like ya to meet Sagittarius. But ya can call ‘er Cousin Jen."

Kym sighed and rubbed her forehead, “Okay, it’s nice of you to make an orphan feel like she’s got a home again, but for Christ’s sakes people! Except for the Lady with the dead flowers in her hair, I look nothing like any of you!”

“Yes, I do agree! I know all of my relatives and this young woman is surely not one of them.” Jen, who looked Portuguese to Kym, said in a thick British accent.

“Well, that’s because you are in your human forms-” Pluto started, but Kym cut him off.

“HUMAN FORMS?! SO WE’RE ALIENS NOW?!” She said, grabbing her hair and yanking as hard as she could whilst screaming.

“No, don’t be ridiculous, it’s nothing like that. You are Olympians, not aliens. You are gods and goddesses -- And Demi-gods and demi-goddesses.” Pluto added, pointing to Akia.

“Why is he not -- ah -- thoroughbred as well?” Jen inquired.

“Because my dad is a dirty man-whore and likes sleeping around with human females.” Akia informed them, looking very serious and very ticked off.

Kym snorted at this, and Akia glared before adding, “But at least I’m not a product of incest.”

“Watch it, ya stupid flaming bastard.” Kym retorted.

“Marine moron.”

“Fiery freak!”

“Deep-sea dumb ass!”

“Enough already!” Jen yelled, “Honestly, both of you haven’t even bothered asking why we are here!”

“That’s because I already know.” Akia glared.

“And, well, I was getting to that!” Kym said embarrassedly whilst inconspicuously lowering Pacho by his tail onto to Akia’s back, “So, why are we here?”

“You are goddesses and demigods. It’s time you started taking responsibility as such.” Pluto started, and Kym stood there with an expression of mock offense. ‘Responsibility’ was such a hateful word...

“You were gathered here-”

“You mean killed?” Kym added, remembering what happened in order for her to get there.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, honey! That’s one of your powers, you see! You can bring yourself back to life, and you can heal your friends as long as they haven’t yet reached death-But! You must use it wisely!” Proserpine informed her.

“...Do I hafta heal him?” Kym said, pointing to Akia.

“If you don’t, I will.” Proserpine replied with a sickeningly wide smile.

“Anyways, like I was saying. You are here because I have been selected to give you your first assignment-”

“Selected? I thought you lost to Jupiter and Neptune at Rock, Paper, Scissors?” Proserpine interrupted, a look of pure, innocent confusion on her face.

“May I please continue without being interrupted?!” Pluto yelled, smacking his head in annoyance and embarrassment, “Now, your assignment is to find the remaining signs.”

“What? Signs?” Jen said, looking confused.

“Ah, yes. You are the personifications of the Zodiac signs. As such, you are granted certain powers and must use them to carry out your missions that I, Pluto, will be giving you. Do you understand?”

“No.” Was Jen and Kym’s simultaneous response.

“I will explain it to them later. Just tell me what the mission is and I will do it myself, these two are just going to be a burden.” Akia said, glaring at the two girls.

“Fuck you!” Kym replied.

“I’ll have you know, I am Britain’s Junior Archery Champion and am fluent in Portuguese and German! I will be much more than helpful on any mission!” Jen said indignantly.

“Well, I speak fluent Swahili and Arabic.” Akia tossed back to her.

“...I can say ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in Japanese and Spanish!” Kym offered, not very helpfully. Everyone just stared at her as if she were an idiot.

“...Well, anyways, I’m afraid you can’t do that, Aries. You’ve only been on one mission yourself, which wasn’t very hard since you already were in the same city as Scorpio.”

“Whuh?” Kym said with a confused expression on her face.

“He means you, you idiot.” Akia said, glaring. Kym, not bothering to say anything, just flipped him off.

“Right. You, Kym, are the personification of Scorpio.”

“...” Kym just stared blankly, before snatching Pacho off Akia’s back, who was just ready to stab him in the neck with his stinger, and saying, “...I suppose that makes sense...” Whilst petting him. “It also makes sense that Ms. Jen is Sagittarius since she mentioned being an Archery Champion... So, what’s this mission?”

“There are ten other Zodiac signs, and you must find them. It’s no nearly as easy as killing you and Jen and bringing you down here. They are magically protected against that kind of stuff. From down here, in Hades, you can take one of the many passageways to a certain chosen point in any country in the world. There is one chosen point in every country, and although we know what country they live in, we do not know specifically where in that country they are. That’s where you come in. At first I was thinking that each of you would get three countries and your mission would be to find the Zodiac in each of them, but since this is your first mission, you and Jen will be doing six together. Do you understand?” Pluto explained.

“I think I do.” Kym said, letting it all sink in.

“Good. Now, since you don’t seem to fluently speak any languages but English, it’s rather convenient that your targets are all in America.” He mused.

“Okay... But how are we going to find these people? I dunno about you guys, but my sense of direction is nil. And I don’t have any spare cash to spend on a bus ticket.”

“Ah, yes. You have a psychic link to every other sign, once you are in five miles of the person you are looking for, you will feel a tug that will eventually lead you to them. As for financial issues...” Pluto reached into his front toga pocket and pulled out a Capital One card and gave it to Kym, “The pin number is 8745.”

“I didn’t know gods used mortal currency...” Kym mused, putting the card into her pants pocket.

“Most of them don’t. But I am the god of wealth, too, ya know.” He replied, “Now, your and Jen’s targets are as followed: Cancer, Capricorn, Pisces, Libra, Aquarius and Virgo. Akia, your targets are Taurus, Leo and Gemini. Got it, everyone?”

“Yes.” Was the simultaneous response.

“Good. Now, which one do you want to work on first?”

“Leo.” Akia immediately replied.

“Uh... Does Virgo sound good to you?” Kym asked Jen.

“Sure, I don’t see why not.”

“Alrighty then, I’m gonna take Virgo for two hundred!” Kym said.

“Akia, you know where to go. Kym, Jen, follow me.”

And so they did, Pluto leading them down a series of earthy passageways and corridors. Every fifty feet or so you’d see a door that was marked with the name of a country. Finally, they came across a door that was marked, ‘West Virginia.’

“This is where Virgo lives. Take good care of yourselves and please hurry, you do have five others to find as well, you know.” Pluto said, and opened the door for them, “Hurry now, before someone sees you!” Jen and Kym jumped through the door and onto an almost deserted street. A sign ahead and to the left said, ‘Welcome to Shirley, West Virginia!’

“Hoo boy... How do I get myself into these things...?” Kym sighed. This was going to take a while...